First Call: Here's what Steelers missed most without preseason

Coronavirus has done the impossible.

Again.

It shut down sports. The political conventions. Schools. Life as we know it.

Now it has done something even more difficult: It has actually made me miss the Steelers preseason.

Perhaps even the final preseason game, which would’ve been played Thursday night in Charlotte against the Carolina Panthers.

Normally, that game is an affront to football. It’s like getting through an 8th period math class on the last day of school.

But, in this case, it would’ve been better than just another random day of a socially distanced training camp at Heinz Field. Losing the preseason entirely hurts every team’s ability to gauge where its collective talent stands before the regular season begins.

For “First Call” today, here are four areas where the Steelers will be most hurt by the absence of a preseason.

Right tackle

Regardless of who wins that job — Zach Banner or Chuks Okorafor — moving Matt Feiler to left guard in favor of one of them is going to be a risk.

“I have full confidence in Chuks and Banner,” Feiler said during a Zoom interview. “They’re going to hold down the right tackle spot.”

I’m glad he’s convinced. I’m not.

It would’ve been nice to see who was better prepared to handle the task of protecting Ben Roethlisberger in game situations. And the team would’ve had five chances to figure it out, with multiple opportunities to flip-flop the candidates between the first and second teams.

Now they have none.

If they wanted to, they also could’ve seen what the offense would’ve looked like with Feiler staying at right tackle and Stefen Wisniewski starting at left guard.

I think seeing that grouping would’ve convinced them that was the best route to go.

Big Ben’s big return

By the time the team’s “Monday Night Football” opener kicks off, it will have been 364 days between games for Ben Roethlisberger.

We can talk all we want about how great his arm feels. But it would’ve been nice for him to have a few quarters worth of action to knock off the rust.

Keep in mind, he has two brand new targets in Chase Claypool and Eric Ebron. He’s had minimal exposure to Diontae Johnson in game action. And we’ve already talked about the offensive line adjustment.

Roethlisberger generally doesn’t play a lot in the preseason. He may have played a little more this year. And I think it would’ve been a worthy exercise.

Barren without Barron

Mark Barron won’t go down as the biggest Steelers free agent signing of all time.

Nor will his loss be all that destructive to the big picture. But the team doesn’t seem to have a clear-cut plan to replace him either. That’s an issue as the club needs to find another inside linebacker to play next to Devin Bush.

A little more of Vince Williams? A little more dime with just Bush on the field? Some more safeties acting as inside linebackers?

Yeah. Probably a lot of all of that. How effective those looks could be and who will best fit those jobs are questions that wouldn’t have been entirely answered over five preseason games.

At the very least, though, maybe the defense could’ve figured out which options weren’t going to work, and they could’ve been scrapped before the real games begin.

One of those options is Marcus Allen. He’s making the move from safety.

“Marcus likes hitting people,” inside linebackers coach Jerry Olsavsky said last week. “So playing linebacker is no problem for him. He hasn’t done a lot of drills over his lifetime to play linebacker, but he’s doing a fine job.”

It would’ve been nice for him to have the chance to show that trait in a rehearsal setting.

Minkah on the move?

The dialogue over how much — or how little — safety Minkah Fitzpatrick is going to move around in the 2020 defense has been endless.

The latest round of conversation is that Fitzpatrick will largely be staying at his free safety position, but the team may have him bounce around from time to time.

I bet a lot of the looks the Steelers may tinker with wouldn’t have been exposed in the preseason. But they may have wanted to try a few snaps just to gain a comfort level for Fitzpatrick.

Also, for Terrell Edmunds — or whoever else may assume that deep center field role — when Fitzpatrick vacates it.

“One of the things you always try to do is get your guys in the position that they do their best things,” defensive backs coach Tom Bradley said. “One of the things (Fitzpatrick) does is he’s really good at playing center field — being around the ball. We do have the capability to move him, put him at different spots. A lot of times, formations will dictate that. Motions, adjustments.”

Seeing those “formations, motions and adjustments” to get him closer to the line of scrimmage is one thing in a jagged training camp setting.

It’s quite another in a real game.