For the Pittsburgh Steelers to put themselves through this month-long waiting game for Aaron Rodgers, there will be an expectation that the juice is worth the squeeze. Even once the wait is over, then there will be the weekly appearances on The Pat McAfee Show and any bizarre things that he might say that could be a distraction for the team. It will all be easy to stomach if he makes the team better, but a tough season could amplify a lot of the negativity that surrounded the team over the final month of the 2024 season.
Former NFL defensive lineman Chris Canty thinks it will be more of the same moving from one washed-up veteran to another.
“Aaron Rodgers is the next version of Russell Wilson and it’s just not good enough,” Canty said via ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike this morning. “We saw how that ended last year where they lost five-straight games. There’s no way that the Pittsburgh Steelers get better or have a different result in the postseason with Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback.”
It is reasonable to have doubts about a 41-year-old quarterback who was only able to win five games last season on a pretty talented New York Jets team. Russell Wilson was at least able to produce six wins in his first seven starts before that five-game losing streak to finish the season at 6-6. Wilson also had a much worse group of wide receivers to work with.
All that said, I think Canty’s perspective discounts the high floor that the Steelers have been able to provide throughout Mike Tomlin tenure as the head coach, and especially since Ben Roethlisberger retired. Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, Justin Fields and Russell Wilson all combined for a 29-22 record in the regular season and two playoff berths. Do we really think that a first-ballot Hall of Famer would be any worse than that collective group?
Fields was the perfect example of what the Steelers can do for a quarterback. Winning just 10 games in his three NFL seasons with the Chicago Bears, he was 4-2 as the starter with the Steelers.
Even at 41, Rodgers would give Pittsburgh its best quarterback play since Roethlisberger. Maybe even since Roethlisberger’s injury in 2019. Russell Wilson is a potential Hall of Famer in his own right, but Rodgers is a first-ballot guy. Wilson was much more dependent on his mobility than Rodgers ever was, and it’s a night-and-day difference when it comes to seeing the field and going through reads properly.
The presence of a figure like Rodgers would also force Tomlin and Arthur Smith to push the boundaries of their offense in a way they did not do in 2024. For those of you who were unhappy with the offensive game plan, Rodgers has a real shot at changing it for the better.
Even Roethlisberger said that the Steelers become an entirely different team if Rodgers comes to town. With a young and improving o-line, an improved WR room and another year removed from his Achilles tear, I disagree that Rodgers will yield the same results as Wilson.
