On the outside, this looks like a bit of a lull in the schedule for NFL teams. The preseason ended over the weekend. The regular season doesn’t get going until the Sept. 4 opener in Philadelphia.

Within the walls of NFL clubs, though, a lot is getting done. The Steelers have already had two practices since their preseason finale against Carolina. They’ll have seven more between now and kickoff for the regular season opener against the New York Jets on Sept. 7.

Cuts will happen before Tuesday evening, and some other roster shaping moves may take place. But, largely, the coaches have taken care of the “who” part of roster building.

Now it’s honing what they can do.

It’s no longer about Aaron Rodgers and DK Metcalf “building chemistry,” it’s about them practicing to beat the New York defense.

It’s no longer about figuring out moving chess pieces in that rebuilt secondary, it’s about getting that unit sharp enough to shut down Justin Fields and the Jets’ offense.

The Steelers didn’t do enough in the preseason to give the fanbase an epiphany one way or the other about the fortunes of the 2025 team.

Nor were they attempting to do so.

If they were, maybe Rodgers and Metcalf would have actually touched the field over the course of three preseason games.

If they were, maybe that revamped secondary would’ve gotten more than just a cursory few snaps together in Charlotte.

Instead, for the most part, the Steelers used the preseason to see who would round out the second and third levels of the depth chart.

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That’s always been the case in the NFL during the preseason, but it’s even more so now with just three games to play. How often does the preseason shape your opinion of what is going to transpire once September starts anyway? On the rare occasions when it does, how accurate is it?

Consider 2023’s preseason. Kenny Pickett and the Steelers’ offense looked like they were en route to making a second-year leap. By Thanksgiving, Matt Canada had been fired, and by Christmas, Mike Tomlin was turning to Mason Rudolph to save the season.

The summer of 2025 has been nothing like that. If you are someone who previously convinced themselves that the acquisitions of Rodgers, Metcalf, Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay were enough to elevate the Steelers beyond their perpetual nine-to-10 wins existence, then there’s no reason to deviate from that belief now.

If you were someone who thought that second-and-third-year growth from young players and the rookie draft class (Derrick Harmon’s injury aside) was enough to push the Steelers from playoff pretenders to contenders, nothing happened to dilute that enthusiasm.

Similarly, if you’re like me and you think nine or 10 wins and another first-round playoff exit (at best) is on the horizon, there wasn’t enough black-and-gold Kool-Aid to sip from to get drunk on preseason optimism.

Unless you see a scenario where the Steelers are somehow riding Lew Nichols III and Skylar Thompson to Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara.

“Does it matter?” Tomlin asked with a laugh when asked where the team stands after three preseason games.

No. It doesn’t.

Tomlin couldn’t have answered that question any better than he did. He and the rest of the staff didn’t treat the preseason games as a dress rehearsal in advance of the curtain being raised on opening night.

Instead, those three games were just about figuring out who among the understudies could take on a leading role if somebody in the cast came down with laryngitis.

For better or worse, Tomlin and his assistants are assuming the core players on this team will be ready to perform on opening weekend without any in-game reps.

“I’m looking for this group to take advantage of this block of time between now and the opener. We’ve just got to have urgency every day in the work that we prescribe for ourselves,” Tomlin said.

“We’re not a finished product, but no one is.”

Tomlin was right about that too. Is there any team in the NFL where the preseason significantly altered the perception or mood of the fanbase about their team heading into 2025?

The New York Giants, perhaps? They went 3-0, and rookie QB Jaxson Dart looks like he may be something good. Yet Russell Wilson is still the starter for now.

In the other direction, Carolina, I guess? They went 0-3, getting outscored 69-23 in the process. Maybe their fans are even more sour about their team’s prospects than they were a month ago.

However, these cases are extreme. The Steelers did not allow themselves to be viewed through an extreme lens at all in the preseason.

If the offense gets off to its typical sluggish start, fans will no doubt cite that lack of preseason playing time for Rodgers, Metcalf, Jaylen Warren and Jonnu Smith as a reason and will gnash their teeth about it.

Then again, what if one of them went down with an injury like Harmon did?

“You lay the foundation at Latrobe and then just build on it,” Rodgers said recently. “Just getting to know guys. You have to pay attention, and sometimes you have to use some strategies to remember things because there are ways of connecting with guys. Just always been interested in those dynamics, just trying to be curious.”

Oh, everyone is curious about you too, Aaron. No doubt about that. Rodgers and Metcalf are probably the two biggest points of curiosity on the team right now because no one has seen them in game action yet.

That curiosity will be satiated in MetLife Stadium soon enough. Until then, when it comes to forecasting how 2025 will go for the Steelers, just trust your gut.

Because you’ve been given no reason to change your mind.

Listen: Our Mike’s Beer Bar Postgame podcast with Mike DeCourcy and Tim Benz recaps the preseason

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