Take a good look at Ben Roethlisberger and the rest of the starters Saturday afternoon against the Titans. The next time you see them in a football game will likely be in Cleveland Sept. 9 for the season opener.
Like many teams now do, the Steelers are cautious with many of their front-line players in the preseason. And the game against the Titans -- the Steelers' third of this preseason -- will mark the team's dress rehearsal before the opener.
And that's fine with many of those players.
"I'm just anxious to get this preseason over," All-Pro guard David DeCastro told me this week. "Preseason is kind of long and tiring and seems pointless. But you’ve got to do it. It will be good to get a rhythm going, get in and out."
What DeCastro didn't say and didn't need to say was to get out without any injuries.
He knows all about that. He suffered a knee injury in the preseason of his rookie year in 2012, missing half of the season. Center Maurkice Pouncey was lost for the entire season in 2015 because of a broken ankle suffered in a preseason game.
It's a line head coaches have to walk in the preseason -- weighing getting a team ready to go against guarding against injury.
Now in his 15th NFL season, Roethlisberger doesn't need as much playing time as most. Though there is a new coordinator on the offensive side of things in Randy Fichtner, the terminology and plays have remained the same.
This will be a chance for the Steelers' quarterback to hop into the preseason pool, get his feet wet and get back out, ideally with a couple of scoring drives under his belt.
But he'll be working without Antonio Brown, who won't play in this game. The Steelers are being cautious with him as he recovers from a quad injury, even though he has practiced sporadically the past two weeks. And, of course, Le'Veon Bell remains out of training camp, waiting to sign his franchise tag tender.
Can Roethlisberger and the remainder of the offense put points on the board before he gets out of there?
"That would be ideal," Roethlisberger said. "Usually, the amount of plays is determined by how we do series-wise. Are we going three-and-out? Are we sustaining drives? Things like that. This is the first time we will all be on the field at the same time, so it would be nice to put together a couple of drives, find a way to finish them off and stay healthy."
THE ESSENTIALS
• When: 4:02 p.m.
• Where: Heinz Field
• TV: KDKA, NFL Network
• Radio: 102.5 WDVE, ESPN Pittsburgh, Steelers Nation Radio
• Satellite: SiriusXM 227, 826 (Internet)
• Forecast: 74, mostly cloudy
• Will call open: 1 p.m.
• Gates open: 2 p.m.
• Boxscore: NFL Game Center
INJURIES
Steelers: Won't Play-WR Antonio Brown, LB T.J. Watt, S Morgan Burnett, TE Vance McDonald
Titans: Won't Play-CB Malcolm Butler, TE Delanie Walker
TUCKER'S SPECIAL
In each of the past two years, Marcus Tucker has gotten a call to meet with Mike Tomlin on the Saturday before the team's regular season opener.
The message has been the same. We like you. We want to keep you around. But we're not going to keep you on the 53-man roster.
An undrafted free agent out of tiny Northern Michigan, Tucker has wound up on the team's practice squad on each of those occasions after being released. But he's a hard worker. And perhaps more importantly, he pays attention.
A wide receiver by trade, Tucker has seen how a prominent role on special teams could be his way onto the 53-man roster. So he's dedicated himself to getting better in that phase of the game.
That hard work is paying off. Tucker leads the Steelers with three special teams tackles in their first two preseason games and hopes that will be enough this time around to avoid getting a call to Tomlin's office in another week.
"I’m not, by any means, a monster on special teams," Tucker told me. "I feel like I’m fairly young in the teams, the things that they want me to do here. That’s only because I didn’t do any of this in college. I didn’t do any of that in high school. The last time I tackled a guy, I was like 16 years old. I’m just trying to learn as much as I can. I’m learning from one of the best, in my eyes, gunners and special teams players in the NFL, Darrius Heyward-Bey. I’m just trying to get up under his wing as much as I can and contribute and make plays when I can. Right now, I feel like I’m making plays simply off will and desire. I just want get down there and make plays."
