The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Houston Texans on the road Sunday afternoon, and it is their fourth 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 Texans.
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) – Yet 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 three games. Rudolph will dress and warm up prior to the Sunday afternoon game against the Texans 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 continue to 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.
P Pressley Harvin III – The Steelers won’t have their primary punter Sunday against the Texans due to an injury. Harvin, who punted very well in the team’s week Three Sunday night game, dealt with a hamstring injury this past week and he ultimately wasn’t able to practice all three days. On Friday, the Steelers ruled Harvin out on the team’s official injury report and that means he will be inactive on Sunday against the Texans. Replacing Harvin on Sunday will be Brad Wing, who was the Steelers punter back in 2014, was elevated from the Steelers practice squad on Saturday, was signed to the practice squad earlier in the week.
G James Daniels – Like Harvin, Daniels, the Steelers starting right guard, will miss the Sunday game against the Texans due to injury. Daniels is dealing with a groin injury this week that prevented him from practicing and the team officially ruled him out for Sunday on the Friday injury report. This will be the first game that Daniels has missed as a member of the Steelers and Nate Herbig is expected to start at right guard in his absence. With Daniels out, look for backup offensive lineman Dylan Cook to be active on Sunday for the first time this season. He has been a healthy scratch on the inactive list for the first three games of the season.
CB Desmond King II – The Steelers have made King an inactive player in two of their first three games of the 2023 season and it sure seems like he might be on the list again on Sunday with WR Gunner Olszewski now back from his concussion. In Week Three, King was active, and he served as the team’s kickoff returner with Olszewski sidelined. The Steelers also only dressed four wide receivers for that Week Three game, something that isn’t a common occurrence. Unless the Steelers want King to return kickoffs again even with Olszewski healthy, it’s hard seeing the new cornerback getting a helmet for this one.
WR Dez Fitzpatrick – The Steelers signed Fitzpatrick off their practice squad a few weeks ago but since then he has been on the inactive list for two consecutive games. With Olszewski now back from his concussion, it’s hard to imagine Fitzpatrick finally getting a helmet on Sunday against the Texans. In short, look for Fitzpatrick to be a healthy inactive scratch again on Sunday.
DT Breiden Fehoko – Last week, Fehoko was signed to the 53-man roster from the practice squad. While he seemed that there was a great possibility that Fehoko would be active for the Steelers Week Three Sunday night road game, that ultimately did not happen. Instead, Fehoko was a healthy scratch and because of that, we should probably expect a repeat of that on Sunday against the Texans and especially with the Steelers needing six inactives in Week Four because of elevations.
