DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: No dress rehearsal?

DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: No dress rehearsal?

[Music] Dave Canales, the latest head coach of the Panthers, told reporters in Charlotte that his team will not be using their starters Thursday night in their meeting the Steelers down there. And you know, I don’t care about them either, but that got me thinking. Good morning to you. Good Monday morning. I’m Dan Kvachovic of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Steelers. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you’re into hockey and/or baseball, I also offer daily shots of Penguins and Pirates in the same place that you found this. The Panthers, by the way, have really set the stage to stink again. It’s kind of what they do, so that’s not going to shock the football world. But as much as you can disregard preseason results, it’s not just that they’ve been smoked by a cumulative 50-13 in their first two preseason games, those coming against the Browns and the Texans. It’s that they’ve looked really bad in doing so, including their first team. And Canales, and I quote directly here, told the Charlotte Observer, quote, “I don’t feel good about our execution of the basics.” End quote. But such is life in the National Football League in 2025 that coaches and executives across the board have such disdain for preseason football, have so little use for pre-season football that between them and Aaron Rodgers publicly acknowledging a week ago in Latroe that it’s not real football and that the Steelers would actually gain a lot more from the joint practice that they had with the Buccaneers as opposed to the preseason game that they had with the Buccaneers that I I honestly wonder why we’re even doing this. Why? I mean, I I get that there’s money involved because you end up taking the season ticket holders mandatory payment into those games, meaning that you can’t buy a regular season without also buying the preseason. And then those season ticket holders in turn, and Pittsburgh’s no exception to this, just end up either giving those tickets away or well giving those tickets away because who’d pay for them because nobody wants to watch it either. But here with this specific opponent, you have a setting where the Panthers could really use some reps. They could really use some confidence. Much in the same spirit as what we saw from the Steelers with Mike Tomlin putting Caleb Johnson out there in the second quarter and letting him run up 29 snaps, 11 actual carries for 50 yards. Nothing at all to prove to the Buccaneers, obviously. Nothing at all aimed at winning the game, but just to get the kid to smile and to feel good about himself afterward, which by the way, he did. I I hardly recognized Caleb after this game. He was not just in a great state of mind and smiling and everything, but he saw as the locker room opened a group of us, myself included, headed over toward his stall. and he realized there was a lot of bags and stuff around there. So he said, “Hey, let’s just do it out here.” And he moved to a more central part of the locker room to make it easier for the reporters. And again, he looked like somebody who’d done this a million times. And this is someone who’s dealt with reporters when he was at Iowa. He was the big man on campus. And suddenly after this preseason experience, he felt like the big man again, at least for a few minutes. Good for him and good for Tomlin. I talked with Derek Harmon after the game, after the the big sack that he had of Kyle Tras and then the emotion that he showed afterward. I got to tell you, in my early experiences with Harmon, it’s not super easy to get him to smile. He smiled. He lit up. That’s going to mean something to him early in his rookie season, just like Johnson’s experience will mean something to him. Now, I say that and you know and I know how the Steelers always treat the annual game with the Panthers. That’s right. They play nobody. They play absolutely nobody. Now, Tomlin did not divulge after the game Saturday night what his plans will be for Charlotte, but he’s probably going to do that today and he’s probably just going to say, “Listen, we’re going to treat it the way we’ve always treated it.” So that won’t just mean no Aaron Rogers, no DK Metaf, no TJ Watt, none of those guys. It could mean even more. They held out 19 starters in the first game in Jacksonville. They held out 15 this past Saturday. And heck, for all we know, they could hold out 22 of them Thursday night. If you want to have a debate that they should be having about the Panthers right now, you could probably drum up a couple of positional groups who could benefit from the extra work. Offensive line comes to mind. Some of the defensive line would fit in for the same reason, but again, for the most part, it’s just a big waste. It’s a waste of everybody’s time, everybody’s money, and from the player’s perspective, purely from the player’s perspective. The only ones who get anything really meaningful about this are at the very fringe of your depth chart, meaning they’re trying desperately to put something onto film so that they’ll get signed to either Pittsburgh’s practice squad or one of the other 31. And I’m sorry, I can’t be convinced that any of this is worth it. In the broader scope, I understand that the players and the players union, such as it is weakest in professional sports, by the way, wants to hang on to that 18th regular season game that Roger Goodell and the owners so dearly covet so that they can have a bargaining chip. They don’t have many. But what they should try to do with that bargaining chip is to continue the valiant fight against non-g guaranteed contracts. But instead, the NFL keeps alive this pointless preeason, even if it’s just three games, so that they can say to the players, “Well, we know you hate the preseason games, so we’ll take, I don’t know, one or two preseason games completely off the mix.” and you agree to play an additional regular season game. And the hilarious part of