The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Baltimore Ravens on the road Sunday night in their sixteenth 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 night at M&T Bank Stadium against the Ravens.
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.
S Tre Norwood – Norwood will miss his first game of the season on Sunday night due to a hamstring injury that he sustained later in the first half of last Saturday’s game. He did not practice any this past week and was ultimately ruled out for Sunday night on the team’s Friday injury report. The Steelers fortunately should have safety Terrell Edmunds back on Sunday so that helps. Additionally, the Steelers promoted safety Elijah Riley from the practice squad last Saturday afternoon and he should once again dress on Sunday night as a backup as well.
QB Mason Rudolph – As expected, Rudolph was back on the inactive last week after being active for the first time this season in Week 15 due to starter Kenny Pickett being sidelined with a concussion. Pickett was obviously back last Saturday night and barring another injury, he’ll continue to be the starter for the final two games of 2022 and be backed up by Mitch Trubisky. There’s a good chance now that we’ve seen Rudolph in a Steelers’ uniform for the last time as he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent in March. In the meantime, look for Rudolph to be on the Steelers’ Sunday night inactive list for the 15th time Sunday night.
G Kendrick Green – Predictably, Green has still yet to be active for a game this season. He 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 Sunday night against the Ravens. So far this season, the Steelers have dressed eight of their nine total offensive linemen in their first fifteen 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 Sunday night in Baltimore against the Ravens.
DT Jonathan Marshall – With Marshall still being relatively new to the team, we can probably look forward to him being inactive once again on Sunday night against the Ravens. After a Saturday elevation, the Steelers are now likely to dress seven defensive linemen in total against the Ravens with young players DeMarvin Leal and Isaiahh Loudermilk likely to be included within that group once again. Marshall hasn’t even been with the Steelers for three weeks so it’s easy to predict that he won’t be given a helmet Sunday night in Baltimore.
ILB Tae Crowder – The Steelers signed Crowder off the New York Giants’ practice squad this week on the heels of fellow inside linebacker Marcus Allen being placed on the Reserve/Injured list with a biceps injury. With Crowder being new and with rookie inside linebacker Mark Robinson now expected to get Allen’s’ helmet moving forward, it’s very unlikely that numbers will break in the favor of Crowder, who does have some special teams experience from his time with the Giants. The Steelers will need six inactive players on Sunday night and I fully expect Crowder to be one of them.
OLB Malik Reed – The Steelers elevated defensive end Renell Wren from the practice squad on Saturday and that move came on the heels of defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi having his injury status designation upgraded from questionable. So, what does that unexpected Saturday afternoon elevation mean? It’s hard to say for sure but it figures to result in Wren dressing Sunday night and another defensive player being inactive. Could that player wind up being Reed? I think so. Reed is smallish and not much help against the run. Additionally, Reed hasn’t played a ton on special teams this season. In short, it’s pretty much useless to give Reed a helmet Sunday night and especially if inside linebacker Myles Jack is healthy enough to play. Reed, by the way, was a healthy scratch for the last game between the Ravens and the Steelers. In closing, this final inactive should be either Reed or Jack.
