Various players have weighed in on four-time league MVP and future first-ballot Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers potentially joining the Pittsburgh Steelers. One of the newest members of the team, Daniel Ekuale, is the latest to voice his support for the Steelers’ pursuit of Rodgers.
“I feel like he’s still got some fire underneath him,” Ekuale said via the Chipped Ham and Football podcast on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Sports’ YouTube channel with Brian Batko. “I feel like last year with the Achilles injury, I feel like he gonna bounce back big this year. So me playing against him, he is a very elite, on that level. Knowing defenses and making checks, all these stuff that all these offenses know. So I feel like with A-Rod, man, I just hope the Steelers get him.”
Last season may have been Ekuale’s second one as a starter in the league, but the former undrafted free agent has been around since 2018 as part of the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots. He’s played against Rodgers four times in his career, including twice in Green Bay against the Packers and twice last year against the Jets. He knows firsthand how difficult it can be to game plan against a quarterback with that much knowledge and command of the offense.
Even at 41 years old, Rodgers still has some of that pocket mobility that he’s been known for his entire career, Ekuale says.
“I think Thursday night I let him escape out of the pocket one time and kind of underestimated [him],” Ekuale said. “So when he escaped that pocket on Thursday night down in MetLife, and I kind of missed contain, I was like ‘Oh my God.’ I didn’t know this dude still got it in him after that Achilles injury he had. But yeah, I think A-Rod still got it in him.”
Achilles injuries can take a full year, or longer, to recover from. With the injury happening in Week 1 of the 2023 season, it’s possible we were just starting to see Rodgers back at full health by the end of the 2024 season. And no player is really ever at “full health” by the end of a season with other minor injuries along the way. Rodgers could be the best version of himself since his last year with the Packers in 2022.
That decision should hopefully be coming soon, and we can shift the conversation from whether or not he signs to how far he can take this team in 2025.
