The Steelers return from their perfectly timed bye week, completely healthy. All starters on both offense and defense are not even listed on the injury report. Sean Gilbert, Stephon Tuitt, and Vance McDonald return from the bye week ready to start.
Martavus Bryant, appears to be out of the doghouse and ready to start as well. It will be interesting to see how the coaches distribute his snaps with JuJu Smith-Schuster in running situations using 1 or 2 WRs on the field. The game has proven not to be too big for the young, polished JuJu, and Bryant must work hard to avoid losing more snaps to him.
Mike Mitchell was the only player injured week 8 that didn’t practice fully the entire week. Mike returned to practice on Friday and practiced fully. The coaches liked what they saw so much, that he was removed from the injury report. The only person listed on the injury report this week was James Harrison, who has been ruled out with a back injury. He appears to still be able to lift weights, so hopefully he will be active again soon.
There is a wild card that can happen this week. Cameron Sutton was activated on Halloween from IR and is practicing with the team. He currently does not count against the roster as an active player, and will not until the team activates him for a game. The Steelers have until 11/21 to roster Cameron. If they don’t, he will be placed on IR and will be ineligible to return for the rest of the season. There is a chance Cameron can be activated this week. If he is, I don’t think it will affect the inactive list. Instead, I believe the Steelers will choose to cut Coty Sensabaugh.
I update the Injury/Suspension/Inactive/Fine spreadsheet daily. Bookmark it to track the status for the Steelers each week. Click HERE
There will be 7 inactive players for the game this week. I believe they will be:
1. Josh Dobbs: Healthy Scratch/ 3rd QB
2. James Harrison: Harrison did not practice all week, and has been ruled out.
3. Dan McCullers: With Tuitt returning, this will move Big Dan back to the sideline.
4. Jerald Hawkins: Has yet to be active for a single game in his 2 year career. He should be inactive again this week. The line is too healthy and there is no spot for him.
5. Justin Hunter Justin had a great catch on a third down to keep the chains moving, but with Martavis returning, and Eli Rogers getting open, he will probably sit on Sunday. Eli just has to make sure to catch his opportunities this week.
6. Brian Allen since Mike Mitchell is playing, a DB has to sit, and that DB is usually Brian.
7. Xavier Grimble Vance McDonald is returning, Jesse James is healthy, and Chris Hubbard will now return to his extra lineman/ blocking role. This leaves the X Man without a place to play, and he should be inactive.
Week 8 I went 7 for 7. Bringing my yearly total to 49/56.
