The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Las Vegas Raiders on the road Sunday night, and it is their third 2023 regular-season game. 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 2023 season. Below is my best guess as to which players won’t be given helmets 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 newer roster rules make this exercise even harder as teams can elevate up to two players from their practice squads to their active roster for gamedays. Teams also can dress up to 48 players for games if eight offensive linemen are dressed. The emergency quarterback rule is also back in place for the 2023 season.
QB Mason Rudolph – (Emergency 3rd) – Another week for Rudolph as the Steelers’ third-string quarterback and that should result in him once again being inactive and designated as the emergency option just as was the case in the first two games. Rudolph will dress and warm up prior to the Sunday night game but he won’t play unless something happens to the two quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart, Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky. We’ll likely see this happen with Rudolph every week barring something happening to Pickett or Trubisky. The NFL brought back the emergency inactive quarterback rule this past offseason.
WR Gunner Olszewski – The Steelers Friday injury report included Olszewski being listed as out for the Sunday night game due to a concussion. He suffered that concussion last Monday night in the team’s Week Two home win. Olszewski failed to practice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and with him now officially out for Sunday night, he will be on the inactive list for the first time this season.
Olszewski being inactive also figures to result in WR Dez Fitzpatrick being active Sunday night for the first time this season. Fitzpatrick was signed off the Steelers practice squad ahead of the team’s Week Two game. He was, however, inactive for the Monday night game.
T Dylan Cook – The Steelers should once again dress eight of their nine offensive linemen on Sunday night. The top seven offensive linemen should once again be Mason Cole, James Daniels, Isaac Seumalo, Chukwuma Okorafor, Dan Moore Jr., Nate Herbig, and rookie Broderick Jones. Rookie Spencer Anderson should once again dress on Sunday night just as he did for the first two games. This should once again result in Cook being the odd lineman out Sunday night. It will be surprising if Cook is active.
DL Armon Watts – Is DT Breiden Fehoko going to be active on Sunday night to help defend against the run? It certainly feels like that could be the Steelers plan on the heels of them signing Fehoko off the practice squad this past week. If indeed Fehoko is active Sunday night, another defensive lineman is likely to be inactive. That other defensive linemen figures to be Watts, who was inactive for the Week One game. We’ll see how the Steelers ultimately play this, but it certainly feels like their choice will come done to Fehoko or Watts dressing. I’m going to guess Fehoko does and Watts doesn’t.
RB Godwin Igwebuike – The Steelers signed Igwebuike off the practice squad of the Atlanta Falcons this past week but even so, it appears as though he might be inactive Sunday night on a short week and especially on the heels of RB Qadree Ollison being elevated to the Week 3 Active/Inactive roster from the practice squad on Saturday morning.
Ollison dressed and played on special teams in Week Two following a Monday afternoon elevation so it’s hard not to envision that happening again in Week Three. Igwebuike does have kickoff return experience, but the Steelers might choose to let WR Calvin Austin III handle that role Sunday night with Olszewski ruled out for the contest with a concussion.
CB Desmond King II – The Steelers have made King an inactive player in each of their first two games of the 2023 season and it sure seems like that streak might continue Sunday night against the Raiders. The Steelers have 11 total defensive backs on their 53-man roster still and only ten of them have been dressing for games through Week Two. King was a late offseason addition to the Steelers, arriving just ahead of Week One following his release from the Houston Texans.
While the Steelers could ultimately decide to let King dress over CB Chandon Sullivan on Sunday night, there have been no signs or reports this past week that such a thing is likely to occur. We’ll see how it plays out 90 minutes ahead of kickoff, but as we sit here on Saturday, it sure seems like the odds of King being active Sunday night are extremely low.
