While the Green Bay Packers have stated publicly that they plan to play their starters in their preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers, at least for a drive or two, the Steelers have been a little wishy-washy when asked about the same subject. As recently as yesterday, Pittsburgh head coach Mike McCarthy, who won a Super Bowl in Green Bay, said that he hasn’t made the decision on whether starters will play or not on Thursday.
There are also mixed signals on the Aaron Rodgers front, as McCarthy stated on the radio that Rodgers does want to play against his former team this week. Rodgers later told reporters: “It’s preseason. It’s not real football. So if I do, great. If not, great.”
Here were some more thoughts that Rodgers dropped on summer football exhibitions:
“Preseason’s a lot different. Teams don’t run anything anymore. They just really don’t,” Rodgers said. “Even joint practices. The first year we were doing them, it was fun because you got to play a team that wasn’t going to play how they played in the preseason. They were going to show you a lot of different things they were working on. It was like a real day at camp.
“But as that got on, it just stopped being like that. It just turned into fights, and nobody showed anything. I think those are a waste of a day. I think preseason football is good to see guys with the pads on, under the lights, how they react to the nerves. But it’s not real regular season football.”
When asked if there’s a benefit to him playing in Thursday’s game, Rodgers stated simply: “I don’t think so.”
McCarthy said that whoever “starts” in the preseason opener will get about two series before a second unit will step in. The question now is whether the “starters” will involve all of the Steelers’ preferred starters, or if it’ll just be a mix of young starters and backups.
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