Kendrick Green inactive for the Steelers in Week 1

The Pittsburgh Steelers have released their inactives for their opening game against the Cincinnati Bengals. With no players ruled out due to injury, the list is made up of five healthy scratches. With new roster rules which began in 2020, teams will only need to have five players inactive each game unless they elevate any players from the practice squad. With no elevations coming from the Steelers on Saturday, the five-man list comes courtesy of Steelers.com.

Steelers Inactives

No. 2 QB Mason Rudolph
No. 53 C Kendrick Green
No. 82 WR Steven Sims
No. 92 DE Isaiahh Loudermilk
No. 93 LB Mark Robinson

As expected, especially after head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed it on Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Steelers only dress two quarterbacks on game day. With Mason Rudolph being the third man on the depth chart, he found himself on the inactive list.

Carrying nine offensive linemen, the NFL rules allow 48 players to be active as long as eight of them are on the offensive line. Therefore, the additional lineman who is inactive for the Steelers in Week 1 is guard/center Kendrick Green. Losing out to Kevin Dotson in the battle for the starting left guard position, the second-year player who started 15 games at center last season did not earn a helmet for Week 1. Instead, the reserve linemen are J.C. Hassenauer, Jesse Davis, and Trent Scott.

Because the Steelers have six wide receivers all healthy and available, it was too much of a luxury to have them all active on game day. Although he showed enough in the preseason to earn a spot on the 53-man roster, Steven Sims is not on the active roster this week.

One position group the Steelers have kept on their 53-man roster is having seven defensive linemen. With the Steelers only typically having five defensive linemen active on game day, they have chosen to go with the six for Week 1. For this reason, Isaiahh Loudermilk did not get a helmet the first week of the season. Rookie DeMarvin Leal is active for his first NFL game and gets the nod over Loudermilk as both players were listed at second on the depth chart at defensive tackle.

Another position on the defense where the Steelers possibly have one more player than needed on game day is at inside linebacker. Going with Marcus Allen for this week, rookie Mark Robinson is inactive against Cincinnati.

As for the Bengals inactives, they can be seen below courtesy of Steelers.com.

Bengals Inactives

No. 32 RB Trayveon Williams
No. 70 OL D’Ante Smith
No. 74 OL Max Scharping
No. 86 TE Devin Asiasi
No. 97 DT Jay Tufele