By G.Stryker:
The bye week has been a boon to the health of the Pittsburgh Steelers. All 3 players that were injured before the bye week, now are full participants in practice for at least Thursday and Friday. Expect Darrius Heyward-Bey, Morgan Burnett, and LJ Fort to be active and ready to go this week.
A few surprise additions to the inactive list showed up this week. Xavier Grimble started the week limited on Wednesday with a concussion, then he practiced fully Thursday and Friday, so expect him to be rotating in on the TE heavy sets.
Marcus Gilbert was the biggest surprise, showing up with a knee injury, and didn’t practice all week long. He has been ruled out so he will not play this week.
I track and try to predict timelines for Steeler players returning to the field. This is a link to our current spreadsheet. It will update on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday after the practice reports are issued, as well as Post-Game and Tuesday after Coach Tomlin's press conferences. Bookmark it to see how the health of the Steelers are shaping up each week.
I believe the inactive players will be:
- Mason Rudolph: Healthy Scratch/ 3rd QB
- Marcus Gilbert: Officially ruled out, so he will not play
- Justin Hunter: DHB is back, so I expect Hunter to be inactive.
- Marcus Allen: Morgan Burnett has returned so this safety should still be sitting
- LT Walton: DL is healthy, so he is sitting
- Zach Banner: The offensive line is going with Matt Feiler starting at RT for Gilbert, BJ Finney is the top interior backup, and Chukwuma Okorafor will be the extra tackle, and backup swing tackle.
- Brian Allen: We have Burnett returning, and since Coty Sensabaugh is taking snaps on D and special Teams, Brian Allen will most likely sit.
After getting 7/7 correct last game, my predictions are 37/42 on the year.
