With or without Aaron Rodgers, the Pittsburgh Steelers have an uphill battle in the AFC North with quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson among the top players in the league. But the longer Rodgers drags his feet, the wider that gap becomes.
“You need continuity,” Mike Tannenbaum said via ESPN’s Get Up this morning. “They have good skill players, I think DK Metcalf’s a great receiver. But if you don’t have reps, it matters. And I think about Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson and all the reps they’ve had with their starters over the years. They’re at a competitive disadvantage. I think they’re at a massive disadvantage when you think about the years that Burrow and Lamar Jackson have had compared to presumably what an Aaron Rodgers late June signing would be.”
A late June signing would mean Rodgers misses the entire offseason program, including all six OTA sessions and the three-day mandatory minicamp in early June. He would just have training camp to go through a crash course with his new teammates.
Whether or not he can quickly acclimate is only half of the battle. It’s a two-way street with his pass catchers and even his offensive line. How much velocity is on the passes? What is his cadence like at the line of scrimmage? Are the Steelers installing any audible packages, which have seemingly been very limited in recent years? All of the little things matter, and there is no way to gain that cohesion other than time spent on the field.
Arthur Smith and Rodgers is a whole other story. They have to get comfortable with each other to avoid any tension, like what was reportedly experienced between Smith and Russell Wilson last year.
Not to say that it’s impossible for everybody to get on the same page quickly. If that was the case, then you wouldn’t have rookie quarterbacks making it to the NFC Championship Game like Jayden Daniels did last year. But every practice Rodgers misses sets the Steelers back by some small amount. Add that up over the course of nine practices between OTAs and minicamp, and it could be an extra game or two in the regular season before they start to click.
Charlie Batch made the point that a continued delay in Rodgers’ decision could mean Mason Rudolph gets a leg up on the future Hall of Famer. It won’t be a competition if Rodgers signs, but Batch’s point is sound in that Rudolph will be miles ahead in the team-building process.
Art Rooney II reportedly doubled down on his Rodgers timeline at the recent owners meetings. As he said in early April, they will continue to wait, but “not forever.”
