A Letter From the Editor: Was the Steelers preseason plan been based on the element of surprise?
Throughout the 2025 NFL Preseason you have seen a wide array of different approaches to these exhibition games.
You have the Cincinnati Bengals who have played their starters extensively throughout the preseason, all in hopes of ditching their typical slow starts over the last several years.
Then you have the Kanas City Chiefs, a team who was in the Super Bowl last season, who played their starters more than one series even in Preseason Week 3.
Lastly, you have the Pittsburgh Steelers, who chose to rest the vast majority of their starters the entire preseason.
Aaron Rodgers, DK Metcalf, Cam Heyward, Isaac Seumalo and T.J. Watt didn’t play even one snap this preseason, and all while being healthy. There were other players who also missed the entire preseason, Alex Highsmith, Jonnu Smith and Calvin Austin III as examples, who missed the preseason due to injury. When you look at players like Jalen Ramsey, DeShon Elliott, Joey Porter Jr., Darius Slay, Pat Freiermuth, and Patrick Queen, their total snaps during the preseason would barely reach double digits.
Every team has a reason for their decision making, and some have assumed Mike Tomlin’s methodology was based on veteran players who he wants to keep healthy for the regular season.
And that might be true, but what if there is another layer of reasoning behind the Steelers decision of playing their starters?
What if it is about the element of surprise?
It may sound outlandish to some, but hear me out…
With Aaron Rodgers, the new backfield, new offensive skill position players like Metcalf and Smith, trying to predict what Arthur Smith’s offense will look like in 2025 is anyone’s guess. If teams who are playing the Steelers think they can game plan for the Steelers based on what Smith did last season with Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Van Jefferson and George Pickens, they might be making a big mistake.
With Rodgers not playing a snap this preseason, it provides an element of surprise heading into the regular season.
With the defense not playing all but a handful of snaps, and even those snaps being very limited, how the team plans to deploy Ramsey, Porter and Slay, not to mention Elliott, will be anyone’s guess. How will Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black impact the defensive front, and even the usage of a player like Keeanu Benton?
As you guessed, it provides an element of surprise for the regular season.
Some might scoff at such a suggestion, but I think there are more reasons for the Steelers to avoid playing their high profile players in the preseason outside of keeping them in the proverbial bubble wrap. In the NFL, any advantage you can get is something which is highly sought after, and the Steelers are preparing to utilize in any way possible.
Even if it means sitting their starters throughout the majority of the preseason.
Could the Steelers have the element of surprise come with a side of rusty play? That is certainly a risk of this approach, but only time will tell if it plays out this way. In the meantime, don’t sleep on the Steelers being able to come out in Week 1 at MetLife Stadium with an all-new approach to both offense and defense, and this could be just the type of change fans have been clamoring for since last season’s playoff defeat.
Yeah but that only works one game. Thats the Jets as well. Hardly worth not giving folks a series or two at fulll speed to warm up for the season.
I get what you’re saying, but if both the offensive and defensive plans don’t have layers and evolve, then the team needs new coordinators lol
To be completely honest, I’m not sure what Mike Tomlin thinks. The guy has talked about not living in his fears but at times showed the exact opposite. He also has mentioned repeating the same thing and expecting different results. So anything is possible I guess? But a 41 year old QB is still a 41 year old QB and I do think it’s about living in the fears of getting him injured in a meaningless game unless of course you want to use those games to knock that rust off.
It is what it is and all we can do is hope that whatever the plan was, works. All I know is that Rodgers won’t be wearing the red jersey on gameday, at some point he will be hit and then we will see how the team responds. I know this article was about some others that sat out but it really comes down to what Aaron Rodgers can do in the Black and Gold. So saying all of that I guess it was a smart thing to set him out if my above statement is true. The 2025 Steeler Season hinges on the body of a 41 year old veteran QB. Hope some one has some WD40 to help with those sure to be rusty hinges. I use Kroil oil BTW but some of you fine patrons may not have heard of that.
Go Steelers and have a blessed Sunday
This reminds me of the 2021 season, Roethlisberger’s final year. The hope was to hinge on the smarts of No. 7 and his surgically repaired arm to lift the offense to new heights.
They started 11-0 and fizzled down the stretch.
You’re right though, the season likely is riding on the arm of Rodgers…we’ll see how that plays out…
it’s not his arm that I’m worried about LOL
Possibly. Coaches try to steal every small advantage they can. But strategic maneuvers like that seem to be short lived. When the Colts were preparing to play Brady in Week 9 of the 2007 season, they spent weeks tailoring a man coverage scheme to stifle the Patriots prolific offense. It largely worked: they caught the Pats by surprise and limited them to only seven points in the first half. But by halftime the Patriots had adjusted, and they went on to score 17 in the second half and win the game.
This isn’t to say that withholding information isn’t valuable — it obviously is. It just seems short lived.
This is a great point. In-game adjustments are so underrated in this regard.