Steelers Now
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The Pittsburgh Steelers listed six players as inactives for Sunday night’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers — wide receiver Scotty Miller (broken finger), safety Jabrill Peppers (quad), left guard Isaac Seumalo (pectoral), inebacker Cole Holcomb (illness), defensive tackle Brodric Martin-Rhodes (healthy scratch) and defensive lineman Logan Lee (healthy scratch).
Miller, Peppers, Seumalo and Holcomb were ruled out on Friday.
Tight end Connor Heyward (knee), tight end Darnell Washington (foot) and outside linebacker Alex Highsmith (ankle) will all play after missing practice time this week. Safety Chuck Clark (illness) will return after missing last week’s game.
Seumalo has been dealing with a pectoral injury that kept him from finishing each of the team’s last two games. He did not practice at all this week.
Seumalo first suffered the injury in Week 9 against the Green Bay Packers. He returned to that game once before being eventually ruled out. Last week, he practiced only on Friday and in a limited fashion, but was able to start the game against the Indianapolis Colts. He played the first half before being ruled out for the rest of the game in the second half.
Each time Seumalo has missed time this season, he’s been replaced by third-year backup Spencer Anderson, who is in line to make his first career start. Anderson has played 108 snaps of offense this season, both playing as Seumalo’s backup and as a tight end in the team’s jumbo offensive package. It’s not clear if or how the Steelers will be able to utilize that package with Anderson starting at left guard.
It will be the first time this season the Steelers started anyone other than their five first-team offensive linemen.
Holcomb will not suit up for the second straight week while dealing with an undisclosed illness.
Holcomb first missed practice on Thursday, Oct. 30, while dealing with the illness, one that apparently also impacted Steelers safety Chuck Clark. Both Holcomb and Clark were ruled out of the team’s Week 10 game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Malik Harrison will once again replace Holcomb as the team’s No. 3 inside linebacker behind Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson, with rookie Carson Bruener providing additional depth.
Peppers will miss his second straight game with a quad injury.
The quad issue first cropped up for Peppers in the middle of last week, with Tomlin describing it as only a soft-tissue injury. Tomlin said on Tuesday that it was possible that Peppers would return this week, but some light stretching before practice on Friday was all the work he managed to get in.
It will be the third straight game that Miller has missed with a broken pinky on his left hand, which Miller suffered in practice in Week 8.
Miller had been wearing a larger brace that connected two fingers on his left hand, but appeared at practice on Thursday wearing just a splint on his left pinky finger. Miller was obviously very limited in practice, not wearing a helmet and...