that is the real players don’t play in the preseason games anyway. When we come back, J1Q. [Music] This segment of Daily Shot is brought to you by the personal injury law firm of Luxembourg, Garbett, Kelly, and George. LGKG. They represent people who are hurt in car accidents, who need help with workers comp, who filed for medical malpractice claims. The attorneys at LGKG have been keeping promises in our region for over 80 years. Learn more about them at lgk.com or by calling 88842-5454. Finding great candidates to hire is hard. Too many resumes, not enough people with the skills or experience you need. But not with Ziprecruiter. Ziprecruiter finds amazing candidates for you fast. And right now, you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/audio. After you post your job, their smart matching technology starts showing you qualified people right away. Also, Zip Recruiter lets you connect with top candidates ASAP. You can use their pre-written invite to apply message to reach out to your favorites and encourage them to apply sooner. Ditch the other hiring sites and let Zip Recruiter find what you’re looking for, the needle in the hay stack. Four out of five employers who post on Zip Recruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free at this exclusive web address, ziprecruiter.com/audio. Again, that’s ziprecruiter.com/audio. Ziprecruiter, the smartest way to hire. [Music] Today’s J1Q comes from Joel Widner, who says, “Hey, DK, my J1Q is about Cole Hulcom. Payton Wilson seems to be meeting all expectations and then some. However, based on Hulkcom’s excellent play before his injury and what we’ve seen so far in the preseason, aren’t we literally looking at the guy we want Wilson to be? And if that’s the case, why not just start Queen and Hulkcom? Bear with me here, Joel. This is going to sound like the worst answer of all time, at least at the beginning. And who knows, it might end up that way as well. When I’ve watched Mason Rudolph in Latroe, when I’ve watched him in the preseason so far, yeah, that was an ugly pick the other night, but in general, the way he’s carried himself, the confidence that he’s shown, I take a lot from that as it relates to the quarterback position. I don’t just look at the position as Aaron Rodgers. And honestly, I don’t feel as if anyone should. large part because he’s 41 going on 42. And if I feel that way about quarterback, then I look at the edge rusher position and I see TJ Watt, Alex Heismith, I also know that you have Nick Herbig there and developing if not necessarily at some superstar rate, Jack Sawyer. I feel better about that position. I could keep doing this at pretty much every position the Steelers have with a singular exception and that’s backing up DK Metaf. Not who’s second wide receiver on the depth chart. Who is actually going to replace Metaf in the event of an injury? That player is not on the Steelers current roster. But everywhere else, my goodness, even at kicker and punter, you have real live backups. At least for this part of the year, you have real life depth. You have what you need to get you through. Since I was just on this subject in the opening segment, 17 games plus playoffs, that’s a lot of football. That’s a lot of attrition that’s got to be fought along the way. So, when we’re looking just at inside linebacker and you say, “Well, why not just have it be Patrick Queen and Cole Hulkcom?” And my answer is going to be, why limit it? Now, Queen’s going to be out there. Queen’s your green dot guy. Queen’s your star out of the group. I know there are some in the fan base that are still down on him based on the way he opened up last season or even blaming him for the 299 yards in Baltimore. But he’s your guy and he has immense respect throughout the football world for a reason. But in Hulcom, you have a guy who, don’t make me rekindle that memory for you, went through one hell of an injury. And as encouraging as it is to see him performing the way he is, I’m sorry, that’s just one that you can’t take to the bank. Wilson, of course, dropped three rounds in the draft because of his own history with the knee. You’ve got two guys competing with each other and by the way both being really cool about it and supporting each other and everything else. That’s exactly your dream scenario. You can actually go with the hot hand. You can go with someone you feel might be a better matchup against a specific opponent. So don’t worry about who gets the first set of snaps on the 7th of September. Don’t worry about it. Look at the overall depth that’s there at H boy did I say at every position other than Metaf. There’s not a ton of depth on the offensive line either. Spencer Anderson gives you that at guard. Ryan McCullum gives you that at center. But yeah, tackle. H that’s another one I should have thrown in. I appreciate the question. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Steelers. Thanks to everybody, by the way, who downloaded the app, our app, DK Pittsburgh Sports app, over the weekend and emailed me at dkdpittsburghports.com for the ridiculous discount. That offer still stands. I’d love to hear from you. [Music]

Anyone else uneasy about not having a single dress rehearsal?

#Pittsburgh #Steelers #HereWeGo #NFL

Hear award-winning columnist Dejan Kovacevic’s Daily Shot of Steelers podcasts every weekday morning, plus the all-new DOUBLE SHOT show that follows up at 4:30 p.m. Eastern! We also have regular shows from former Steelers guard Ramon Foster, former NFL scout Matt Williamson and much more!

SUBSCRIBE TO CHANNEL ► https://www.youtube.com/@DKPS_steelers?sub_confirmation=1

MEMBERSHIP TO CHANNEL ►  https://www.youtube.com/@DKPS_steelers/join

OUR APPS ►  https://DKPS.net/apple  |  https://DKPS.net/android

OUR WEBSITE ►  http://www.DKPittsburghSports.com

ABOUT US ►  DK Pittsburgh Sports is the proud, pioneering, fully independent venture begun in 2014 by award-winning reporter Dejan Kovacevic and featuring a professional staff covering the Steelers year-round and everywhere they go! This is where it all started!