Steelers Hero Santonio Holmes Warns Mike McCarthy Made A Terrible Offseason Decision

It will be a long 17-game regular season for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The most important thing, however, is that it started out with a win. The organization has a loaded back-half of the schedule, so defeating the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1 was a good way to kick things off. More important, there are some manageable matchups on the docket through the month of October. Starting out the right way, and with a string of victories, could go a long way in getting back to the postseason. The team is also trying to defend an AFC North title in Mike McCarthy's first year as the head coach.

Something that was certainly a big question mark throughout the month of August was the health of the roster. A lot of important players were not participating in practice very much. This led to several veterans not really getting a lot of, if any, preseason reps. The good news is that aside from a couple of ailments, the Steelers are healthy in the grand scheme of things.

DeShon Elliott being on Injured Reserve (IR) is unfortunate, and Joey Porter Jr. is dealing with a back/lack of a contract issue. Aside from those two, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, things look good for the trainers. Injuries are a part of the game, though, and one former Pittsburgh wide receiver is actually concerned that McCarthy made a mistake in the summertime.

Santonio Holmes joined the Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast to connect with his former teammate and talk about the Steelers. The Super Bowl XLIII Most Valuable Player has some worries about what happened in August. A lot of Pittsburgh's top guys, like DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr., didn't play in any of the exhibition matchups. This could come back to haunt the franchise toward the end of the year.

"So, what I've seen is when these guys are not getting on the football field in these preseason games, that's when, one, the injuries occur later in the season because they didn't have enough contact early in the season," Holmes said. "Two, like we talked about, the lack of concentration and ability to perform which is you're making simple drops on routine plays that you know that this quarterback is coming to you on third down and we need a first down."

Holmes is not someone who played one year in the NFL and left. He has legitimate experience, and has also gotten into coaching in his post-playing career. This is a direct warning to Steelers fans that injuries could end up coming later on because guys' bodies were not properly conditioned when they should have been. Practice doesn't provide an experience of truly getting hit. That only comes when there is another colored jersey on the other side of the line of scrimmage.

The goal is always to stay as healthy as possible. The Steelers entered Week 1 in a pretty good spot when it came to the injury report. Hopefully, that will continue, but Holmes has his reservations. There is always the counterargument that the preseason is useless because guys could get banged up, even if that is not something that the retired pass-catcher is buying into.

The lack of repetitions goes beyond just staying out of the blue medical tent, too. Coming into the meaningful football games rusty is a direct byproduct of not getting on the field enough in August. The best teams tend to get better as any given season goes on, but those collectives also are usually the healthiest.

Steelers Need Guys Like Metcalf And Pittman To Stay Fresh

Pittsburgh's offense is solid, but not necessarily all that deep. This is why Holmes' prediction coming true later on in the year could lead to panic in the Steel City. Time will tell if McCarthy made the wrong decision by not getting certain players out on the field in August; however, it's clear that there are some risks that come with those decisions.

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