Steelers vs. Giants 2017 live stream: Start time, TV channel, and how to watch online

The Pittsburgh Steelers will boast one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses in 2017. We just probably won’t get to see much of it on Friday.

Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and Le’Veon Bell won’t be playing when the Steelers travel to New Jersey to open their preseason against the New York Giants. Roethlisberger and Brown get to rest, while Bell is continuing to hold out. Bell is not officially under contract until he signs his franchise contract tender.

The Giants will likely take a similar approach to Friday night. Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. probably won’t play in the preseason opener, either. Beckham is one of the few players in the league who can match Brown’s game-changing talent. Manning will enter his age-36 season with the deepest receiving corps he’s ever had — even if Sterling Shepard isn’t 100 percent after an early camp ankle injury.

Unfortunately, since this is the preseason, don’t expect to see many starters out there for either team. Instead, Friday’s game will be the first step in a four-phase game of thrones for a spot on each team’s 53-man roster.

For Pittsburgh, that means sorting out a loading receiving depth chart and a young, explosive defense. The Steelers added dynamic USC wideout JuJu Smith-Schuster in the second round of the NFL draft, making players like Sammie Coates and Justin Hunter potentially expendable. On the other side of the ball, 2017 draftees T.J. Watt and Cameron Sutton will try to work their way into a starting lineup hellbent on returning the unit to its Steel Curtain roots.

The Giants have a bit more roster uncertainty. After fielding the league’s 29th-ranked rushing attack last fall, New York remains in dire need of a true No. 1 tailback to emerge from the ether. Second-year back Paul Perkins got the nod at starter after a brief but intriguing rookie season, but he’ll need to prove he can handle the duties of a featured back. Behind him, veterans Shane Vereen, Orleans Darkwa, and Shaun Draughn offer an uninspiring platoon. One name who could emerge from the ether is former Clemson back Wayne Gallman, who slipped to the fourth round of the 2017 draft but ran for 3,400 yards — and a national championship — with the Tigers.

Depends. If you’re a Volunteers fan, absolutely. Rookie quarterback Joshua Dobbs, a fourth-round pick out of Tennessee, will get the start for the Steelers. Dobbs isn’t a finished product, but he’ll have a chance to show the Steelers if he’s worth investing time and work into. That could mean Dobbs can eventually succeed Roethlisberger — or at the very least backup Landry Jones, who is out due to injury.

Friday’s preseason showdown will likely be a sloppy affair between two teams taking their first game reps, but it will also give a glimpse of how two expected contenders will look in 2017. The Steelers and Giants both have explosive offenses led by veteran championship quarterbacks. If their defenses can rise to the occasion, Week 1 of this year’s preseason could be a preview of the final week of the postseason.

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Location: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.

TV: WNBC-4NY (New York), KDKA 2 (Pittsburgh), NFL Network

Announcers: Bob Papa, Carl Banks (NY); Bob Pompeani, Charlie Batch (Pittsburgh)

Online: NFL Game Pass, Watch NFL Network