The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Indianapolis Colts 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 Colts.
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.
QB Joshua Dobbs – Dobbs remains the third-string backup quarterback to starter Ben Roethlisberger and Mason Rudolph going into the team’s Week 16 game and that’s not a bit surprising. Barring any injuries, Dobbs is likely to remain the Steelers third quarterback the remainder of the season so that means he will likely remain a mainstay on the team’s game-day inactive list in 2020. Dobbs has already been inactive fourteen times this season and his fifteenth time should happen on Sunday against the Colts at Heinz Field.
K Chris Boswell – Boswell was downgraded to out from questionable on the Steelers Saturday injury report because of a groin injury of some description. Boswell was added to the injury report on Thursday and went backwards from there. The Steelers elevated practice squad kicker Matthew Wright on Saturday so he will handle the kicking duties on Sunday against the Colts. This is the second time this season that Boswell has missed a game.
ILB Marcus Allen – Like Boswell, Allen was downgraded to out from questionable on the Steelers Saturday injury report. He failed to practice all week due to a neck injury he sustained on Monday night in the team’s road loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. With Allen out, inside linebacker Tegray Scales was signed off the practice squad on Saturday.
OLB Olasunkanmi Adeniyi – Adeniyi is yet another player downgraded from questionable to out for Sundays game against the Colts on the Saturday injury report. Adeniyi is dealing with a shoulder injury. With Adeniyi sidelined for Sunday, new outside linebacker Cassius Marsh, who was signed off the Colts practice squad a few weeks ago, should be active on Sunday and serve as a backup and special teams contributor.
RB Anthony McFarland Jr. – The Steelers should have running back James Conner back on Sunday and that will likely result in McFarland being inactive as the odd man out on the running back depth chart. McFarland, by the way, missed practice on Friday with an illness and thus entered the week listed as questionable on the team’s injury report.
DE Isaiah Buggs – Buggs has been inactive the last two games and thus the easy guess is that he’ll be inactive again on Sunday against the Colts. Rookie defensive tackle Carlos Davis has been getting the extra defensive lineman helmet the last few weeks.
