The Pittsburgh Steelers are now less than 90 minutes away from their kickoff to the 2024 NFL season. Traveling to Atlanta to face the Falcons, this is the ninth time in the last ten seasons the Steelers will be opening on the road. But don’t look the crowd to be against the Black & Gold as Steelers’ Nation will be well represented at Mercedes Benz Stadium.

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 elevating one player on Saturday but also placed another on the Reserve/Injured List, so their inactive list is the standard five players. As for the Falcons, they have six players due to their practice squad elevations.

Keep in mind that last season implemented a modified return of the “third quarterback rule.” Every NFL team who has a third quarterback on their 53-man roster may include him on their inactive list, but he can be 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 the Week 1 against the Falcons according to Steelers.com.

Steelers Inactives
No. 3 QB Russell Wilson (3rd QB)
No. 10 WR Roman Wilson
No. 34 S Jalen Elliott
No. 73 G Isaac Seumalo
No. 94 DT Dean Lowry

Two players who had already been ruled out for the Steelers coming into the game were wide receiver Roman Wilson and guard Isaac Seumalo. While Seumalo was ruled out earlier in the week, Roman Wilson practiced all three days in a limited fashion before being ruled out with his ankle injury.

The big news Steelers fans were looking for was the status of quarterback Russell Wilson. Popping up on the injury report on Thursday with a calf injury that kept him limited throughout training camp, Wilson will not be getting the start as he is the emergency quarterback on the inactive list and can only enter the game if both other quarterbacks are out due to injury.

Just before the inactive list was released, Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reported that Justin Fields will be starting for the Steelers:

Now official: Justin Fields starts for the #Steelers today, team says.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) September 8, 2024

The other two players inactive for the Steelers who are healthy scratches are defensive tackle Dean Lowry and safety Jalen Elliott. For both players, it was merely a numbers game with how many they already had at the position and being the bottom of the depth chart. While it was not clear if it would possibly be Isaiahh Loudermilk or Lowry, the Steelers went with the player who was available all though training camp and the preseason as Lowry began training camp on PUP and missed the first preseason game.

As for the Falcons inactive list, they can be seen below.

Falcons Inactives

No. 30 RB Jase McClellan
No. 33 CB Antonio Hamilton
No. 54 DE Brandon Dorlus
No. 56 G Jovanughn Gwyn
No. 82 WR Casey Washington
No. 98 DE Ruke Orhorhoro