The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday afternoon at home, the team’s tenth 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 against the Ravens.
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. 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 can also 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.
OLB Alex Highsmith – The Steelers will unfortunately be without Highsmith on Sunday afternoon against the Ravens as the starting outside linebacker will miss the Week 11 contest due to an ankle injury sustained during the team’s Week 10 game. Highsmith failed to practice this past week and that wasn’t surprising as HC Mike Tomlin ruled him out for Sunday’s game against the Ravens during his Tuesday press conference.
This will mark the fourth game this season that Highsmith has missed this season. He missed three games during the first half of the regular season with a groin injury. Reports this past week indicated that Highsmith sustained a low ankle injury that could result in him missing two to three games in total. The Steelers are expected to have OLB Nick Herbig back on Sunday from his hamstring injury so he and new OLB Preston Smith will likely absorb Highsmith’s snaps on defense. OLB Jeremiah Moon is also expected to be active again on Sunday against the Ravens as a depth and special teams player.
TE MyCole Pruitt – A knee injury is likely to have Pruitt sidelined on Sunday against the Ravens. Pruitt failed to practice any this past week, and he was ultimately listed as doubtful on the team’s Week 11 Friday injury report. He was not upgraded or downgraded by the team on Saturday.
Pruitt missed four consecutive games during the first half of the regular season with a knee injury so Sunday will mark his fifth game missed this season.
QB Kyle Allen – Against the Ravens on Sunday, Allen is once again expected to be the team’s third emergency quarterback. Allen resumed that role in Week 10. In Week 8, Allen was the active backup behind starting QB Russell Wilson as QB Justin Fields was designated the team’s emergency third quarterback for that game due to a minor hamstring injury. Allen did not play any snaps in that Week 8 game as he was not needed.
Prior to Wilson overcoming his early-season calf injury, Allen was active for games as the backup to Fields. Allen will be in uniform on Sunday against the Ravens, but he’ll only be allowed to enter the game if both Wilson and Fields are injured and unable to resume playing.
G Max Scharping – The Steelers will likely have one of their nine offensive linemen on their 53-man roster on the inactive list once again. With all nine offensive linemen on the 53-man roster currently healthy, Scharping is once again a prime candidate to be that inactive offensive lineman.
While Scharping was active for the two games prior to the Week 10 game, he did not see any playing time on offense. He also only logged just one special teams snap in those two games he was active for. If Scharping is indeed inactive on Sunday, it will mark the fourth game this season he’s been on the list. The Steelers originally signed Scharping off the practice squad of the Washington Commanders on October 1.
WR Scotty Miller – The Steelers traded for WR Mike Williams a few weeks ago and he made his Pittsburgh debut last Sunday in the team’s Week 10 road game. The Steelers dressed five wide receivers for that Week 10 contest with recently activated WR Ben Skowronek being one of them. That all resulted in Miller being inactive for the Week 10 game, the first time he’s been on the list this season. While Miller has dressed and played in eight games so far this season, he’s only logged 123 total offensive snaps and just eight more on special teams.
A twist to this last inactive revolves around RB Jaylen Warren, who was listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Ravens with a back injury. Warren showed up on the injury report on Thursday after failing to practice that afternoon. He was, however, able to practice on a limited basis on Friday. The Steelers did sign RB Jonathan Ward to the 53-man roster from the practice squad on Saturday and that could be a sign that Warren might not be able to play on Sunday against the Ravens.
Warren might ultimately be a game-time decision on Sunday. If unable to play, he would be the fifth and final inactive instead of Miller. I’ll guess that Warren will give it a go, however, and he and Ward both end up dressing. Should Warren miss Sunday’s game, it will mark the third game that he has missed this season due to an injury. He missed two games during the first half of the regular season with a knee injury.
