Aug 12, 2009 3 min read

UNITY TWP. – Mike Tomlin doesn’t want to be held to any promises about Thursday night’s preseason opener against the Arizona Cardinals at Heinz Field. So Tomlin said the following MIGHT occur: The first team will only play a few series.

All four quarterbacks will play.

All of the injured players could play.

But, “it’s a safe assumption that Darnell Stapleton is not going to play,” the coach of the Steelers allowed. “Being preseason, we don’t have a timetable in terms of ruling people out. I’d just as soon keep everybody alive at this point until the 11th hour.”

Tomlin’s mantra Tuesday, at his first pre-game press conference, was understandable: If he doesn’t have to make a promise, he won’t.

About the only promise he did make is that Mike Wallace will return the first kickoff. That’s enough to put some fannies in the seats and make his bosses happy.

Wallace is the wide receiver who has repeatedly burned defenders at camp. Tuesday, in fact, Tomlin watched Wallace run by cornerback Roy Lewis, and the coach let out an “Uh, oh.” And as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger scrambled and Wallace got past safety Ryan Mundy, Tomlin became louder with another “Uh, oh.” And, sure enough, Roethlisberger threw the ball 40-some yards into the end zone where Wallace gobbled it up. Tomlin walked over to a handful of reporters and said, “Say he ran by everybody, but don’t say he knows what he’s doing.”

So, the rookie burner will return the first kickoff, and Tomlin said that “probably Joe Burnett maybe with the first punt return.”

Burnett is another flashy rookie Tomlin is trying to keep on an even mental keel. After Burnett made a diving interception yesterday, Tomlin walked over to the same group of reporters and said, “That was Deshea Townsend, right?”

Tomlin hopes to have similar fun against the Cardinals on Thursday night, even though he hasn’t looked at the Super Bowl tape for any type of advantage.

“We’re just concerned about coming out and playing the game extremely fast, extremely hard,” Tomlin said. “Realize that we’re not going to play perfect, but we’ve got to have Steeler kind of tempo in our play. We can’t be tentative. I talked to the guys about that. Of course, we hope that produces a winning performance for us.”

Some of the more interesting subplots will be the performance of: a crowded group of defensive backs against the pass-happy Cardinals; center Doug Legursky, who’ll start at center in place of Justin Hartwig and Darnell Stapleton; the between-the-tackles running of last year’s first-round pick Rashard Mendenhall; and the debut of this year’s first-round pick Ziggy Hood, whom Aaron Smith has called the fastest-developing 3-4 defensive end he’s seen with the Steelers.

“He’d better. We took him in the first round,” Tomlin said when presented with Smith’s comment. “We took Aaron and some of those other guys four and five. He’d better look like he’s got the pedigree. No, but he’s got good football character. He’s a sharp kid. We said those things about him when we drafted him. … It doesn’t mean that his play’s above the line just yet. We’ll know a little bit more probably early Friday morning.”