The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Cincinnati Bengals at home on Sunday afternoon in their tenth 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 Acrisure Stadium against the Bengals.
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 – It’s now been nine consecutive games that Rudolph hasn’t dressed for this season as part of him being the third-string quarterback on the Steelers’ depth chart. With Rudolph still buried behind quarterbacks Kenny Pickett and Mitchell Trubisky, he’ll be inactive once again on Sunday against the Bengals. Rudolph should remain the third-string quarterback barring any injuries to Pickett or Trubisky so there’s a very good chance he’ll be inactive for the remainder of the team’s games.
G Kendrick Green – Like Rudolph, the Steelers have yet to have Green active for a game this season. The team has dressed eight of their nine total offensive linemen in their first nine games of the 2022 regular season and Green has been the odd one out in that position group for all those contests. Earlier in the week, the Steelers had three offensive linemen on their Week 11 injury report in guard Kevin Dotson, guard Jesse Davis and tackle Trent Scott. However, those three players did not receive game status designations on the Friday injury report so it’s likely that all three will dress on Sunday against the Bengals. That would result in no helmet for Green once again.
CB Ahkello Witherspoon – A no-brainer here with Witherspoon as he is still sidelined with his hamstring injury. He failed to practice all week and was finally officially ruled out for the Sunday game against the Bengals on the team’s Friday injury report. This will make the sixth game this season that Witherspoon has missed because of his hamstring injury. He initially injured it in the team’s Week 3 game and has dressed in just one game since then.
ILB Mark Robinson – Robinson has only been active for one game this season, the team’s Week 6 contest and that’s because the team had six players out for that contest due to injuries. The Steelers should have inside linebacker Myles Jack on Sunday and the same goes for inside linebackers Devin Bush and Marcus Allen, who were both on the team’s injury report this past week. The Steelers usually only dress four inside linebackers for games so look for Robinson to be the odd player out in that position group on Sunday once again.
DL Isaiahh Loudermilk – Loudermilk might just return to the inactive list on Sunday after dressing for the last four games. The Steelers need a fifth inactive player this week and so it’s likely going to be either Loudermilk or cornerback Josh Jackson. Last week, Loudermilk did not log any defensive snaps with outside linebacker T.J. Watt back from his injury. I would look for him to be inactive on Sunday as part of the Steelers dressing only five defensive linemen in total.
