The Kazmer Report

Well, Dennis Dixon confirmed my previous blog Sunday night.

-Rick Kazmer

rickk@dailyamerican.com

Should the NFL go to 18 regular season games?

(This column is part of a debate series available in Tuesday’s Daily American.)

Yes
By RICK KAZMER

Watching third-string scrubs blunder through late minutes of pre-season football is a waste of potential meaningful NFL time.
The league should expand the regular season to 18 games and eliminate two of the exhibition debacles that fans now endure four times a year. One, maybe two of the games are necessary to gauge who will be starters and backups. But expecting anyone to demonstrate their true potential on a field of young nobodies is ridiculous.
The errors of the inexperienced in some cases do more harm than good. Pittsburgh quarterback Byron Leftwich was lucky to leave the field standing Sunday in Denver (after Head Coach Mike Tomlin strangely played him with backups) because the scrub line in front of him was obviously unorganized and outplayed. It is sad when a team loses its season because the star player is injured in an exhibition game. And there is no need for the loss.
Coaches can get an adequate idea of a player’s individual talent in training camp. If team staffs want more time to evaluate players, then give them longer training camps.
The NFL season is short. Regular season games are better than pre-season games. It makes sense to enact the proposed scheduling adjustment.
(City Editor Rick Kazmer can be reached at rickk@dailyamerican.com.)

This Steelers fan is not jumping on the Dennis Dixon bandwagon — at least after one preseason performance.

If Coach Mike Tomlin starts Dixon during one of the preseason games and he is successful, then Byron Leftwich may have some competition.

For now Dixon is a run-first, pass if it’s available quarterback. That kind of play won’t hold against good defenses — as it did against the Lions scrubs nearly a week ago. The team knows what it has in Leftwich. He should be able to get the Steelers to a 2-2 record before Big Ben comes back. That is if the defense, offensive line and running game are decent. If they fail, then even Roethlisberger cannot save the season.

Give Dixon the starting nod against one of the preseason opponents. If the coaches can open up the passing playbook with him at the helm, then maybe he can lead the Steelers to a perfect record after four games.

-Rick Kazmer

rickk@dailyamerican.com