The Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Oakland Raiders Sunday on the road nd now that the final injury report of the week is out, here are the list of 7 players below that we can project to be inactive for the game.
The 7 man inactive list is not announced until 90 minutes before gametime, and we will post the official list for both the Steelers and the Raiders as soon as it is turned in. 4 of the 7 names that will populate the list on Sunday were on the injury report this week as out.
Stevenson Sylvester – Sylvester is back practicing after tearing his MCL late in training camp and it looks like his season debut will take place after the bye week. He was ruled out on Friday
James Harrison – Harrison is still not practicing and is more than a month removed from the knee procedure on his left knee. It is hard to speculate if he will be ready to play following the bye week.
Troy Polamalu – Polamalu is still sidelined by the calf injury that he suffered in the opener in Denver. With the bye week next week, the hope is he will be ready to face Philadelphia in week 5. He was ruled out on Friday after failing to practice all week.
Rashard Mendenhall – Mendenhall was thudded up during practice this past week, but the Steelers are still not ready to turn him loose. Perhaps after the bye week, but that is far from guaranteed at this point.
Alameda Ta\’amu – The rookie will spend quite a bit of time this year on the inactive list and Sunday against the Raiders he will be in street clothes once again.
Charlie Batch – Batch remains the third quarterback on the depth chart and is expected to be inactive for a third week in a row.
Mike Adams – The final spot on the inactive list is a tough one to gauge and it figures to be either Adams or Kelvin Beachum. Adams missed both the Thursday and Friday practice due to a back problem and head coach Mike Tomlin usually doesn\’t dress rookies that do not practice. The problem is that the Steelers are tackle poor and should Max Starks get injured, Marcus Gilbert would likely flip sides if Adams is down. It will be interesting to see how Tomlin handles his rookie second round draft pick today, but I will guess that he sends him a message that he needs to practice in order to dress.
