The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home on Sunday afternoon in their sixth game of the 2022 regular season 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 2022 season and below is my best guess as to which players won’t be given helmets on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium against the Buccaneers.
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 elevate up to two players from their practice squads to their active roster for gamedays. Team’s also can dress up to 48 players for games if eight offensive linemen are dressed.
QB Mason Rudolph – Rudolph has yet to be active through the first five weeks of the 2022 regular season as he has been the No. 3 quarterback on the depth chart behind starter Kenny Pickett and backup Mitch Trubisky. No changes were made to the depth chart this week at the quarterback position so Rudolph should remain a gameday inactive for the foreseeable future. It will be interesting to see if the team trades him ahead of the November 1 deadline to do. As of right now, however, there are no indications that they will.
CB Ahkello Witherspoon – The Steelers ended Friday with Witherspoon listed as out on the team’s Week 6 injury report due to a hamstring injury that he sustained during the Week 3 game. This will make a third consecutive game missed for Witherspoon and it resulted in cornerback Josh Jackson being back on the Active/Inactive roster once again on Saturday. Jackson figures to start on Sunday against the Buccaneers due to the Steelers’ secondary being ravished by injuries this week.
S Minkah Fitzpatrick – The Steelers listed Fitzpatrick as out on the team’s injury report due to a knee injury after he failed to practice all week. This will mark the first game that Fitzpatrick has misses this season and the Steelers defense will certainly miss him. With Fitzpatrick out and with safety Terrell Edmunds expected to be back on Sunday from his concussion that sidelined him in Week 5, look for Tre Norwood to start opposite him. The Steelers also have safety Elijah Riley back up on the active/Inactive roster on Saturday, so he’ll dress as a backup for a second consecutive game on Sunday against the Buccaneers.
CB Cameron Sutton – The Steelers also won’t have Sutton on Sunday due to injury. A hamstring issue will prevent him from playing on Sunday after he failed to practice all week. Sutton left the Week 5 game with his injury, and he ultimately failed to practice any days this past week. He will be a big loss on Sunday for the Steelers, who will need to start Jackson and James Pierre at the two outside cornerback positions against the Buccaneers.
CB Levi Wallace – Like Witherspoon, Fitzpatrick and Sutton, Wallace will also miss Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers due to an injury. Wallace sustained a concussion during the team’s Week 5 Sunday road game and was only able to practice on a limited basis twice this past week. The Steelers officially listed Wallace as out for Sunday’s game on the team’s Friday injury report. This will mark his first game missed this season.
TE Pat Freiermuth – Like Wallace, Freiermuth also sustained a concussion during the team’s Week 5 road game and that will now force him to miss Sunday’s home game against the Buccaneers. Freiermuth sustained two concussions last season so it’s not surprising that the Steelers ruled him out on the injury report on Friday. With Freiermuth now out for Sunday’s game, expect backup tight end Connor Heyward to see more playing time behind Zach Gentry, who will now start against the Buccaneers.
G Kendrick Green – The Steelers have dressed eight of their nine total offensive linemen in their first five games of the 2022 regular season and Green has been the odd man out in that position group for all five of those contests. That’s not likely to change on Sunday afternoon against the Buccaneers so you can expect Green to once again be one of the team’s inactive players. Jesse Davis has essentially been serving as the backup swing guard so far this season with Trent Scott serving as the top swing tackle. Additionally, J.C. Hassenauer remains the team’s top backup at the center position. Barring injuries, expect Green to continue to be inactive for several more games this season.
