The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Las Vegas Raiders at home on Saturday night in their fifteenth 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 Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium against the Raiders.
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 – Last Sunday, Rudolph was active for the first time this season and that was because starting quarterback Kenny Pickett missed that week 15 contest with a concussion. Even so, Rudolph did not play in that game as he was the backup behind Mitch Trubisky, who played every snap. This week, Pickett is back from his concussion and thus he will start Saturday night against the Raiders. Trubisky will return to the backup role and Rudolph will return to the inactive list. Barring Pickett getting injured again, Rudolph is likely to be inactive for the remainder of the season.
G Kendrick Green – Predictably, Green has still yet to be active for a game this season. With Rudolph being active in Week 15, Green is now the only Steelers player on the roster that has been inactive for every game this season. Barring some sort of surprise, Green will be inactive again on Saturday night against the Raiders. So far this season, the Steelers have dressed eight of their nine total offensive linemen in their first fourteen games and Green has obviously been the odd one out in that position group for all those contests. The Steelers have been utilizing Jesse Davis and J.C. Hassenauer as interior offensive linemen backups on a weekly basis and both have been ahead of Green on the depth chart all season and that should continue at Acrisure Stadium against the Raiders.
DT Jonathan Marshall – Last Sunday was the first Steelers’ game that Marshall has been on the roster for, and he was one of the team’s five inactive players. With him still being relatively new to the team, we can probably look forward to him being inactive again on Saturday night against the Raiders. The Steelers are likely to dress six defensive linemen in total against the Raiders with young players DeMarvin Leal and Isaiahh Loudermilk likely to be included within that group.
S Terrell Edmunds – The Steelers promoted safety Elijah Riley from the practice squad on Saturday afternoon and they released cornerback Josh Jackson to make room for him. That might be sign that safety Terrell Edmunds will be inactive Saturday night with a hamstring injury. Edmunds entered the week listed as questionable on the team’s injury report after failing to practice any this past week. At best, Edmunds figures to be a gametime decision Saturday night. With the Saturday transaction now complete, I will guess that Edmunds will be one of the team’s five inactive players.
ILB Mark Robinson – After being active in Week 15 because of inside linebacker Myles Jack being out with a groin injury, Robinson might be back on the inactive list Saturday night. It probably depends on the status of Jack, who ended the week listed as questionable on the injury report. Jack did practice fully on Thursday so there’s that. I will guess that Jack will play Saturday night and that Robinson will be inactive. We don’t have long to wait to find out for sure.
