PHILADELPHIA -- A month from Thursday, the Steelers will line up to face the Bills in Buffalo to open the regular season.
A month might not seem like a lot of time, but considering NFL teams had no preseason and just 14 training camp practices a year ago to prepare for the 2020 season, perhaps some feelings around the league have been adjusted.
Despite the relative lack of preparation -- at least compared to previous seasons -- the Steelers rattled off a team-record 11-straight wins to open the 2020 season. The finish wasn't quite what they would have liked, but there's been little that most teams have liked to deal with over the past year and a half.
They're just adjusting on the fly.
As such, Mike Tomlin seems to be taking a different approach to this season. He played very few first-team players in the team's preseason opener last week in the Hall of Fame game, a 16-3 win over the Cowboys.
He'll sprinkle a few more veterans in Thursday for the team's second preseason game here against the Eagles, but Tomlin is in no real hurry to see the likes of Cam Heyward, Stephon Tuitt, Joe Haden, Ben Roethlisberger and others in game action just yet.
One would think a completely remade offensive line might be the exception to any plans to keep veteran players off the field as long as possible. After all, the only veteran on the line with more than 20 career starts under his belt in right guard Trai Turner, himself new to the Steelers after being signed after the team's June minicamp to replace David DeCastro.
But Tomlin doesn't seem overly concerned with the fact the Steelers haven't had their presumed starting offensive line on the field together in the first three weeks of training camp.
In fact, he seems so unconcerned with that fact, he is making an example of second-year guard Kevin Dotson, the team's presumed starter at left guard coming into this camp.
Dotson missed the first two-plus weeks of camp with an ankle injury. And when he returned last weekend, Dotson didn't move right into the starting lineup. He was placed on the second-team unit behind veteran Rashaad Coward, signed in the offseason as a free agent from the Bears, for whom he appeared in 30 career games, 15 of them starts.
"He’s done nothing to earn first-team reps," Tomlin said of Dotson when asked why he was with the second unit when he returned despite being atop the depth chart at left guard. "What are we talking about? He’s a second-year guy that hadn’t worked.”
Dotson started four games as a rookie, but to Tomlin's point, he hadn't practiced throughout training camp until recently. Tomlin's message to the second-year player is clear. You've got to earn it.
"I still have to prove myself. I’m not a No. 1 proven guy," Dotson said Tuesday. "I think it was just a statement. I haven’t legit done anything. There’s nothing to look at for a body of work. I have not practiced once except yesterday. He wasn’t lying. It just read differently on Twitter. Reading it sounds worse than it is.”
The fact remains Tomlin rarely utters or doesn't utter a word without first thinking about what it will mean and how it will be taken. In this case, message sent and delivered to Dotson, a fourth-round pick in 2020 out of Louisiana who excelled last season despite the lack of preseason games.
Dotson will be on the field with the second-team line in this game, with left tackle Chuks Okorafor and Turner expected to start with the first-team line along with Coward, rookie center Kendrick Green and perhaps right tackle Zach Banner returning, as well. If Banner, who is recovering from a torn ACL, is held out again, veteran Joe Haeg would get the start there.
It will be the first time Dotson has played in a preseason game, since the preseason was canceled last season because of the pandemic.
But he won't treat it like a preseason game.
"Any game I play in, I’m going to treat it like my personal Super Bowl,” Dotson said. “I want to win, and I want to be the reason we do good, the reason we have all the rushing yards. I want to be the reason.”
He had better if he hopes to earn his way back into the starting lineup.
“I feel like I can catch up,” Dotson said. “One thing I didn’t want was to go out and hurt it more. If I was hurt and looked bad, it would hurt my reputation. If I’m hurt and they put me up against (Heyward), it’s going to make me look worse. So I took as much time as I could to get right.”
But the time is now for the offensive line to start taking shape. At least that's the idea for a unit that will have five players starting at all new spots. Only Okorafor and Dotson made more than one start for the Steelers last season, and Okorafor is moving from right tackle to left.
"It’s just a part of the process. That’s expected," Tomlin said when asked how important it is to get that group on the field together to build chemistry.
The other part of the equation appears to be challenging Dotson.
“I think they go year by year,” he said. “It’s a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately type of thing. You can’t go off last year. You have to go off this year.”
