The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Jacksonville Jaguars at home on Sunday afternoon, and it is their seventh 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 Jaguars on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.
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 – While Rudolph has dressed for all seven six previous games so far this season, in each one he has been designated as the team’s inactive emergency third quarterback. He remains the third-string quarterback on the depth chart in Week Eight and thus look for him to once again be listed as inactive on Sunday against the Jaguars with the emergency designation. The last time that Rudolph was not inactive for a regular season game was in Week 15 of the 2022 season. He did not play in that game, however.
T Dylan Cook – The Steelers offensive line was back at full health as of last Sunday and that has carried over to Week Eight. Because of that, look for Cook to once again be inactive on Sunday against the Jaguars. He has only dressed for one game so far this season and the Steelers usually only dress eight offensive linemen in total. So far this season, rookie offensive lineman Spencer Anderson has been getting the nod over Cook and there’s no reason to think that won’t continue on Sunday against the Jaguars at Acrisure Stadium.
DT Breiden Fehoko – As expected, Fehoko was inactive in Week Seven with DE DeMarvin Leal back from the concussion that prevented him from playing in Week Five. The Steelers usually like to dress six total defensive linemen for games and if that’s indeed the case on Sunday against the Jaguars, expect Fehoko to be the odd man out once again. It will be interesting to see what ultimately happens to Fehoko once DT Cameron Heyward is activated from the team’s Reserve/Injured list. The team will need a roster spot once that happens and thus Fehoko might be cut with hopes that he circles back to the practice squad.
CB Darius Rush – The Steelers entered Saturday with three cornerbacks listed as questionable on the team’s injury report in Joey Porter Jr. (calf), Levi Wallace (foot), and James Pierre (ankle). Even so, the team decided not to elevate CB Luq Barcoo from the team’s practice squad on Saturday. Now, if one of those three cornerbacks can’t play on Sunday, they would be inactive and that would likely result in Rush getting a helmet and playing on special teams. It’s a guess at this point but it would have made sense to elevate Barcoo, who has been around longer than Rush, if one of the three questionable cornerbacks was deemed not healthy enough to play on Sunday. This deductive reasoning leads me to believe that Rush might be inactive for a second consecutive week.
