The Pittsburgh Steelers play the Cincinnati Bengals on the road on Thursday night, and if you’re like me, you’re counting down the hours until the 8:15 PM/EST contest begins. As usual, I will project the Steelers’ inactives for every game of the 2025 season, and below is my best guess as to which players won’t be given helmets against the Bengals at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.
Game inactives are announced 90 minutes before kickoff, so check back then to see the players for both teams who will be sitting the game out. Roster rules make this exercise even harder as teams can elevate up to two players from their practice squad to their active roster for gamedays. Also, teams can dress up to 48 players for games if eight are offensive linemen. The emergency quarterback rule remains in place for the 2025 season.
WR Calvin Austin III – Thursday night will mark the second game Austin has missed this season. He was officially ruled out for the Week 7 road contest against the Bengals on the team’s Wednesday injury report. Austin, who sustained a shoulder injury during the team’s Week 4 game in Dublin, Ireland, failed to practice again this past week, which wasn’t all that surprising. Thursday night will mark just the second game that Austin has missed since his 2022 rookie season. The early word is that Austin should be able to return for the Steelers’ Week 8 home night game, which is a week from Sunday.
With Austin sidelined again this week, WR Ke’Shawn Williams, who was signed to the team’s 53-man roster off the practice squad last Saturday, will likely return punts for the Steelers on Thursday night against the Bengals. Williams could return some kickoffs against the Bengals as well.
G/T Andrus Peat – Peat has not yet been active for a game this season, and that is expected to carry over to the team’s Week 7 Thursday night road game against the Bengals. Peat continues to serve as a depth piece along the offensive line, and he can play tackle and guard. Peat did play some during the preseason but has yet to take a regular-season snap for the team.
For the first five regular-season games, the Steelers have dressed OT Calvin Anderson over Peat, and we should probably expect to see a repeat of that on Thursday night in Cincinnati. The Steelers should dress eight offensive linemen for Week 7. That list should once again include Broderick Jones, Troy Fautanu, Isaac Seumalo, Mason McCormick, Zach Frazier, Spencer Anderson, Ryan McCollum, and Calvin Anderson.
OLB DeMarvin Leal – As expected, Leal was a healthy scratch for the team’s Week 6 home game. This was mainly due to the team getting OLB Alex Highsmith back from his ankle injury for that contest. With the Steelers now fully healthy at the outside linebacker position, Leal is likely to be inactive for the Thursday night game against the Bengals. Leal has dressed and played in two Steelers games this season after being signed off their practice squad ahead of the team’s Week 3 contest.
The Steelers only need four outside linebackers (Highsmith, T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig, and rookie Jack Sawyer) on Thursday night against the Bengals. With Leal being fifth in that position group on the depth chart, it would make sense for him to be a healthy scratch once again on Thursday night and thus one of the team’s five inactive players in Week 7.
DL Logan Lee – After being inactive for the team’s first four regular-season games, DL Esezi Otomewo was active and played in the Steelers’ Week 6 home game last Sunday. That decision was a bit of a surprise, as that made second-year DL Logan Lee a healthy scratch for that contest. Lee had been active for the team’s first four regular-season games before his inactive status last Sunday.
Will the Steelers once again decide to sit Lee in favor of Otomewo on Thursday night? It’s hard to say for sure, especially because Otomewo didn’t really impress in his first regular-season game as a member of the Steelers. Even so, Lee never stuck out in his limited defensive snaps played in the first four regular-season games. Rest assured, one of Otomewo or Lee is likely to be inactive Thursday night. It’s a bit of a coin flip guess overall, so with that noted, I will pick Lee to again show up on the inactive list Thursday night.
