The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Miami Dolphins Monday night at Heinz Field 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 every Steelers game of the 2019 season and below is my best guess as to which seven players won’t be given helmets Monday night against the Dolphins.
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.
Paxton Lynch – Even with quarterback Mason Rudolph back from his concussion, the Steelers still chose to keep Lynch on their 53-man roster. However, even though the team is back to carrying three quarterbacks again on their 53-man roster, only two will be active Monday night and those two should be Rudolph and Devlin Hodges. Because of that, expect Lynch to be one of the Steelers seven inactives.
Jaylen Samuels – The Steelers backup running back required a knee scope the Monday after the team’s Week 5 home loss and while he did practice fully this past week, it just feels like the Steelers will be cautious with Samuels Monday night and thus make him inactive. The Steelers will get fullback Roosevelt Nix back Monday night and still have running back Trey Edmunds on their 53-man roster to help on special teams. Samuels ended the week listed as questionable so there’s a chance he might play.
Zach Gentry – With Nix finally back and Zach Banner dressing weekly and getting used as an extra blocker, there’s really no need for Gentry to dress and especially with him not being much of an asset on special teams. There’re just not enough hats to go around so I don’t expect the rookie tight end out of Michigan to get one Monday night.
Donte Moncrief – The Steelers figure to get wide receiver James Washington back from his shoulder injury Monday night so that should result in one wide receiver being made inactive. Moncrief doesn’t have any special teams value and the team isn’t likely to dress him Monday night. If the Steelers cut Moncrief within the next few weeks, they can get a third-round compensatory pick back on the board. Might as well attempt to keep him as healthy as possible.
Isaiah Buggs – With defensive end Stephon Tuitt now out for the remainder of the season, we’ll see a new defensive lineman dress Monday night and it figures to be defensive end L.T. Walton, who was re-signed a few weeks ago. While Walton hasn’t been with the team in the while, the Steelers might consider him a better option over the rookie Buggs still.
Chukwuma Okorafor – The Steelers should dress Banner again Monday night along with the team’s interior offensive lineman backup, B.J. Finney, so that’s likely to result in tackle Okorafor being the odd-man out and thus one of the team’s seven inactives.
Justin Layne – Assuming inside linebackers Mark Barron and Ulysees Gilbert III, the two other questionable players this week, dress and play Monday night, Layne could wind up being another one of the team’s seven inactive players. Layne has played all of 18 special teams snaps this season and none on defense.
