Ben Roethlisberger didn’t see the field during the Steelers’ preseason opener against the Lions, but will get playing time before he begins to serve a suspension to start the regular season, according to coach Mike Tomlin.

Tomlin held Roethlisberger out in favor of Byron Leftwich and gave an extended look to Dennis Dixon, citing the limited number of first-team snaps as the main reason.

“Ben is going to have opportunities to play in the preseason,” Tomlin told reporters. ”But with the number of snaps that we anticipated the first offense running tonight, it just wasn’t appropriate to play him. He wanted to play. He’s had an awesome training camp thus far. We’re going to continue what we set out to do in that this guy is going to have a productive camp and preseason. And we’re going to get the clarity from other men we’re looking for. It just wasn’t in the cards for him tonight in those circumstances.”

Tomlin said he wasn’t interested in seeing Roethlisberger taking snaps with the second-team offense. He didn’t give any clear indication of when, exactly, we will see Roethlisberger.

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