Aaron Rodgers reportedly addressed his new teammates during his first day with Pittsburgh Steelers and let them know that he is all-in. He appears to be backing that up with his actions during the six-week break between mandatory minicamp and training camp. He already extended an open invite to his teammates to join him in Malibu, Calif.,ahead of camp, and the extra work won’t stop there. According to The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo, Rodgers will also be working with OC Arthur Smith to iron out some of the finer details of the offense.
“Rodgers and Smith plan to get together this summer to work through the playbook and make tweaks to fit the new QB,” DeFabo wrote this morning in his mailbag via The Athletic.“But already, I think there’s more middle ground than most people realize.”
Fortunately for both, Rodgers already has a level of familiarity with his type of offense. For one, he studied Smith and Ryan Tannehill prior to one of his MVP seasons with Matt LaFleur in Green Bay. And Smith spent one year under OC LaFleur with the Tennessee Titans. The biggest hurdle to overcome, according to reports, is the different language Smith uses to describe concepts. But the concepts themselves are nothing new for Rodgers.
When Rodgers spoke to the media at minicamp, he said he would only need a couple weeks to pick up the offense.
“And if there’s things that I like that I’d like to see in the offense, Arthur I’m sure is gonna put it in,” Rodgers said via the team’s YouTube channel.
Despite the reported tension between Russell Wilson and Smith last year, it would be hard to justify limiting a quarterback like Rodgers at the line of scrimmage. Rodgers and Smith had a lengthy meeting during his visit in March and reportedly stayed in contact throughout the decision process. Things heated up over the last couple weeks before he signed with the two exchanging ideas.
It helps that Arthur Smith spent the last few months building an offense with Rodgers in mind. And the extra time they spend together will help Rodgers hit the ground running at training camp. It’ll also give him the opportunity, assuming that happens before the Malibu workouts with teammates, to start to communicate some of the offense’s wrinkles the two of them come up with together.
