The Pittsburgh Steelers are now less than 90 minutes away from kickoff on Thursday night in Week 9 of the 2023 NFL season. Coming into a short week, the Steelers are looking to get back on the winning track against the Tennessee Titans ahead of their first “mini bye” of the season.

As is always the case, 90 minutes before kickoff is when teams must announce their inactive list for the upcoming game. With 48 players active for each team, the number of players on the inactive list depends on if a team makes any practice squad elevations. With the Steelers not elevating any practice squad players earlier, they also are back to 53 players on their roster and therefore have five inactives. The Titans have six players on their inactive list.

New to the 2023 season is a modified return of the “third quarterback rule.” Every NFL team who has a third quarterback on their 53-man roster will include him on their inactive list, but he is designated as a third quarterback and is therefore in uniform in case of injury to the two players ahead of him on the depth chart. But if one of the players is deemed healthy enough to return, the third quarterback goes back to their role on the sideline.

Here are the five players inactive for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their Week 9 matchup against the Titans according to Steelers.com.

Steelers Inactives

No. 2 QB Mason Rudolph (3rd QB)
No. 39 S Minkah Fitzpatrick
No. 60 T Dylan Cook
No. 94 NT Armon Watts
No. 96 NT Breiden Fehoko

Mason Rudolph is on the list now for the eighth time as the Steelers third quarterback and will be in uniform which is technically an upgrade from last season. Joining Rudolph as a regular on the inactive list is tackle Dylan Cook who was a healthy scratch for all but two games this season when the Steelers were dealing with injuries along the offensive line. Also, defensive tackle Breiden Fehoko is inactive again as the Steelers have their full complement of defensive linemen including the return of Cam Heyward.

Seeing Minkah Fitzpatrick on the inactive list is as expected because he was ruled out early in the week. The good news with Fitzpatrick is he was not placed on the Reserve/Injured List prior to the game which means his return should be sooner than four games.

The fifth player inactive for the Steelers all came down to the only player who was questionable. After missing last week with a foot injury, it was tough to gauge if Levi Wallace would be able to return on a short week. Able to return, Levi Wallace is active, but so is cornerback Darius Rush. The surprise inactive is the Steelers having another defensive tackle in Armon Watts who has been active since Cam Heyward went down.

As for the Titans inactive list, it can be seen below. As expected, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is active.

Titans Inactives

OL Chris Hubbard
QB Ryan Tannehill
CB Roger McCreary
WR Colton Dowell
LB Caleb Murphy
DL Jaleel Johnson