The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Washington Commanders on Sunday afternoon on the road, the team’s ninth 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 Commanders.
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 Nick Herbig – The Steelers will once again be without Herbig on Sunday afternoon against the Commanders as the team’s second-year outside linebacker will miss the Week 10 contest due to a hamstring injury sustained during the team’s Week 5 game. After practicing on a limited basis on Wednesday and Thursday of this past week, Herbig failed to practice on Friday. That led to him being officially ruled out for Sunday on the team’s Friday  injury report.
This will mark the fourth game this season that Herbig has missed. Hopefully Herbig will be able to return to action in Week 11. The Steelers did acquire veteran OLB Preston Smith via a trade this past week and he should be active for Sunday’s game against the Commanders as a backup to starters T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. The team also still has backup OLB Jeremiah Moon on the 53-man roster as well and like Smith, he is expected to be active against the Commanders on Sunday as well.
QB Kyle Allen – Against the Commanders on Sunday, Allen is expected to resume his role as the team’s third emergency quarterback. 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 Commanders, 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 are expected to get rookie C Zach Frazier back from his ankle injury on Sunday. With Frazier back in action, the Steelers will likely have one of their nine offensive linemen on their 53-man roster on the inactive list. Scharping is a prime candidate to be that inactive offensive lineman as he was on the weekly list prior to Frazier going down injured.
While Scharping was active for the last two games, he did not see any playing time on offense. He also logged just one special teams snap in the last two games. If Scharping is indeed inactive on Sunday, it will mark the third game this season he’s been on the list. The Steelers originally signed Scharping off the practice squad of the Commanders on October 1.
CB C.J. Henderson – The Steelers signed Henderson off the team’s practice squad ahead of their Week 8 game and then proceeded to make him a healthy inactive scratch for that contest. That decision to make Henderson inactive last game came on the heels of the cornerback saying earlier that week that he thought he would dress and play in that contest.
For Sunday’s game against the Commanders, all signs point towards Henderson being a heathy inactive scratch again and especially with DB Cameron Sutton now back on the 53-man roster following his eight-game suspension being served. Henderson’s not a huge special teams asset to boot and that’s yet another thing that works against his chances of getting a helmet on Sunday against the Commanders.
WR Scotty Miller – The Steelers traded for WR Mike Williams this past week and he should make his debut on Sunday against the Commanders. Additionally, the Steelers activated WR Ben Skowronek off the Reserve/Injured list as a designated to return player on Saturday and he’s also expected to dress and play on Sunday against Washington. Skowronek is a fine special teams player. While Miller has dressed and played in all eight games so far this season, he’s only logged 123 total offensive snaps and just eight more on special teams.
The Steelers should also have RB/KR Cordarrelle Patterson back from his ankle injury on Sunday and if needed, he could function as a wide receiver should injuries strike the position group hard against Washington. Quite honestly, there aren’t too many candidates to be the fifth and final inactive player on Sunday and Miller is an obvious choice when it comes to that short list.
