Kansas City Chiefs Inactives: Week 16 At Pittsburgh Steelers

As Andy Reid promised, Dwayne Bowe and Tamba Hali are active for the Chiefs’ first pseudo playoff game of the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bowe missed all of this week due to an illness while Hali missed two days of practice and was limited in another due to a knee injury that he’s been dealing with most of the season. Both were listed as questionable in the final injury report but Reid said he expected both plays to be active today. His expectations proved correct.

Marcus Cooper is inactive today for the first time all season. Cooper was originally supposed to be one of the Chiefs’ starting cornerbacks until he lost his job early in the season. He hasn’t seen much of the field on defense since losing the starting gig.

Donnie Avery and Charcandrick West are also inactive.

The rest of the Chiefs’ inactives are of the usual variety. Aaron Murray, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Nick Williams, and Eric Kush.

As for the opponent, the Steelers made it official with defensive backs Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor and declared them out for today’s game. Both were listed as doubtful heading into the weekend, but reports suggested neither would likely play today. It would appear nothing changed since those reports came out.

Pittsburgh already has one of the worst secondaries in the NFL so losing two of their most proven players should even up the match. Kansas City has well documented wide receiver problems so there is no guarantee the Chiefs will be able to take advantage of Pittsburgh’s weakness. Still, one would think the odds improve when the two best players in the league’s worst secondary unit are unable to play.

In theory, of course.

The rest of the Steelers’ inactives for today: Landry Jones, Justin Brown, Clifton Geathers, Chris Hubbard, and Matt Spaeth.