The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Cincinnati Bengals at home on Saturday afternoon, and it is their 15th 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 Bengals on Saturday afternoon 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 dressing. The emergency quarterback rule is also back in place for the 2023 season.
QB Kenny Pickett – Saturday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium will mark the third game this season that Pickett has missed as the team’s starting quarterback as he won’t play against the Bengals due to an ankle injury that he sustained in the first half of the Week 13 game. Pickett had ankle surgery a few weeks ago and that resulted in him being sidelined ever since. Pickett, however, was able to practice some on a limited basis this past week so the hope is that he can return to action in Week 17. With Pickett sidelined again on Saturday afternoon, Mason Rudolph will start at quarterback for the Steelers against the Bengals with Mitch Trubisky serving as his backup. This will mark the first time that Rudolph has started a game since 2021.
S Minkah Fitzpatrick – The Steelers will not have Fitzpatrick on Saturday against the Bengals due to a knee injury that the safety sustained in the team’s Week 15 game. Fitzpatrick already missed four games earlier in the season due to a hamstring injury so this will mark his fifth missed contest of the season. He was ruled out this week on the injury report and while it’s way too early to speculate, Fitzpatrick is not a lock to return to action a week from Sunday. The Steelers are certainly hurting at the safety position heading into their week 16 Saturday home game against the Bengals.
S Trenton Thompson – Like Fitzpatrick, Thompson, also a safety, will miss the team’s Saturday home game against the Bengals due to an injury. Thompson suffered a stinger in Week 15, and it was labeled as a neck injury on the report this past week. He was unable to practice any this past week and the Steelers officially ruled him out for Saturday’s contest on the Thursday injury report. This will mark the first game that Thompson has missed this season since being added to the 53-man roster in Week 10.
OT Dylan Cook – The Steelers have made a habit out of having Cook on their inactive list this season and that should be the case on Saturday once again. Cook has only dressed for one game so far this season and that was only due to other injuries on the Steelers offensive line. The Steelers have rolled with rookie offensive lineman Spencer Anderson as an active player over Cook this season and there’s no reason to think that won’t be the case again on Saturday against the Bengals at Acrisure Stadium.
ILB Blake Martinez – As part of the team’s Friday roster moves, S Elijah Riley and LB Kyron Johnson were both added to the 53-man roster. Additionally S Eric Rowe and ILB Myles Jack were both elevated from the Steelers’ practice squad on Friday. As a result of those four transactions, there’s a good chance that Martinez won’t be active again on Saturday against the Bengals. Martinez has limited special teams ability and that might be what results in him being inactive against the Bengals, which was essentially the case a week ago Saturday.
CB Darius Rush – While Rush did dress and play in the Week 14 game against the Patriots, he only saw time on special teams. Last Saturday, Rush returned to the inactive list. While the Steelers are hurting at the safety position this week, that might not be enough of a reason to give Rush a helmet on Saturday and especially due to the Friday transactions that the team made. The Steelers will need to have seven inactive players on Saturday and that figures to result in Rush being included on that list once again.
DE Issah Loudermilk – The Steelers are likely to have at least one defensive lineman inactive on Saturday against the Bengals and if indeed that’s the case, it should be either Loudermilk or DeMarvin Leal. Last Saturday, Leal got the helmet over Loudermilk. The previous week, Loudermilk got the helmet over Leal. Which way will it go this week? It’s extremely hard to tell, quite honestly. One would think with Leal being a former third round draft pick in 2022 that he might get the nod. That’s the way I am leaning, but I will not be surprised to see Loudermilk get the helmet just the same.
