The first game of the 2012 season for the Pittsburgh Steelers is here as they take on the Denver Broncos Sunday night on NBC.
Below is a look at what could be the inactive players for this game. Two of the seven players have been ruled out for the game, while two others were on the injury report this week.
The inactive list are announced 90 minutes prior to kickoff and we will have them posted as soon as they are announced.
Stevenson Sylvester – Sylvester tore his MCL during the final days of training camp and had a surgical procedure done to fix it right away. He has been ruled out for this week and we will see what his status is in practice next week.
Ryan Clark – Clark will not play due to the fact that the game is in Denver. Clark almost died in the Mile High City several years ago because of his sickle cell trait and head coach Mike Tomlin will never put him in that situation ever again as a result.
Alameda Ta\’amu – Ta\’amu has a long ways to go before he sees snaps on defense. With Casey Hampton now back healthy, he and Steve McLendon figure to rotate at the nose tackle position throughout the year. Baring an injury, expect Ta\’amu to be a name on this list every week.
Charlie Batch – Batch is back for yet another season and will likely be a mainstay on the weekly inactive list baring injuries to Ben Roethlisberger and Byron Leftwich.
James Harrison – Although he says that he is a game-time decision, and listed as questionable on the injury report, I just can\’t see Tomlin playing him Sunday night. Harrison only has two limited practices to his credit dating back to the first OTA session and needs another week or two to get ready.
Rashard Mendenhall – Mendenhall is back practicing, but still showed up as doubtful on the injury report. The Steelers are likely targeting the game after the bye week for him to return and there is no reason to rush him along.
Kelvin Beachum – The last inactive could go either way as running back Baron Batch injured his groin in the preseason finale. While Tomlin did not report the injury after that game, he showed up on the Wednesday injury report as limited and did not work on Thursday. Batch did work fully on Friday, so I think he will suit up for this game and give it a go on special teams, even though he is listed as questionable. That leaves rookie lineman Beachum as the odd man out as the Steelers will likely choose to only dress 7 offensive linemen.
