The National Football League will play its 16 game schedule this week with a single contest on Thursday, 13 games on Saturday, and two Sunday matchups. Next week, the league will wrap their preseason schedule with contests on four days beginning on Thursday night. The regular season will kickoff on Thursday, September 5, with the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Baltimore Ravens.

A three game preseason schedule forces teams to make decisions on who to start when. With the four game preseason set, which was reduced to three in 2021, there was a rhythm that saw most teams work their starters up to where the third game of the preseason was a time for most first stringers to get extended playing time. The fourth and final preseason contest was routinely dedicated to playing marginal athletes to assist staff and coaches in evaluating what players will make their final cut.

Now, it is common for some quarterbacks to see no action during preseason games, and when coaches play athletes with marginal talent looking to make their roster differs from team to team and situation to situation.

It can be argued that Russell Wilson will earn a spot in the Hall of Fame five years after he retires, but he is scheduled to start for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday against the Buffalo Bills. That’s because he has a more certain path to the Hall of Fame than he does the starting role for Mike Tomlin’s squad.

Pittsburgh is still in search of a quarterback to replace Ben Roethlisberger, who retired after the 2021 season. And while Tomlin has extended his streak to 17 consecutive winning seasons, he has had to do it the past couple years without solid quarterback play.

The first quarterback to lead the Steelers to the postseason was Terry Bradshaw, and in his dozen campaigns as the Steelers starter he won four Super Bowls. Seven opening day starting quarterbacks worked behind Pittsburgh centers after Bradshaw retired in 1983 without adding a Vince Lombardi Trophy to their display case. Then Ben Roethlisberger arrived in 2004, and before he retired, he had notched two more trophies for the Steelers.

To replace Roethlisberger, the Steelers spent a first round draft choice three years ago on Kenny Pickett, who showed promise in his rookie season but seemed to take a step backward in his sophomore campaign. Injuries for the one-time college signal caller out of the University of Pittsburgh played a part in the Steelers deciding to cut him loose after last season.

In search of a franchise caliber QB to lead the Steelers back to a February confetti drop the Steelers took a pair of shots with signal callers that were once highly regarded. The Chicago Bears, who spent the first overall pick in this year’s draft to acquire Caleb Williams, then found no need to keep Justin Fields on their roster. Fields was shipped to Pittsburgh for a conditional sixth round 2025 draft pick.

The Steelers also acquired Wilson from the Denver Broncos after the one-time Seahawks star wore out his welcome with a pair of miserable seasons in the Mile High City. They got Wilson for no more than accepting his contract, which this season will be paid mostly by the Broncos.

So, the Steelers have Fields and Wilson in camp, neither is likely to establish a career in the Steel City to match Bradshaw or Roethlisberger. And while the 2024 NFL draft was considered quarterback rich, the top six QB prospects were already picked before the Steelers got their first choice, number 20 overall.

What that leaves us with on Saturday is a Steelers team playing top talent at quarterback and after the Buffalo Bills announced they too will open the game with their starters, including quarterback Josh Allen, the line shifted four points from the home team favored by 5½ points to Pittsburgh giving 1½ points. It is likely that Buffalo will only play their front line players for a series of downs, maybe two, which is hardly worth the dramatic shift in the line.

At Home and off a loss, the Steelers and their quarterback competition add credence to a preseason wager and the public surge to Buffalo adds value on the current point spread.

Qoxhi Picks: Pittsburgh Steelers (-1½) over Buffalo Bills