If Mike Tomlin was able to maintain his streak of never having a losing season with the likes of Duck Hodges in 2019, he can surely do the same with one of the best quarterbacks of all time in Aaron Rodgers. Right?
The analysts over at The 33rd Team think the Steelers are destined for a losing season, and they aren’t convinced that Rodgers can save the day.
“With or without, we’re gonna go under and Rodgers gets to be the quarterback that ends the streak for Mike Tomlin,” Steve Palazzolo said via The 33rd Team’s broadcast on X.
At 41 years old, history is not on Rodgers’ side. Tom Brady is the most notable example with a pair of Super Bowls at 41 or older. Other than the anomaly that is Brady, Warren Moon had a Pro Bowl season at 41 and Drew Brees managed a 9-3 record. Brett Favre had a great season at 40 but fell off a cliff at 41. That is the end of the list, and a notable thing for Rodgers to try to overcome.
Rodgers’ first season back from an Achilles injury yielded a 5-12 record—the worst of his career by a decent margin. He has another year of recovery from his Achilles going for him, but he has to contend with being 41 and what that has meant for basically everybody else before him.
That Rodgers has already missed a month of learning the offense and jelling with his playmakers while he remains unsigned is not a great start.
“I just keep coming back to, [can you] teach an old dog new tricks type of thing. Like he needs new tricks at this point, and is he willing to do that?” Palazzolo asked. “I don’t know. And does he have the right master [to continue the analogy]? Does he have the right play caller? Does he have the right guy in Arthur Smith?
“If Aaron Rodgers went to San Francisco and played under Kyle [Shanahan], you could paint this easy picture of Rodgers runs the system and they’ve got playmakers, and he has a really good season. I don’t think this is that type of situation.”
The 5-12 Jets roster that Rodgers had to work with was arguably better than the group he would be leading in Pittsburgh, at least on offense. He had Garrett Wilson, Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, Breece Hall, Mike Williams, Malachi Corley and Tyler Conklin. His top two pass catchers were quite a bit better than DK Metcalf and company in Pittsburgh.
“My question would be at receiver, where it’s DK Metcalf and a whole bunch of question marks right now,” Palazzolo said. “The question is the entire pass game for the Steelers, and Arthur Smith running the show, right? He hasn’t really led a great passing attack since what, 2019 with the Titans?”
Smith’s passing offenses haven’t been great, but the rosters he’s had to work with since that two-year stint in Tennessee weren’t great either. The Falcons had one of the worst quarterback situations in the league for all three of those seasons, and his No. 2 receiver was either Olamide Zaccheaus or Mack Hollins for those years in Atlanta.
Is Metcalf going to be able to do much better? At the very least, Rodgers is better than Taylor Heinicke, Desmond Ridder or late-career Matt Ryan. And maybe Pat Freiermuth, Calvin Austin III and Roman Wilson can form a formidable group of weapons for Rodgers to distribute the ball to.
It would be quite the turn of events for Tomlin to survive the Duck Hodges year and then lose his streak with a future Hall of Famer at quarterback. Perhaps that would be a fitting end to one of the most controversial accomplishments in the NFL.
