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Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott shake hands after an NFL preseason game at the Acrisure Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023, in the North Shore. The Pittsburgh Steelers won 27-15.
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Paul Zeise: The NFL preseason schedule makes no sense, and it's forcing coaches like Mike Tomlin into difficult decisions

Benjamin B. Braun/Post-Gazette

Paul Zeise: The NFL preseason schedule makes no sense, and it's forcing coaches like Mike Tomlin into difficult decisions

The Steelers played Saturday against Buffalo, and now they play their final preseason game against Atlanta on Thursday — and then their first regular season game is, like, mid-November or something.

OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the NFL, which usually doesn’t do much wrong when it comes to the actual product of football, has put together a puzzling preseason schedule.

The Steelers will play Thursday in the final preseason game and then have 17 days before they open the regular season. I get the push to shorten the preseason in terms of playing fewer games, but this schedule is silly and this idea of avoiding Labor Day weekend is even sillier.

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Three preseason games are enough, but why are they so disconnected from the actual season? Like I said, I have read that the NFL didn’t want to start on Labor Day weekend. That is when college football kicks off, so that makes some sense. But if that’s the case, then start camps and the preseason a week later; that way, there isn’t almost three weeks between the preseason and regular season.

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This may not seem like a big deal, but it is because that is a lot of idle time for teams that are through camp and ready to play. There is something different about game week preparation and preseason preparation, and I am not really sure why these teams need that much time to get ready to play.

I suppose it will be good to get the 53-man rosters a few extra days to work together without all the extra players who got cut, but even that is a stretch. The first and second teams have, for the most part, been playing together all training camp. They can’t possibly need more time to develop chemistry.

That is why Mike Tomlin needs to be very smart about how he utilizes his players Thursday in Atlanta. This is not a normal preseason, and while it may be the new normal, I don’t think he can approach it the same way he has in the past. In general, the final preseason game was mostly used for the guys at the bottom of the roster trying to make the team. Almost all of the starters got the final preseason game off, and the players trying to make the team got an extended look.

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Saturday against the Bills, pretty much everyone who was healthy played at least one or two series, and some of the starters played a little more. That was the absolute right call, and, quite frankly, now, thanks to the schedule and the way it is laid out, he has almost no choice but to play his starters a little bit Thursday.

Tomlin is smart and seems to understand this, and that is why it isn’t a surprise he has already said he would probably play his key guys at least a little bit Thursday. I don’t expect them to play an entire half or maybe even a quarter, but it would be wise to get them out there on the field.

There are some who seem concerned about injuries, but injuries are a part of football and, while it is important to be smart, there is no fool-proof plan to avoid them. And with 17 days between the final preseason game and first regular season game, I would be willing to bet almost any kind of bump or bruise that comes along will have ample time to heal before the games matter.

This is on the NFL, though, as this schedule was poorly conceived and not very well thought out. It is short-sighted because it puts coaches like Tomlin in a tough spot. If he doesn’t play his starters at least a little bit on Thursday, it will be a little more than three weeks between their last preseason live action and their regular season opener. If he does and one gets seriously injured after avoiding major injuries all of training camp, it would be troublesome, as well.

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren (30) throws the ball after scoring a touchdown against Buffalo Bills during an NFL preseason game at the Acrisure Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023, in the North Shore.
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Three weeks is a long time, and given how well the Steelers have played in this preseason — especially the offense — I don’t think Tomlin wants to go that long without giving them a little opportunity to play together. Again, one or two series Thursday won’t make or break the season and might not change much, but it makes absolutely no sense at all to go three weeks between live action.

There is nothing that can be done about it at this point, but it is something the NFL is going to have to take a long, hard look at in the offseason to make sure they don’t repeat this mistake again next year. It can be tricky figuring out the right weekend to kick off the regular season, but once that is in place, it shouldn’t be too difficult to craft a preseason schedule that is more connected and closer to it.

Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com or Twitter: @paulzeise

First Published: August 21, 2023, 7:01 p.m.

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