The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night at home, and this will be the team’s fifth 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 night against the Cowboys.
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.
TE MyCole Pruitt – Pruitt was once again officially ruled out for the Steelers’ Week 5 home game against the Cowboys on the team’s Friday injury report. Pruitt, who played in the Steelers’ first two regular season 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 for a third consecutive week.
With Pruitt sidelined once again, we can probably count on backup TE Rodney Williams dressing once again on Sunday night to mainly help on special teams. As for when Pruitt might return to action, it’s hard to say especially since he’s yet to practice since he sustained his knee injury. Hopefully, he can at least get back to practicing on a limited basis next week.
RB Jaylen Warren – A knee injury will once again result in Warren missing the Sunday night against the Cowboys. It will mark just the third game that Warren has missed during his NFL career as well. Warren, who sustained his knee injury during the team’s Week 3 game, failed to practice on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this past week and he ultimately was officially ruled out on the Friday injury report.
With Warren sidelined this week, backup RB Aaron Shampklin is expected to dress and play on Sunday night against the Cowboys. RB Jonathan Ward, who was elevated from the Steelers’ practice squad on Saturday, is also expected to dress and play Sunday night against the Cowboys. Ward has yet to play in a game for the Steelers this season.
RB Cordarrelle Patterson – An ankle injury sustained during the team’s Week 4 game will prevent Patterson from playing Sunday night against the Cowboys as the team officially ruled him out for that contest on the Friday injury report. Patterson was unable to practice this past week. This will mark the first game this season that he has missed. With Patterson and Warren both sidelined on Sunday night, look for Shampklin and Ward to be the backups behind starting RB Najee Harris.
Ankle injuries can be tricky so it’s too early to speculate if Patterson is in jeopardy of missing more than just the Sunday night game against the Cowboys. Patterson’s kickoff returning duties will likely be handled on Sunday night by Ward as he returned one during the preseason. WR Calvin Austin III might also be a candidate to return kickoffs against the Cowboys because he is the team’s punt returner.
OLB Alex Highsmith – Like Pruitt, Warren and Patterson, Highsmith was also officially ruled out for Sunday’s home game against the Cowboys on the team’s Friday injury report. Highsmith sustained a groin injury during the team’s Week 3 home game, and it prevented him from finishing that contest. That injury prevented him from playing last Sunday so this will mark the second game this season he’s missed.
The early word when it comes to Highsmith’s future past Sunday night is that he could miss at least the Week 6 road game against the Las Vegas Raiders as well. Obviously, he could go on to miss the Week 7 game as well. At the very least, it would not be surprising to see Highsmith ultimately sidelined until at least Week 8. With Highsmith sidelined, second-year OLB Nick Herbig is expected to start once again in his place. A positional versatile DeMarvin Leal is also expected to see playing time again at outside linebacker on Sunday night against the Cowboys. The team also activated OLB Jeremiah Moon from the Reserve/Injured list on Saturday and now he is expected to dress Sunday night as well.
QB Russell Wilson – So far through four regular season games played, Wilson has been the emergency third quarterback for all of them as he has been working for over a month to overcome a calf injury. While Wilson was reportedly able to do a little more in practice this past week than he had in previous weeks, he was still only listed as a limited participant on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wilson was ultimately listed as questionable on the team’s injury report on Friday and that is something that we have become accustomed to seeing since the regular season got underway.
With Wilson once again likely to be listed on the Steelers Sunday night inactive list as the emergency third quarterback, expect QB Kyle Allen to again serve as the backup to starting QB Justin Fields against the Cowboys.
G Max Scharping – The Steelers are expected to have starting left guard Isaac Seumalo back on Sunday night as he appears to be recovered from the pectoral injury that sidelined him for the first four games of the regular season. If that’s ultimately the case, the Steelers are likely to dress just eight of their nine offensive linemen on the active 53-man roster. With Scharping being the newest offensive lineman, it would make a lot of sense for him to be the extra one to sit Sunday night against the Cowboys.
Last Sunday, the Steelers dressed new T Calvin Anderson. Even so, he did not see any playing time against the Colts and not even on special teams. So, if Scharping does somehow wind up being active on Sunday night, I would look for Anderson to be the extra offensive lineman that sits. It should be one of those two, but I think it will ultimately be Scharping that is inactive. He was signed off the practice squad of the Washington Commanders this past week.
WR Roman Wilson – In addition to Ward being elevated from the practice squad on Saturday, WR Brandon Johnson was as well. With him being a Saturday elevation, there’s a strong chance he dresses and plays Sunday night against the Cowboys and possibly mainly to help out on special teams. Should Johnson indeed wind up being active on Sunday night, look for rookie WR Roman Wilson to be inactive once again as a healthy scratch as he was not on the injury report again this past week.
Roman Wilson still has yet to make his NFL debut. This past week, video footage from one of the practice sessions showed that Wilson still might be struggling some when it comes to breaking down at the top of his routes. Remember, he’s coming off an ankle injury that happened right at the start of training camp. That ankle injury resulted in Roman Wilison missing all of the preseason as well. With Roman Wilson still attempting to catch the proverbial moving train, and with him not being a known special teams asset, it would make sense that he winds up being on the Week inactive list for a fifth consecutive time Sunday night.
