3 Biggest Questions for Steelers Leading into Opener

As the calendar turns and the air starts to become cool and crisp I begin to get a little tingling sensation in my stomach. Could it be the stale cheetos I ate at midnight last night? Possibly. But it’s more than likely attributed to the fact that the start of the NFL season is tonight when the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs welcome in the Houston Texans to kickoff the 2020 campaign.

No wonder it feels like Christmas morning. 

Twenty-six more teams will take the field this Sunday, officially opening the season. 

But Santa has decided to give us Yinzers a bit more of a wait.

Unfortunately, Steelers fans will have to spend an extra day agonizing as the black and gold open the season on Monday Night Football, taking on the New York Giants in East Rutherford, NJ.

Don't worry yinz, it will be here before you can even say Roethlisberger.

Here are three things you should keep an eye on leading into kickoff.

The Steelers' big uglies have been reworked and re-shuffled on a few occasions since the last time we saw them in action last December in a season-ending blowout at the hands of the Ravens. 

On that day the Steelers starting line read like this:

LT: Al Villanueva

LG: Ramon Foster

C: BJ Finney

RG: David Decastro

RT: Matt Feiler

Since that day much has changed. Ramon Foster retired. BJ Finney was signed by Seattle. And All-Pro David DeCastro has been dealing with a nagging lower-body injury that will certainly keep him out of action week 1, and possibly longer. 

When the Steelers run their first play on offense around 7:20 PM this coming Monday, you will likely see these guys introduced as the new starting five up front:

LT: Al Villanueva

LG: Matt Feiler

C: Maurkice Pouncey

RG: Stefan Wisniewski

RT: Zach Banner

Wisniewski is a 10 year veteran and Pittsburgh native who has started for two of the last three super bowl winning teams. And Banner showed flashes last year of being a capable NFL starter. The 4th year tackle out of USC beat out Chuks Okorafor for the gig. But will they be good enough to keep the Giants out of the backfield?

This is obviously a critical position - due to the health of Ben Roethlisberger and James Conner. 

If the line isn’t able to keep them upright we could see another injury-plagued season for the teams unquestioned leaders. So all eyes early will be on the protection, or lack there-of.

Here’s how the Steelers starting QB depth chart reads:

QB: Ben Roethlisberger

QB: Please, no. 

Okay, apologies to Mason Rudolph, Josh Dobbs and Duck Hodges but I think any rational fan is now aware that without Ben this team at best is an 8-8 or 9-7 unit who may get a sniff of the playoffs. 

With a healthy Ben they are a Super Bowl contender. 

I’ll keep reminding everyone - in his last full season Big Ben posted a 96.5 QB rating while throwing 34 touchdowns and leading the league in passing yards with 5,129. The Steelers aren’t just getting back some “guy”. They’re getting back a 2 time Super Bowl champion, and a SIX-time pro-bowler. 

The great unknown is that Ben is returning following an off-season spent rehabbing a significant elbow injury. 

I’m very interested to see if he’s eased back into the game; sort of like a pitcher rehabbing from Tommy John surgery in baseball. Will they let him chuck it all around the field to his? If the Steelers go down by two touchdowns early on will they want their star Quarterback to throw 30-40 times right out of the gate? 

Let's hope we don’t have to find out the answer to that question.

A few words come to mind when you think of starting safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. Those include, “ballhawk”, “game-changer”, and “building-block.” 

I think the Steelers were hoping to use those adjectives when talking about Edmunds after they selected him in the 1st round of the 2018 draft. But the words that come to mind are “mediocre”, and “fine”. 

If he can take the next step and become an above-average starter, this defensive unit has the chance to be the best in the league. Seriously. 

He’s the weakest link in the starting secondary, but that’s not an absolute dismissal of his impact. Minkah, and starting corners Joe Haden and Steven Nelson are superb NFL players. Edmunds has been vending machine apple-pie. You know what you’re getting, and it does the trick. But it’s not an overwhelming experience - like a home-made blueberry pie. 

If he can boost his game, there isn’t a goal this unit can’t reach in 2020. 

But all of these are certainly big ifs.