Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin, has already come out and said that the Steelers starters will play Thursday night against the Falcons in their final preseason game, and that got the morning shift debating about whether or not the Falcons starters should see the field on Thursday.
Mike Johnson believes the starters should play Thursday, so they can get some situational football reps in, and clean up the penalties.
“I think they need to get situational football. I think there’s so many new starters on both sides of the ball they need to get some reps on situational football. They need to get in a game and have passing down situations, I realize it’s a run first offense…”
Mike goes on to say “A hurry up situation, or a no huddle, or a two minute or something, at least get those situations in your back pocket, and while I liked what I saw from the Falcons, specifically Desmond Ridder, you did have four penalties in one drive with the first team, and that leads me to believe that maybe they need more full speed game action.”
Beau isn’t convinced it’s necessary for the starters to play again saying “I think it depends on what you’ve seen and what you think about your team. Would I like to not see five or six penalties out of the first team offense? Yeah. I mean I would, but also you look back at last year and they were one of the least penalized teams out there.”
Tiffany believes you can’t replicate game reps and knows they are very important, but she also thinks getting the extra work isn’t worth the injury.
Arthur Smith told the media earlier in the week that he would make a decision about who will play Thursday and for how long tonight. There are obviously pros and cons to both sides, but it will be interesting to see if any of the Falcons first team offense or defense gets any reps for the preseason finale, if the starters don’t play, it will have been nearly a month between their last real game time action.
