The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Denver Broncos on Sunday on the road, and this will be the team’s second regular season game of 2024. 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 2024 season and below is my best guess as to which players won’t be given helmets on Sunday afternoon against the Broncos.
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 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 still in place for the 2024 season.
G Isaac Seumalo – For a second consecutive week the Steelers will not have Seumalo, their starting left guard, as he will miss the game on Sunday afternoon against the Broncos due to a pectoral injury that he’s been dealing with since right before the regular season got underway. Not surprisingly, Seumalo did not practice any this past week and that ultimately led to him being officially riled out for the week 2 road game on the team’s Friday injury report. With Seumalo out again this week, Spencer Anderson is expected to start again in his place at left guard. It’s hard to tell right now if Seumalo will be able to return to action for the team’s Week 3 home game. If that is to happen, however, one would think he would at least practice on a limited basis next Wednesday.
WR Roman Wilson – On Friday, the Steelers officially listed Roman Wilson as questionable on the official injury report for Week 2 and that designation was accompanied by him being listed as a limited practice participant earlier in the day. Wilson started this past as a limited practice participant and on Wednesday he reportedly practiced fully. Hopefully he did not have setback with his ankle injury that sidelined him for most of training camp and all of the preseason. Wilson was on the inactive list in Week 1 and now it seems almost certain that he will be on it again ahead of the Steelers playing the Broncos on Sunday afternoon. The Steelers also elevated WR Ben Skowronek from the practice squad on Saturday morning and that’s yet another solid sign that Roman Wilson will once again be inactive on Sunday. The Steelers selected Roman Wilson in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft out of Michigan.
DE Dean Lowry – In Week 1, Lowry was on the inactive list as the team chose to dress fellow defensive lineman Isaiahh Loudermilk instead of him. While that wasnt a huge development overall, it was a tiny bit surprising just the same. Lowry was signed to a two-year contract during the offseason, and he started his first training camp as a member of the Steelers on the Active PUP list. Lowry, did, however, come off that list late during training camp and he was able to see preseason game action. Even so, Loudermilk is a more known commodity to the Steelers than Lowry is and that likely played a part in him dressing over Lowry in Week 1. With Week 2 now on tap, it’s hard to have a good reason to think that Lowry will dress over Loudermilk on Sunday against the Broncos.
S Jalen Elliott – Like Lowry in Week 1, Elliott was also a healthy scratch and thus was one of five players on the team’s pregame inactive list. While Elliott’s main asset is probably his special teams ability, it seems as though the Steelers chose to dress ILB Mark Robinson over him in Week 1. Robinson wound up being a core special teams player in that first regular season contest of 2024 and he did not see any action on defense. With Robinson getting a helmet over Elliott last week, and with all of the Steelers other safeties all being healthy, it’s probably a good bet that the former undrafted free agent out of Notre Dame will be back on the pregame list again on Sunday.
S Terrell Edmunds – The Steelers signed Edmunds off the practice squad of the Jacksonville Jaguars this past week and now the team’s former first round draft pick out of Virginia Tech is guaranteed to be on the 53-man roster for at least three weeks. While the return of Edmunds was a bit of a surprise this past week, there’s still no guarantee that he dresses on Sunday as part of his first game back with his old team. The Steelers elevated Skowronek from the practice squad on Saturday morning and that transaction means the team will need six listed inactive players on Sunday. With Skowronek expected to dress against the Broncos for special teams purposes, there’s a good chance that Edmunds winds up being a healthy scratch for the Week 2 contest and thus one of the six players on the Steelers’ Week 2 inactive list.
QB Russell Wilson – Still dealing with a calf injury that resulted in him missing the 2024 regular season opener, Russell Wilson is once again likely to be on the inactive list on Sunday against the Broncos. Listed as a limited practice participant on the injury report all three days this past week, Russell Wilson officially entered the weekend listed as questionable for Sunday. While Wilson might go through some sort of pregame warm up again on Sunday, it’s very unlikely that he’ll do much of anything during it. Assuming his situation is a duplicate of last Sunday’s, Russell Wilson is likely to be listed on the Steelers Sunday inactive list as the emergency third quarterback. That would mean he would dress again and be the third string quarterback behind Justin Fields and Kyle Allen, just as was the case last Sunday.
