SCB Steelers Quick Hitters: The ‘Week One Prep’ Edition

Good Tuesday to you Steelers fans.

I hope all of you had a good Labor Day. Our Pittsburgh Steelers were hard at work as their preparation for the week one contest against the San Francisco 49ers is underway. Today, the players are off. Tuesday is and has been as long as I can remember, the traditional “day off” for Steelers’ players. What we know heading into this season is frankly, a lot more than we’ve known in previous years. The starting lineups are pretty concrete as far as the Black and Gold are concerned and the team is as healthy going into a season opener as you could want. What we know about the Niners is that Brock Purdy will start at QB and Same Darnold will back him up. There are suggestions that Purdy may not be 100% after his elbow injury in last season’s NFC Title game but I have hard time believing that Kyle Shanahan would start if he weren’t ready. Standout defensive end Nick Bosa may miss week one. Personally, I think they get it done and he plays but how effective he is another question after missing all of the preseason. Whether Bosa is available or not, San Francisco still has a very good defense so none of us should be over-looking this team.

HUGE Podcast This Week

This is always one of our favorite shows of the entire year as The SCB Steelers Podcast presented by DEK Roofing Inc launches yet another season of Pittsburgh Steelers’ Football. Oh we’ve been doing shows all year round but this one is annual kickoff show! We will give you our predictions on the Steelers’ season record. Our Super Bowl participants plus division winners, MVPs and a number of player props for the Steelers.

Tweet of the Day… Tremendous play here and the nickname is hilarious.

Riley Leonard is now Vanilla Vick pic.twitter.com/q7xzTp3ssa

— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) September 5, 2023

Some Questions…

As concrete as things appear there are a few lingering questions about Sunday’s game. With Gunner Olszewski making the roster will he handle either the punt or kick return duties? Or, will Mike Tomlin go with Calvin Austin III on punts and Anthony McFarland on kicks? I’m also curious to see how many defensive snaps Nick Herbig gets. His preseason was nothing short of terrific but will he get opportunities on Sunday? And what of Larry Ogunjobi’s foot? He was in a walking boot as the preseason ended so how healthy will he be?

Will They or Won’t They?

There is much speculation about whether Nick Bosa will play (see above) and now comes word that George Kittle may not play either. Both are significantly important pieces to each side of the ball for the 49ers. My feeling however is this; I don’t care who is suiting up and who isn’t. No one knows this better than Mike Tomlin who has coached many games against teams riddled with injuries only to come out on the short end. Trust me, both guys are being talked about by the Steelers but any suggestion they are thinking this game will be easier without them is ridiculous.