The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the New York Jets Sunday at Heinz Field in a game that many expect the home team to win going away. As usual, I will attempt to project the Steelers seven inactives for Sunday’s contest and below is my best guess as to which seven players won’t be given helmets for this Week 5 home game.
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.
This week there really isn’t much guessing involved thanks to the Steelers ruling out nine players with injuries on Friday and placing two of them on their Reserve/Injured list on Saturday. That leaves us seven players on the 53-man roster listed as out for Sunday and that will be the team’s inactive list this week. Here’s a rundown of each.
Marcus Gilbert – Due to an ankle injury that he suffered in the first half of the Sunday night win over the Chiefs, Gilbert will miss his first game this season and his first since Week 15 of the 2014 regular season. It’s unclear as to how long Gilbert will be sidelined as this could be a multi-week injury. With Gilbert out and backup tackle Ryan Harris placed on the team’s Reserve/Injured list on Saturday, Chris Hubbard will make his first career start at right tackle against the Jets and will be backup up by Matt Feiler, who was promoted from the practice squad on Saturday.
Robert Golden – While Golden was able to practice on a limited basis on Wednesday and Thursday, he didn’t practice at all on Friday and was ultimately ruled out for the Sunday game against the Jets. Golden suffered a hamstring injury early in the Week 3 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and only played 10 defensive snaps in that game. With Golden out, former undrafted free agent Jordan Dangerfield is expected to get some playing time on defense one again this week as is rookie safety Sean Davis, who will also return this weekend and likely play in the slot in addition to safety.
Ryan Shazier – Shazier aggravated a knee injury against the Eagles and missed the team’s Week 4 game against the Chiefs as a result. He failed to practice this past week and was ultimately ruled out on the team’s Friday injury report. Being as this is an MCL injury, Shazier might not be ready to return to action until after the team’s bye week. We’ll see, but in the meantime Vince Williams is expected to start in his place.
Eli Rogers – Rogers suffered a toe injury in the Week 4 loss to the Eagles and as expected, that will wind up costing him multiple weeks. After missing the Sunday night game with the Chiefs, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin ruled Rogers out for the team’s Week 5 game against the Jets on Tuesday. With Markus Wheaton now back, the Steelers won’t be in any hurry to rush Rogers along in his rehab.
Cody Wallace – Wallace has yet to play so far this season after suffering a knee injury during the preseason and this past week we learned that he needed a minor procedure done that will likely keep him sidelined until after the team’s bye week. This explains Wallace practicing some a few weeks ago and then suddenly not practicing at all once again. For now, B.J. Finney will continue be the Steelers interior swing offensive lineman.
Roosevelt Nix – Even thigh Nix was able to practice fully all three days this past week, he was still ruled out for the Jets game on Friday. Nix has yet to play in a game this season but you have to think that will change soon.
Justin Gilbert – Gilbert surprisingly showed up on the team’s injury report Wednesday afternoon with a knee injury. As it turns out, he injured his knee during practice and needed to be carted off the field. Early word is that Gilbert’s knee injury isn’t serious. Even so, he’ll still miss the Sunday game against the Jets. With Gilbert down, the Steelers promoted cornerback Al-Hajj Shabazz to the team’s active roster from the practice squad on Saturday.
The Steelers long list of injured players thus week will once again result in quarterback Zach Mettenberger, linebacker Steven Johnson and defensive end L.T. Walton all dressing for just the second time this season.
