The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Cleveland Browns on Sunday at home and if you’re like me, you’re counting down the hours until the game begins. As usual, I will attempt to project the Steelers inactives for every game of the 2020 season and below is my best guess as to which players won’t be given helmets Sunday afternoon against the Browns.
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. Also, the new roster rules make this exercise even harder as team’s can promote up to two players from their practice squads to their active roster on gamedays. Team’s also can dress up to 48 players for games if 8 offensive linemen are dressed.
G David DeCastro – The Steelers right guard suffered an abdomen injury in the team’s Week 5 home game, and it forced him from that contest in the first half. This past week, DeCastro, who missed the first two games of the season with a knee injury, failed to practice and that led to him being ruled out for Sunday’s Week 6 home game against the Browns on the team’s Friday injury report. With DeCastro sidelined on Sunday against the Browns, rookie guard Kevin Dotson is expected to make his second career start.
WR Diontae Johnson – Like DeCastro, Johnson will miss Sunday’s game against the Browns due to an injury. Johnson suffered a back in injury in the first half of the Steelers Week 5 game and he failed to return to action in the second half. After sitting out Wednesday’s practice with his back injury, Johnson was limited on Thursday. On Friday, however, he failed to practice again and that resulted in him being ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Browns on the team’s injury report. With Johnson sidelined for Sunday, the Steelers could decide to elevate wide receiver Deon Cain from the practice squad.
QB Joshua Dobbs – Dobbs remains the third-string backup quarterback to starter Ben Roethlisberger and Mason Rudolph going into the team’s Week 6 game. Barring any injuries, Dobbs is likely to remain the Steelers third quarterback all season so that means he will likely be listed quite frequently on the team’s game-day inactive list in 2020. Dobbs has already been inactive four times this season and his fifth time should happen on Sunday against the Browns.
DT Carlos Davis – Davis, the team’s seventh-round selection in the 2020 NFL Draft, was inactive for the team’s first four games and on Sunday against the Browns he’ll likely be on the list of five or six players once again. With everyone seemingly extremely healthy on the defensive line heading into the Week 6 home game, Davis can probably look forward to not dressing for games quite a bit throughout his rookie season.
TE Zach Gentry – Should the Steelers elevate Cain on Saturday or Sunday morning with Johnson out against the Browns, it will likely result in Gentry being inactive again for the week 6 game. Gentry has yet to dress for a game this season. Gentry is not much of a special teams asset and with fellow tight ends Vance McDonald and Eric Ebron both healthy, it will be hard to justify getting him a helmet if Cain is needed to be a fifth dressed wide receiver against the Browns.
Ulysees Gilbert III – After dressing last Sunday for the first time this season due to inside linebacker Marcus Allen being sidelined with a foot injury, Gilbert has a good chance of returning to the team’s inactive list on Sunday against the Browns. Allen practiced fully all week and if he dresses on Sunday, Gilbert will likely be back on the inactive list again. Gilbert only played on special teams in Week 5 and that is what Allen had done in the first three games of the season.
