Two young quarterbacks working on a field nearly 20 years ago would come to pay dividends for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Trying to find their footing in the league, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Arth joined Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy to work on football’s fundamentals during the 2006 offseason. Rodgers became a legend. Arth did not. But they’re reunited in Pittsburgh with the common goal of leading the Steelers to a postseason appearance and ideally, advancing to Divisional Weekend.
Arth spoke to reporters during last week’s mandatory minicamp, recalling those days of learning the basics of quarterback play.
“It was Mike McCarthy’s first year in Green Bay,” he said via the team’s YouTube channel. “We went through the quarterback school, which is kind of a famous deal for Mike McCarthy. And it was so beneficial for me. So much of what I believe as a coach and how I coach the fundamentals of playing the quarterback, and really even just schematically. So much of that I can take back to my time in Green Bay and being around Coach McCarthy and in that quarterback school.”
Arth spent only a few months in Green Bay that year and wasn’t carried on the regular-season roster. But the knowledge he gleaned carried over into his coaching career that began a short time later. Arth returned to his alma mater at D-III John Carroll, where he had starred and was named the school’s No. 1 player in history, even ranking above Don Shula and London Fletcher.
He moved up the coaching ranks from FCS to FBS head coach before being hired by Brandon Staley, whom Arth first hired at John Carroll, as the Los Angeles Chargers’ passing game coach in 2022. Pittsburgh tabbed Arth to serve as its quarterbacks coach last season.
As we wrote about, Arth’s core beliefs center on footwork. Rodgers remarked to reporters Arth has the smoothest dropback he’s ever seen. It didn’t translate into an amazing NFL career, Arth is best known for serving as a third-string quarterback behind Peyton Manning. But as the adage goes, those who can’t do, teach. Arth is regarded as a quality teacher and he credits McCarthy for the crash course in quarterback play.
“It was so valuable for me,” Arth said of the time. “It was fun. It was just Aaron and I. We were the only two there.”
Now, Arth is tasked with serving as Rodgers’ likely final quarterbacks coach. Arth and the Steelers made progress with QB Justin Fields a year ago, turning him from a player no team viewed as a starter, not even Pittsburgh, into landing a starting deal with the New York Jets.
At this point of Rodgers’ career, there might not be much to teach him. He knows all the tricks. But Arth still serves in support and the two seem lockstep on how a quarterback is supposed to play, a promising initial sign into how their relationship will work now that they’re player and coach instead of teammates.
