The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday at home, and this will be the team’s third 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 Chargers.
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 third consecutive week the Steelers will not have Seumalo, their starting left guard, as he will miss the home game on Sunday afternoon against the Chargers due to a pectoral injury that he’s been dealing with since right before the regular season got underway. Seumalo did not practice any this past week and because of that he ultimately ended up being officially ruled out for the Week 3 home game on the team’s Friday injury report.
With Seumalo once again out this week, Spencer Anderson is expected to start again in his place at left guard. Seumalo should be close to resuming practicing, but we won’t know for sure if that will be the case until next week’s Wednesday injury report is released. Steelers HC Mike Tomlin did say this past Tuesday that Seumalo is getting close to returning, so read into that what you will.
TE MyCole Pruitt – Like Seumalo, Pruitt was officially ruled out for the Steelers week 3 home game against the Chargers on the team’s Friday injury report. Pruitt, who played in the Steelers’ first two games, sustained a knee injury late in the team’s Week 2 road game and that subsequently prevented him from practicing on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. With Pruitt sidelined with his injury right now, TE Rodney Williams is expected to dress and play on Sunday against the Chargers after being signed off the team’s practice squad earlier in the week.
While Williams could see some snaps on offense on Sunday, he more than certainly should play on special teams if he indeed dresses for the contest and is thus active. The timetable for Pruitt’s return is currently unclear but the fact that the team has yet to place him on the Reserve/Injured list should be taken as a positive sign overall.
DE Dean Lowry – The Steelers designated Lowry as an inactive player for each of their first two 2024 regular season games as fellow defensive lineman Isaiahh Loudermilk has gotten the extra helmet over of him. While Lowry, who was signed to a two-year contract during the offseason, started his first training camp as a member of the Steelers on the Active PUP list, he did 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 has likely played a big part in him dressing over Lowry to start the regular season. With Week 3 now on tap, it’s really hard to have a good reason to think that Lowry will dress over Loudermilk on Sunday against the Chargers.
QB Russell Wilson – With two regular season games now in the books, Wilson is still dealing with a calf injury that resulted in him being the inactive emergency quarterback for the team’s first two contests of 2024. Wilson, who was once again listed as a limited practice participant on the team’s injury report all three days this past week, is once again likely to be on the inactive list on Sunday against the Chargers.
Wilson officially entered the weekend listed as questionable for Sunday and that has been his pregame status designation for the first two weeks of the regular season. With Wilson once again likely to be listed on the Steelers Sunday inactive list as the emergency third quarterback, expect QB Kyle Allen to serve as the Sunday backup to starting QB Justin Fields against the Chargers.
S Terrell Edmunds – With the three injured players out of the way, along with Lowry likely being inactive again for the Steelers, the team will still need two more on their Sunday list following the elevations of CB James Pierre and OL John Leglue from the practice squad on Saturday. Both Pierre and Leglue should be active on Sunday.
Additionally, rookie T Troy Fautanu was also placed on the Reserve/Injured list on Saturday. Of the two remaining inactive player spots, one of them might go to either Edmunds or S Jalen Elliott, if not both of them as the final two. With Pruitt missing Sunday’s game against the Chargers with an injury, Elliott could be the player asked to replace his role on special teams with one of those roles being the left wing on the punt team. He played that position during the preseason. However, the Steelers also signed TE Rodney Williams off the team’s practice squad this past week as well and he played the left wing spot during the preseason as well.
S Jalen Elliott – This last spot is where it really gets tough in regard to possible healthy scratches on the Sunday inactive list and especially with it seeming as though rookie WR Roman Wilson will make his NFL debut on Week 3. If Roman Wilson is indeed active on Sunday, and assuming Williams indeed does get a helmet as well, Elliott could once again find himself on the inactive list for a third consecutive game.
Basically, I had to choose from Edmunds, Elliott, Williams and Roman Wilson when it came to my final two predicted spots. I am hedging that Roman Wilson will dress for the first time this season and that Rodney Williams will also dress over both Edmunds and Elliott.
Edited: 5:18 PM ET
CB Darius Rush – After deeper thought, I have decided to quickly edit this and choose Rush as the final inactive instead of Elliott. The team can use Pierre and RB/KR Cordarrelle Patterson as their two gunners as Rush hasn’t done well in that role to date. I think Elliott might then get a helmet over Edmunds and mainly to play that left wing spot on the punt team. Sorry for the quick edit, but that’s my fault.
