Health a priority in camp

those preseason games. Too bad. Tomlin’s job is to put the best team he can on the field, and losing stars to injuries is no way to do that. Or does anyone need to be reminded?

Pouncey was lost for the season after his fibula was fractured in a preseason game last summer. Kicker Shaun Suisham was lost for the season and perhaps had his career end when he tore his ACL trying to make a tackle in the Hall of Fame Game. Because of that the Steelers lost at least one game — in overtime to Baltimore at home — before they found a capable kicker.

Other devastating injuries would follow and played a big part in the Steelers’ failure to win their division, failure to earn a playoff bye and failure to win more than one postseason game. Their biggest stars missed time: Roethlisberger, Bell, Brown, left tackle Kelvin Beachum, Williams.

It’s not the first time their Super Bowl hopes took big hits through key injuries in this decade, including the seasons of 2011, 2012 and 2013. It even prompted the team to adjust their training techniques and eating habits in attempts to ward off injuries, although 2015 provided no evidence that any of it helped.

Injuries might be unavoidable once the regular season starts, but why tempt it in the preseason, when nothing really matters other than to stay healthy? At least it matters little for the group above.

What, for instance, is there to gain by playing Roethlisberger, 34? Tomlin sort of agreed last preseason when his starting quarterback threw all of 21 passes. That should be reduced by 21.

Bell may not have played in this preseason anyway after missing half of last season with a knee injury. But with a four-game sus- pension hanging over Bell’s head, there’s no need to run Williams, either, in preseason games or even practice. The two combined for just 23 carries last preseason, which should drop to zero this summer. Let Fitzgerald Toussaint and the other young backs compete for the No. 3 job all summer.

Although he missed all of last season, Pouncey pretty much knows how to play center and has worked extensively with the two linemen next to him. Same thing for both of those guards and Gilbert, the right tackle who has had ankle problems in the past. They do not need any preseason playing time. Have Alejandro Villanueva and Ryan Harris compete to start at left tackle and let the others be.

Same for Heyward, who needs no preseason playing time, nor Timmons, nor any of the others mentioned. They might have to sit on Brown to keep him from sneaking into the lineup and if that’s the case, so be it: Sit on him.

They also should not allow Chris Boswell to kick off in any preseason games and, in the regular season, not allow him to run down and try to tackle anyone.

Let this be a young players’ training camp, which is not unprecedented. It was forced on Chuck Noll in 1974 when most veteran players went on strike and stayed away from camp, which became a haven for rookies and other young players to get more practice time and make the team. You will recall that they went on to win the Super Bowl and four rookies from that summer went on to the Hall of Fame.

This preseason should be for Artie Burns and Sean Davis and Senquez Golson to get the reps in the secondary, for nose tackles Daniel McCullers and Javon Hargrave to go at it, for Jarvis Jones and Bud Dupree to state their cases as No. 1 picks, for tight ends Jesse James and Ladarius Green, and young wide receivers Sammie Coates and Eli Rogers.

There are more benefits to be had by banishing certain veterans from playing and having only minimal practices besides the safety factor; the young players the Steelers desperately need to fill in the cracks, especially on defense, can get more on-the-job training.

One more time: “Stay Healthy, Stay Eligible, Stay Home.”