Let's start out with a little perspective. When the Steelers wake up this morning, they still have 4 more days at Saint Vincent College, 2 more preseason games, and 16 days until NFL rosters have to be cut down to 53 players by 6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30.
But it's also true what they say about only getting one chance to make a first impression, and that first chance came on Thursday night at Acrisure Stadium against the Green Bay Packers in the preseason opener for both teams.
That first impression would have to be judged a rousing success for the Steelers based primarily on the fact they were on the winning side of the 28-9 final score that will go down in their franchise history as the inaugural game of the Mike McCarthy era as their coach..
But because that game happened during an NFL preseason, which Aaron Rodgers labeled earlier in the week as "not real football," there are other, possibly more important factors to consider. Because the focus of this hunk of the NFL calendar is all about putting together the best 69 (53 on the active roster; 16 on the practice squad) to begin the marathon that is the 17-game NFL regular season. Which for the Steelers begins on Sept. 13 against the Atlanta Falcons on the same lawn.
This 90-man Steelers roster has been talked about as one having depth. A lot of that showed up in the game against the Packers, and it's going to make for some interesting decisions for McCarthy and President Art Rooney II and GM Omar Kahn a couple of weeks from now.
Of course, what enquiring minds want to know is your stance on the issue of "3 or 4," as in how many quarterbacks are going to be on that 53-man roster. Then what organically follows is how "3 or 4" impacts the numbers at the other positions. Each single thing can have an impact on everything else.
Because McCarthy decided against using Rodgers, the 3 quarterbacks the Steelers deployed were 1 career backup (Mason Rudolph) and two guys who had yet to take their first NFL snap – second-year pro Will Howard because by this time in his rookie season he already was on his way to the injured reserve list with a broken finger, and rookie Drew Allar because he joined up as a third-round pick (76th overall) of an NFL Draft that happened less than 4 months ago.
Quarterback play is McCarthy's specialty and I have to believe that was a big part of why he was hired back in January. When he dissects the video of the game, he will look beyond the statistics and the numbers on the scoreboard and will come out with a mixed bag.
Atop the list of "Cannot Have This Moving Forward" is 11 penalties accepted among 12 assessed for 134 yards, with six of those for unnecessary roughness. Troy Fautanu played his first NFL game at left tackle, and it was not a performance worthy of a player who was the 20th overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Fautanu was flagged for a false start that nullified a 25-yard pass from Rudolph to rookie WR Germie Bernard, and then later in the same possession he was flagged for holding to nullify a 6-yard TD run by Lew Nichols. But the six roughing penalties bothered McCarthy the most, based on his postgame remarks to the media.
"The obvious negative is the penalties are way too high, the personal fouls," said McCarthy. "So we'll go through each and every one of them. It's important for us to be extremely accountable. This is an excellent game to grade as a coaching staff because there's a lot of good things that went on out there. It's good to get a win at home and feel that. Especially since it's our first time together … I think that we'll look at every penalty. We'll look at every call. When you ask your team to play with a high level of energy and play style, the discipline of that comes, and this was our first chance to play in a full-speed environment. I'd rather be too much than not enough, and we were definitely too much time and time again, particularly at the end of the play."
Flipping it back to some of the positives, rookie Kaden Wetjen was drafted to return kicks, but he showed he could contribute as a receiver with a 74-yard catch-and-run on a third-and-7 to go along with a 4-yard TD that upped the Steelers' lead to 21-7 midway through the fourth quarter. Jamin Davis, who came into the NFL as a No. 1 pick of the Commanders and is trying to carve out a spot as an edge for the Steelers, threw his hat in the ring by being involved in 8 tackles while adding 2 sacks and 3 hits on the quarterback.
How many defensive linemen will they keep? Cam Heyward, Derrick Harmon, Keeanu Benton, Yahya Black, and Sebastian Joseph-Day are five, and after rookie Gabriel Rubio involved himself in 6 tackles despite frequent double-teams, he emerged as a candidate to be No. 6.
The secondary was without Joey Porter Jr., Jalen Ramsey, Brandin Echols, DeShon Elliott, Jaquan Brisker, and Donte Kent, but Asante Samuel Jr., Jamel Dean, and rookies Daylen Everett and Robert Spears-Jennings were making plays while plugging holes.
On his pregame radio show with Rob King, McCarthy said one way he would judge this preseason opener a success would be if the team came out of it healthy and if there had been a lot of playing time for the young guys. Those boxes were both checked, but McCarthy has been around this block far too many times to think the work is done.
"It's year one," said McCarthy. "You know, it's year one for me in this program. It was our first game. We have a lot to clean up, but the passing game — I haven't seen the stats, but I know the numbers were pretty good. I liked the way our quarterbacks ran the offense, and that's a big thing. It may be simple … We're going to be better coming out of the huddle. I didn't think we were super clean. It's good to get that on tape, but for the most part, this is a good start for us. It's a good start."
