Aaron Rodgers will have WR Davante Adams at his disposal when the New York Jets QB takes on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense. But he knows it’s still not going to be easy to take on T.J. Watt and the second-best scoring defense of 2024. Making his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee Show Tuesday, Rodgers praised Watt and the Steelers’ defense.
“T.J. is an absolute game wrecker,” Rodgers said on the show. “I mean, what he did last week, punching the ball out twice. You just don’t see that.”
Watt forced a pair of fumbles against the run in the Steelers’ win over the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday, catalyst plays that helped put Pittsburgh on top and prevent any chance of a Las Vegas comeback. It was the fifth multi-forced fumble game of his career and first where both came against the run instead of a strip-sack. Now the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year, the Jets’ o-line will have to step up to protect the largely immobile Rodgers, who has been sacked 16 times this season.
“A d-lineman who could lead the league in sacks and be in, really the MVP or defensive player of the year conversation every year when he is healthy,” Rodgers said of Watt. “That is just not normal. Not normal. He’s in a league by himself.”
And Rodgers knows the Steelers’ defense is more than just Watt. Pittsburgh is second in scoring defense, eighth in yards allowed, second in rushung yards per attempt, and tied for fifth in takeaways. This will be just Rodgers’ third career regular-season start against Pittsburgh, but he holds plenty of respect for Mike Tomlin and company.
“They got a great fan base. They got a great home field advantage. They got one of my favorite coaches and people in the league, Mike Tomlin,” Rodgers said. “And they play that Renegade in the fourth quarter. You know what’s coming. It’s a great place to play. It’s loud. It’s a tough environment.”
Rodgers recalled the few games he has played against Pittsburgh. The game-of-the-year battle in 2009, QB Ben Roethlisberger finding WR Mike Wallace in the end zone with no time left to win, 37-36. Rodgers threw for 383 yards and three touchdowns that day, remembering trying to play keep away from LB Lawrence Timmons, who hit him as “hard as I’ve ever been hit in my life,” Rodgers said.
There was the 2010 Super Bowl where Aaron Rodgers’ Packers came out on top, dicing up the Steelers’ secondary with pinpoint passes to WR Jordy Nelson and company. The most recent meeting came in 2021 in Pittsburgh, Tomlin and Rodgers exchanging googly eyes as the Packers came out on top. Rodgers has praised Tomlin throughout the years, including after that game, to the point where some believed he could be an option for Pittsburgh when he was on his way out of Green Bay.
“It’s a special, special place,” Rodgers said. “You think about the cornerstones of the NFL. Obviously Green Bay and Chicago with the history and how far they go back. But you can’t write the history of the NFL without [the] Pittsburgh Steelers.”
The Steelers and Packers are among the oldest and most storied franchises in football. The Packers were started in 1921, the Steelers in 1933. Both have more Hall of Famers than you can count with iconic names who only need their last names to be known: Lombardi, Starr, Noll, and Bradshaw.
Like Pittsburgh had with Roethlisberger, Rodgers is an old-school quarterback from a previous generation. Ones capable of calling their own plays, growing up in an era where defenses weren’t policed and restricted like they are today, even calling out the refs for a roughing the passer call that benefited him in last night’s loss to the Buffalo Bills. And Rodgers will get one more chance to take on Pittsburgh this weekend.
