Really, the only bad thing about it was that it didn't count in the standings.
The Steelers opened their preseason in a place that traditionally has been more than a little unkind to them, but on this particular Saturday night it was a lot of fun. Maybe it was a lot of fun because so many of those responsible for the 31-25 victory over the Jaguars seemed to come out of nowhere.
The quarterback who was poised and played within himself, who executed, wasn't the one with 4 MVPs on his resume or even the ballyhooed rookie with a National Championship ring on his finger.
Skylar Thompson was a 3-star recruit and a seventh-round draft choice and all but invisible walking around the Saint Vincent College campus this summer. But when they dimmed the lights at EverBank Stadium he was the guy with the shiny statistics: 71.4 percent completed for 233 yards, with 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and a rating of 132.0; he was the triggerman for an offense that posted 5 pass plays of 20-or-more yards, converted of 6-of-9 on third downs, and was 2-for-3 in the red zone.
The Steelers traditionally keep three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster, and Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, and Will Howard are three. Skylar Thompson was 4, or at least he was when the sun rose on Aug. 9. Maybe still is, but it just doesn't seem as certain.
The runners and receivers on the other end of much of Thompson's largesse were similarly anonymous coming into the game. Ke'Shawn Williams is an undrafted rookie from Indiana and Max Hurleman didn't even have a position of his own at Notre Dame, but against the Jaguars they both were playmakers. On the possession that followed the Jaguars slicing the Steelers lead to 24-22, Lew Nichols, listed sixth on the depth chart at running back, carried 5 times for 31 yards to set up Williams going up over a Jacksonville defender in the end zone to come down with a Thompson rainbow and restore a 9-point cushion, 31-22.
Being that it was the preseason opener, there was no traditional game-planning involved. But offensive coordinator Arthur Smith used tempo, along with a steady diet of short, quick passes to blunt Jacksonville's defensive strength, and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin employed the football variation of Ali's rope-a-dope to force Jacksonville to move slowly into position to end up settling for a field goal.
"It was really a good evening's work," said Coach Mike Tomlin. "We got put in a lot of situations and got a chance to watch people perform in them, a 2-minute drive before the half kind of highlighting some of that. I thought we did a nice job of not beating our own butt.
"We played a pretty clean game for a first time out. We gave a lot of people a lot of opportunities, and that's what this is about. It was good to see some offensive players tackling on special teams, defensive players blocking on special teams. We'll comb through that really closely."
When that combing is done, the Steelers will find some coaching points, with a guess that one will be about the 6-foot-7, 300-pound tight end getting flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for dunking the football over the crossbar after his 19-yard touchdown while quietly being thrilled to have a man that big and that athletic in their lineup.
We could do this kind of seeking comfort for hours, but we still would be talking about the preseason opener, and the lifespan of a fruit fly is longer than the time an NFL preseason opener is relevant.
Sure, this first time under the bright lights for these 2025 Steelers most likely made for a pleasant flight back to Pittsburgh and created some great memories for guys who soon may need them, but around 36 hours after their charter touched down they would be due back in Latrobe, living and working in a sauna and still sitting at 0-0 in the standings. Like everybody else in the league.
To those who might deem this assessment too morose, I would point to that summer when Kenny Pickett and the first-team offense marched to a touchdown every time the unit took the field through an entire preseason and then once the regular season began the same personnel coached by the same coaches went more than a month looking like they hadn't practiced together at all.
That's the thing with an NFL preseason – you never know if you're about to become a very rich man or just some schlub with pockets weighed down with fool's gold.
DK Metcalf, Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Rodgers, Chris Boswell, Calvin Austin III, Darius Slay, Joey Porter Jr., DeShon Elliott, Jaylen Warren, Nick Herbig, Alex Highsmith, Isaac Seumalo, Jonnu Smith, Pat Freiermuth, T.J. Watt, and Cam Heyward.
The above is a list of the Steelers who didn't suit up for the game vs. the Jaguars, and the star power contained within those names could lead one to believe things will only get easier from here. But the issues, the soft spots the Steelers had on their depth chart and that had been visible on the Saint Vincent College grass are still there.
The running game hasn't shown at any point since the pads went on that it can be what it's going to need to be. Can the offensive line protect Rodgers? Are there enough receiving threats not named DK Metcalf? None of that was answered/solved by beating Jacksonville in the preseason opener. Preseason openers don't carry that much weight.
"And to top it all off, we kind of got through the game virtually injury-free," said Tomlin. "I'm thinking Cam McCutcheon got taken out with a soft tissue injury, maybe a hamstring that needs to be evaluated. But other than that, we were pretty clean.
"And so a productive night on a lot of fronts, and obviously we'll comb through the tape and learn from it in a lot of ways, both players and coaches. Then hopefully be better the next time out."
This victory in Jacksonville wasn't a referendum on the Steelers' prospects for the 2025 season, nor is it validation for the way they went about the task of putting together a roster they hope will prove capable of doing a better job of competing for a championship. That's so far down the road it's hardly even visible from here.
No, Saturday night was for the Skylar Thompsons and the Ke'Shawn Williamses and the Max Hurlemans. A night for some fans to crow a little and for some athletes to believe in the realization of their dream a little bit more. Sometimes that's all it is. And it's OK to enjoy it. For a minute.
