The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Washington Football Team on Monday 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 Monday night against Washington.
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 13 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 twelve times this season and his thirteenth time should happen on Monday night against Washington.
CB Steven Nelson – Nelson suffered some sort of knee injury against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 12 and that Wednesday injury resulted in the team’s starting cornerback needing an MRI. Nelson proceeded to not practice all week and on Saturday he was listed as doubtful on the team’s injury report. Nelson has not been upgraded since so that means he’s very unlikely to play on Monday night. Cornerback Cameron Sutton will start in Nelson’s place against Washington.
K Chris Boswell – Boswell did not start the week off on the Steelers injury report but he certainly ended it on it. After initially be added to the Steelers injury report on Saturday with a hip injury, Boswell was downgraded to doubtful on it on Sunday and that means it would take a minor miracle for him to play against Washington on Monday night. The Steelers have kicker Matthew Wright on their practice squad, and he should be elevated to the active/inactive roster on Monday. He will handle the kicking duties Monday night against Washington while Boswell is inactive on the sideline.
TE Kevin Rader – The Steelers have yet to dress three tight ends for a game this season and so with veteran tight end. Vance McDonald returned from the Reserve/COVID-19 list ahead of the Week 12 game and in doing so it bumped Rader to the inactive list for his first game on the 53-man-roster. There are just not enough hats to go around for Rader to get one Monday night against Washington so he should show up on the inactive list once again.
DE Isaiah Buggs – Buggs and rookie defensive tackle Carlos Davis were both active in Week 12 as part of the Steelers dressing six defensive linemen in total. The Steelers will have defensive end Stephon Tuitt back on Monday night now that he’s off the Reserve/COVID-19 list and that should result in one of Buggs or Davis not getting a helmet. I’ll guess that it’s Buggs that’s chosen to sit.