Will and desire will go a long way toward making plays on special teams. And good special teams play can go a long way toward earning a spot on a 53-man roster.
If Tucker, didn't know that before, he certainly does now. It's something that has been stressed to him by special teams coordinator Danny Smith.
"Yeah," Tucker said. "And I don’t really have the best technique right now, but with reps and practice and continuously learning with film and Coach Danny, I feel like I can become more into that role and help the team out wherever they need me."
Many skill position players never learn that. They come into the NFL as guys who were college stars and quickly fade out because they haven't earned a starting spot and can't help out in any other way.
It's one of the things the Steelers coaching staff loves to point out about Heyward-Bey. The seventh-overall pick in the 2009 draft by the Oakland Raiders, he has carved out a role for himself as a special teams player long after many of the other players in his draft class have faded from the league.
Even though Tucker had 79 receptions for 843 yards and nine touchdowns in his final college season and 2,330 career yards, he doesn't have any kind of ego to check at the door.
Tucker is just happy to still have an opportunity to fight for a job for the third consecutive season.
"I’m not a prideful dude to begin with. I came from a small D-2 school," he said. "The odds have always been against me being here. It’s not like I’m a first-rounder where I’m so big-headed. I’m just doing whatever they need me to do so I can be a part of this team. I want to be here and I want to win. I feel we have the talent to do so and I want to be a part of that. I’m doing everything I can and I’m excited. I feel like Coach Danny believes in me in the special teams aspect of the game, so I’m just going to take that and run with it as much as I can and help out as much as I can."
Besides, he is smart enough to realize that on a team with so many offensive stars, there's only one ball to go around.
"Absolutely. Everybody wants to catch the ball, but we know what it is here in Pittsburgh," Tucker told me. "Antonio (Brown) is going to get all the balls. JuJu (Smith-Schuster) is going to get a fair share of all the rest. And Le’Veon is going to tote the ball. If you’re not one of those three guys, you need to do something in the teams department where you have value where you can make an impact on the game. That’s just what it is."
WHAT TO WATCH
James Conner: The second-year running back is averaging over nine yards per carry in the preseason and is even being sprinkled in on special teams. Le'Veon Bell is going to earn $14.5 million this season, so he's going to get the bulk of the team's rushing attempts when the regular season starts. But Conner has a background as a defensive player at Pitt, so the transition to playing a more prominent role on special teams should be an easy one.
James Washington: The rookie was the star of the show last week in Green Bay, scoring twice. Does he get any work with Roethlisberger and the first-team offense? Washington's 158 receiving yards -- on seven catches -- is third-most in the preseason, while his four receptions of 20-plus yards are the most.
Roethlisberger's weight: Roethlisberger reported at least 10 pounds lighter this year and is much closer to his listed weight of 240 pounds. It's added up to his body feeling better and him being more active in the pocket. Will it add up to better overall execution? This also will be the quarterback's first chance to work with Fichtner in a game situation. There's not a lot of game planning for a preseason game, but this is the most that they do.
The inside linebackers: Jon Bostic was bumped up on the depth chart next to Vince Williams this week. That duo has started the first two preseason games, so that wasn't much of a surprise. But after not doing much in terms of drawing up a game plan last week at Green Bay and looking iffy against the pass, can this duo do better this week?
The helmet rule: The new NFL helmet rule was called 51 times in 33 preseason games coming into Week 3, including an iffy one of Steelers cornerback Coty Sensabaugh last week in Green Bay. Will there be more? The NFL Competition Committee said this week it isn't going to alter the rule at this time and won't make it reviewable by replay. But it left the door open for that to change.
Jordan Berry: Yes, the punter bears watching, especially after getting off sub-par kicks of 29 and 31 yards last week in Green Bay. Another poor game could have the Steelers scanning the waiver wire for a new one.
The punting team: Keep an eye on the first team punt coverage unit. Coaches don't like to mess with that unit much because they abhor getting a punt blocked. There's a good chance most of the guys who are on the No. 1 punt coverage team are probably making the 53-man roster.