The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon at home, the team’s thirteenth 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 Browns.
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.
QB Kyle Allen – Against the Browns on Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh, Allen is once again expected to be the team’s inactive third emergency quarterback. Allen resumed that role in the quarterback pecking order 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, however, 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 several games as the backup to Fields. While he will be on the inactive list on Sunday, Allen will be in uniform against the Browns, but he’ll only be allowed to enter the game if both Wilson and Fields are injured and unable to resume playing. Barring injuries to Wilson or Fields, look for Allen to remain in the emergency quarterback role moving forward.
G Max Scharping – In Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon against the Browns, 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 team’s 53-man roster still currently healthy, Scharping is once again a prime candidate to be that lone inactive from that position group for this Sunday’s contest against the Browns.
While Scharping was active for the two games prior to the team’s 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 Sunday afternoon, and it will be a huge shock if he’s not, it will mark the seventh game this season he’s been on the list. The Steelers originally signed Scharping off the Washington Commanders’ practice squad on October 1.
WR Scotty Miller – The Steelers usually choose to dress just five wide receivers for games as they have only dressed more than that just once this season. Ever since the Steelers traded for WR Mike Williams several weeks ago, Miller has only dressed and played in one game and that was mainly due to TE MyCole Pruitt missing that contest with a knee injury. It’s a good bet that Miller will again be an inactive player on the team’s list Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh against the Browns.
The five wide receivers expected to dress and play Sunday afternoon against Cleveland are George Pickens, Calvin Austin III, Van Jefferson, Ben Skowronek, and Williams.
OLB Preston Smith – The Steelers are expected to get OLB Alex Highsmith back from his ankle injury on Sunday. Highsmith missed the last three games with that injury and Smith obviously dressed and played in those three contests. Sunday will mark the first game since earlier in the season that the Steelers have had outside linebackers Highsmith, T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig all healthy. Because of that, there’s a good chance that Smith will be a healthy inactive scratch on Sunday.
While the Steelers could choose to dress Smith over OLB Jeremiah Moon, that seems a little unlikely as the latter logs a lot of playing time on special teams. Smith is not a special teams asset at his age so that’s another thing working against him when it comes to him possibly getting a helmet against the Browns. It certainly seems like one of Smith or Moon is likely to be inactive and my guess is that it will be the veteran newcomer.
CB Cory Trice Jr. – The Steelers activated Trice from the Reserve/Injured list this past week and that move was expected. Even so, it’s hard to guarantee that Trice will be active on Sunday as one of the team’s defensive backs on the 53-man roster is likely to be on the list of five players. Trice has been sidelined since Week 3 and thus the Steelers might want to ease him back into action. On top of that, Trice doesn’t have much experience as a punt coverage gunner, something that fellow CB James Pierre does have.
Assuming one defensive back is inactive on Sunday against the Browns, that player is likely to be either Trice or Pierre. Another outside option in lieu of Trice or Pierre might be WR Mike Williams as he really is not a special teams asset either. Williams, however, has dressed and played in every game he’s been on the roster for since being acquired via a trade. I’m not going to guarantee that Trice will be inactive on Sunday, but please don’t be surprised if he’s on the list just the same.
