Joe Haden and Devin Bush inactive for Steelers in Week 2 against Raiders

The Pittsburgh Steelers pulled out their idles for their home opener against the Las Vegas Raiders. With Carlos Davis already ruled out due to injury, three players were also listed as questionable for the game. With two of these inactive players, Joe Haden and Devin Bush, the list is made up of only two healthy scratches. With the new roster rules that started in 2020, teams will only need five inactive players in each game, unless they are raising players from the practice squad. With no elevation coming from the Steelers on Saturday, the five-man roster is courtesy of Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The most notable item on the inactive roster is that cornerback Joe Haden and linebacker Devin Bush are both inactive after being questionable for the game with groin injuries. Neither player showed up on the Steelers injury report until Friday, and many Steelers fans were hoping both players would be available. Seeing them both on the sidelines will test the depth of the Steelers’ stifling defense they had in Week 1. Although no official announcement has been made as to who will be the substitutes to start for these. two players, the likely candidates are Robert Spillane at linebacker and James Pierre at cornerback.

Tight end Zach Gentry is active even though he was questionable with an ankle. That the Steelers didn’t raise Kevin Rader from the practice squad on Saturday was a good indication that Gentry was going to be available.

As expected, the Pittsburgh Steelers only dress two quarterbacks on game day. With Dwayne Haskins still the third man on the Depths board, he’s back on the inactive list again, as you would expect every week, barring unfortunate circumstances.

With nine offensive linemen, 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 is again guard Rashaad Coward.

The last member of the inactive list was already known on Friday because Carlos Davis was excluded due to a knee injury.

With Joe Haden inactive, cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon will get a helmet for the first time after the Steelers traded him on September 3. With Haden training in the pre-game warm-ups to see if he could go, it will be interesting to see if Witherspoon is used as he may not have been part of the original game plan.

As for the inactive Raiders, they can be seen below courtesy of Paul Gutierrez of ESPN. The Raiders already had five players excluded for Friday’s game and promoted two players from the practice squad on Saturday. That is why their inactive have seven names.