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It doesn't seem possible, does it, that it has been more than six months since the Pittsburgh Steelers played their last game of the 2023-24 National Football League season.
A lot has changed since that Monday afternoon of Jan. 15, when the Steelers were eliminated from the playoffs with a 31-17 loss in Buffalo.
For starters, the team will be looking for a new quarterback.
Kenny Pickett, who was considered to be the natural successor to Ben Roethlisberger after being drafted in the first round of the 2022 draft, is no longer on the roster. The choice seemed to make a lot of sense at the time -- Pickett was coming off a pretty good run at Pitt, where he had helped the Panthers win the Atlantic Coast Conference title in his senior season.
Things never really worked out for him with the Steelers, and Pickett now will be looking to back up Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia.
Also gone is Mitch Trubisky. Things also didn't work out well for him in Pittsburgh, so he has moved on to Buffalo.
And Mason Rudolph? He now plays for Tennessee.
But while those quarterbacks and the Steelers have parted ways, the team in off-season has signed a couple of guys with NFL experience -- Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.
Wilson led Seattle to consecutive Super Bowls, a 43-8 win over Denver Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 and a 28-24 loss to New England in Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, while Fields has shown a lot of potential since being drafted by Chicago out of Ohio State in 2021.
There are a couple of other quarterbacks listed on the roster: Kyle Allen, who has played in 30 games split among Carolina, Washington, Houston and Buffalo during an NFL career that began in 2018; and John Rhys Plumlee, an umdrafted rookie from the University of Central Florida.
That quarterback question is just one of many the Steelers will be looking to answer when training camp opens Wednesday at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. As always, fans will have the opportunity to attend one of the camp sessions, beginning at 10:30 am. Thursday and running through the 10:30 a.m. session on Aug. 14.
That will include the popular night practice, which is scheduled to be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 2 at Latrobe Memorial Stadium.
There is no charge to attend any of the training camp sessions, but if you are going, you will need to get a ticket through Ticketmaster.
This year's preseason schedule includes 7 p.m. home games against Houston Aug. 9 and Buffalo on Aug. 17, with the lone road game coming at 1 p.m. Aug. 24 at Detroit. That all leads up to the season-opener at 1 p.m. Sept. 8 in Atlanta.
While it's easy to see a session at Steelers training camp, Browns fans will find there are fewer opportunities to spend an afternoon at training camp -- six, to be exact: Aug. 4, Aug. 6, Aug. 8, Aug. 12, Aug. 20 and Aug. 21. As with the Steelers, you will need to get a ticket through the Browns mobile app.
The Browns will be in training camp at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulpher Springs, W.Va., from Thursday through Aug. 2 before heading back to Northern Ohio and Berea beginning Aug. 4.
Cleveland's preseason schedule includes 4:25 p.m. home games against Green Bay on Aug. 10 and Minnesota on Aug. 17 and a road game at Seattle at 10 p.m. Aug. 24. The Browns open their regular season at 4:25 p.m. Sept. 8 against Dallas.
Fans of college football will be looking to Aug. 31, when all of the region's teams will open their schedules. That includes West Virginia hosting Penn State and Pitt hosting Kent State in noon kickoffs; Ohio State hosting Akron in a 3:30 p.m. game; and Notre Dame visiting Texas A&M in a 7:30 p.m. contest.
High school football in our area actually was scheduled to get underway at 7:15 p.m. Saturday, when the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference held its 78th-annual Rudy Mumley Charity All-Star Football Game at Wheeling Island stadium.
That will start the clock ticking toward the start of the high school football, which returns in about a month. Opening games, on Aug. 23 include Archbishop McNicholas at Big Red; Cambridge at Indian Creek; Edison at Shenandoah; Toronto at East Canton; Buckeye Local at Bellaire and Harrison Central at Claymont. Catholic Central will visit Wellsville on Aug. 24.
West Virginia schools will get started one week later, when Weir High visits Oak Glen on Aug. 29. On Aug. 30, Madonna will host Wellsville and Brooke will travel to Beaver Local.
No matter which team you follow, the best way to prepare for the coming season will be to get a copy of our annual football edition. Inside its pages you will find in-depth previews of each of our area's high school football teams. It's an award-winning publication, having been honored numerous times in contests conducted by the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors and West Virginia Press associations.
You will find it included in the Aug. 21 editions of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times.
Fans of pro and college football will be able to find a preview edition looking at those two sports included in the Sept. 1 editions of the newspapers.
There are questions at the start of every season. With training camps set to open, it's certain that we will be able to get some answers -- and find a whole new set of questions -- in the coming weeks.
(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is executive editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)