The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Washington Redskins Monday night in Landover to kick off their 2016 NFL regular season and if you’re like me, you’re counting down the hours until the game begins. As usual, I will attempt to project the seven inactives for each and every Steelers game of the 2016 season and below is my best guess as to which seven players won’t be given helmets Monday night.
Game inactives are officially announced 90 minutes before kickoff, so make sure you check back at that time to see the names of the players for both teams who will be sitting the game out.
Zach Mettenberger – This is the easy non-injury one of the seven as Landry Jones will be the Steelers No. 2 quarterback this season. Barring any injuries, Mettenberger will more than likely be on the list all season.
Senquez Golson – Golson, as expected, won’t play Monday night and that should continue to be the case with him for the next several weeks as he continues to recover from foot surgery. The Steelers former second-round draft pick might not see any action until after the Steelers bye week.
Markus Wheaton – A shoulder injury will prevent Wheaton from playing Monday night as he was ruled out for the game on the Saturday injury report. It’s unknown as to how long Wheaton figures to be out of action and in the meantime the Steelers will dress just four wide receivers against the Redskins.
Cody Wallace – Wallace remains sidelined with a knee injury that he suffered early on in the preseason and with him out of action, the Steelers figure to dress both B.J. Finney and Chris Hubbard for a total of eight offensive linemen. Finney is almost guaranteed to dress being as he, not Hubbard, saw work during the preseason at the center position. We’ll have to wait and see if Hubbard gets a helmet as well.
Roosevelt Nix – Nix has been sidelined for several weeks with a back injury and will not play Monday night after being ruled out for the game on the Saturday injury report. This could result in backup tight end David Johnson seeing some snaps Monday night at fullback.
Tyler Matakevich – I just can’t see the Steelers dressing all 10 linebackers on their 53-man roster against the Redskins and so that means one of them will likely need to sit. I’m going to guess that it will be Matakevich, the rookie.
L.T. Walton – The last inactive guess is a tough one and mainly because defensive end Cameron Heyward has been dealing with an ankle injury. However, being as he practiced all week and appears to be good to go Monday night, I’ll guess that only five total defensive linemen will dress against the Redskins. If that winds up being the case, Walton will likely be the odd man out. If Walton does dress, it will likely result in another defensive back being inactive and perhaps even cornerback Justin Gilbert.
