By G.Stryker
This is the healthiest the entire team has been in years! Every player practiced fully at least one day this week. Marcus Gilbert was the only player to miss practice after Wednesday, being unable to return to practice on Thursday or Friday. He will most likely, not be playing on Sunday, and Hubbard will get another week of action as the starting left tackle.
The rest of the team isn’t even listed on the injury report, so this will be a challenge to find 7 inactive players this week.
I continually update the Injury/Suspension/Inactive/Fine spreadsheet. Bookmark it to track the status of the Steelers each week. Click HERE to view.
There will be 7 inactive players for the game this week. I believe they will be:
1. Josh Dobbs: Healthy Scratch/ 3rd QB
2. Marcus Gilbert: Starting the week as a full participant on Wed, then not practicing on Thu and Fri, is pointing to him sitting this week with his Doubtful designation.
3. Brian Allen: The secondary is healthy, and he only had 5 special teams snaps last week. That leaves him as a low priority this week.
4. Dan McCullers: All D Linemen are healthy, so Big Dan is usually sitting when this is the case. Though I will admit, it would be nice to keep him active in goal line situations facing this rushing attack against Jacksonville.
5. Jerald Hawkins: I was surprised that the team made Hawkins inactive last week, since he’s the last healthy tackle, and Hubbard, a backup tackle, is already starting. The team must be confident going with Feiler or Finney in pinch, if the tackles have injuries during the game.
6. James Harrison: As much as I hate to see him on the inactive list, there really isn’t a reason to suit him up until an injury occurs to an outside linebacker this season.
7. Eli Rogers: Eli was taken off punt return duties, and his lack of position flexibility gives a hat to Justin Hunter, who can play any receiver position across the line. JuJu has also shown he has locked down the slot receiver position, so Eli is the odd man out yet again this week.
Last week I missed on selecting Hawkins and Rogers, so I went 5 for 7. Bringing my yearly total to 24/29.