THE ESSENTIALS
• Who: Steelers (1-0) vs. Eagles
• What: Preseason Week 1
• When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
• Where: Lincoln Financial Field
• Forecast: 90°, 11 mph wind
• TV: KDKA
• Radio: 102.5 WDVE, ESPN Pittsburgh
• Streaming: Steelers Nation Radio
• Satellite: Sirius XM 321, online 826
• Boxscore: NFL Game Center
• Media notes: Steelers | Eagles
THE KEY VARIABLE
Many veteran players who have been through the preseason are more than happy to sit things out. They know these games really don't matter for them.
But for players trying to earn a spot on the roster, these games are a huge opportunity to show what you can do -- in a very basic operation.
While the Steelers will likely do at least a little game-planning for their third preseason game next week at Heinz Field against the Lions -- a game in which Roethlisberger and others might play -- for many of the younger players, the preseason games are like being taken to the deep end of the pool and getting thrown in.
"I’m really not concerned about what it is they do. This time of year, you focus on yourselves, how you adjust and how you communicate," Tomlin said. "I really kind of like the sight-unseen element of preseason football because it really tests their rules and their ability to play based on rules and less about preparation. It really displays understanding on both sides of the ball, whether we’re adjusting to the schemes and things that they do on offense or whether we’re adjusting trying to block the fronts and schemes that they present on defense.
"I think that’s one of the things that you really enjoy about the unknown element of preseason play. It’s an opportunity for them to display understanding of rules."
Besides, the Eagles have a whole new coaching staff, with Nick Sirianni coming over as a first-year head coach after being offensive coordinator with the Colts a year ago. The Steelers faced both the Eagles and Colts last season, but as Tomlin said, they won't game plan much for this game. They'll judge players on whether they know the playbook and how well they perform under the circumstances of playing in a visiting stadium for the first time.
That will include another starting assignment for rookie running back Najee Harris, who had 22 yards on seven carries against the Cowboys, but also the first opportunity for the team's second-round pick, tight end Pat Freiermuth to play, as well, after sitting out last week's game with a shoulder injury.
Freiermuth likely will work with quarterback Mason Rudolph, who will start the game, and Dwayne Haskins, who will finish the first half. Josh Dobbs is expected to finish the game, as he did last week.
"We always have a hard-core plan and we’re always willing to adjust as we see fit in-game. And that’s not only with that circumstance but that’s with any circumstance," Tomlin said. "I intended for Mason to play two series last week. I wanted to give him another one because we turned the ball over in an exchange and I didn’t like the feeling of that, so he played three series. We always have a plan, we’re always light on our feet based on what transpires in-game, and I just think that’s football."
THE FIVE DATA POINTS
• Safety Miles Killebrew will try to add to his team-high six tackles in the preseason.
• Undrafted rookie cornerback Mark Gilbert, the nephew of former Pitt and NFL star Sean Gilbert, leads the Steelers with two pass defenses.
• The Steelers were 2-3 in the red zone last week against the Cowboys. Dallas was 0-2.
• The Steelers allowed one punt return yard last week against the Cowboys.
• After this game, the Steelers will have played two preseason games. Twenty seven NFL teams will have yet to play a single preseason game.
FIVE I WANT TO SEE
• Anthony McFarland, running back -- McFarland was a bit banged up last week with a quad injury, so his usage was limited against the Cowboys. Expect a bit more work this week.
• Carlos Davis, nose tackle -- Tomlin specifically mentioned Davis by name as having had a good game last week against the Cowboys. And the Steelers have given him some additional snaps this week. In what figures to be a tough cut on the defensive line, he'd better keep showing up.
• Mathew Sexton, wide receiver -- Sexton made a splash last week with a 36-yard punt return. Ray-Ray McCloud is banged up. Sexton could get more of a chance to show he can do the job at the NFL level.
• Shakur Brown, cornerback -- Brown was very active on special teams in the first game, even though he was only credited with one tackle. That's one way to earn yourself more reps. The Steelers' top addition as an undrafted rookie, Brown was on the coaching staff's radar already. But continued strong special teams play is the path to make this roster, let alone making a defensive play or two.
• Jamir Jones, outside linebacker -- Jones is a guy that keeps showing up every day at practice. And he's not going to go quietly into the night. He had a team-best three quarterback hits last week. Can he get to the quarterback in this game and really press the issue?
