The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Philadelphia Eagles on the road on Sunday afternoon in their eighth 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 Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field against the Eagles.
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 seven weeks of the 2022 regular season and that is not a bit surprising as he has been the No. 3 quarterback on the depth chart behind starter Kenny Pickett and backup Mitch Trubisky. With both quarterbacks still fully healthy, Rudolph should be inactive for an eighth consecutive time on Sunday in Philadelphia. With the annual NFL tradeline just a few days away, it will be interesting to see if the Steelers wind up dealing away Rudolph. If they don’t, he’ll likely be on the inactive list the remainder of the season barring an injury to Pickett or Trubisky.
CB Levi Wallace – The Steelers ended Friday with Wallace listed as out on the team’s Week 8 injury report due to a shoulder injury that he sustained during the Week 7 game. He failed to practice any this week and now we wait to see if he’ll miss more than just this week. The Steelers will get cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon back on Sunday as he is now over the hamstring injury that had sidelined him since Week 3. With Wallace out and with fellow cornerback Josh Jackson dealing with a groin injury this week, look for cornerback James Pierre to play a large number of snaps on Sunday against the Eagles.
DT Larry Ogunjobi – Like Wallace, Ogunjobi was ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Eagles on the team’s Friday injury report. A knee injury prevented Ogunjobi from practicing any this past week and this will now result in him being inactive for the first time this season. On Saturday, the Steelers elevated defensive tackle Carlos Davis from the team’s practice squad, and he’ll essentially get Ogunjobi’s helmet on Sunday. This will mark the first time this season that Davis will play in a game.
K Chris Boswell – The steelers ruled out Boswell for Sunday’s game on their injury report on Saturday due to a right groin injury. He did not show up on the injury report until Friday and was downgraded to out on Saturday afternoon. With Boswell out, the Steelers signed Nick Sciba to their practice squad on Saturday and then elevated him to the Active/Inactive roster right after that. This will be the first game this season that Boswell has missed.
CB Josh Jackson – Like Boswell, Jackson is dealing with a groin injury. He was also downgraded to out on Saturday after ending the week listed as questionable on the injury report. The Steelers are down two cornerbacks this week and they did not elevate one from their practice squad on Saturday. This might result in rookie inside linebacker Mark Robinson dressing on Sunday against the Eagles to help out on special teams.
G Kendrick Green – As has been the case all season, the Steelers have dressed eight of their nine total offensive linemen in their first seven games and Green has been the odd one out in that position group for all those contests. That’s not likely to change on Sunday afternoon against the Eagles so you can expect Green to once again be one of the team’s inactive players. Green is pretty much an afterthought at this point as the Steelers have had Jesse Davis essentially serving as the backup swing guard so far this season with Trent Scott serving as the top swing tackle. Barring any injuries on the offensive line going forward, expect Green to continue to be inactive for several more games this season. He can be tabbed a bust for the Steelers at this point after starting most of his rookie season at center.
WR Gunner Olszewski – The Steelers figure to have wide receiver Steven Sims back on Sunday after he missed the team’s Week 7 game with a hamstring injury. Sims is expected to be the team’s returner on Sunday just as he was back in Weeks 5 and 6. With him back in action, Olszewski is likely to be inactive on Sunday and if that’s the case, it will mark the second time this season he’s been on the list as he was also not given a helmet back in Week 5. If Olszewski is not inactive, Robinson likely will be.
