Aaron Rodgers might not be as fleet of foot as he was in his heyday, but to his former coach, Tom Clements, the arm looks as good as ever. Weighing in on what the Pittsburgh Steelers are getting during their turn with Rodgers in 2025, Clements thinks Rodgers can still offer quality play.
“I know this. I know he can still throw the football as well as anyone,” Clements told Sirius Radio Monday, which featured co-host and former Steelers’ OC Todd Haley. “He is a very accurate passer, makes good decisions with the ball, protects it. Doesn’t throw a lot of interceptions.”
Clements coached Rodgers early in his career. A Pittsburgh native himself, Clements was hired as Green Bay’s quarterbacks coach in 2006, Rodgers’ second year in the league. He remained on staff through 2017 and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2012. After a stint away, he returned as the team’s quarterbacks coach for 2022, Rodgers’ final year with the Packers.
Clements admitted he didn’t watch Rodgers wire-to-wire but studied him at the start and end of the seasons. Looking healthier towards the latter gave Clements confidence that Rodgers’ game wasn’t in steep decline.
“I think he was moving a lot better at the end of the year than he was at the beginning of the year, at least in my eyes…he’s always gonna be in shape. He takes care of his body,” Clements said.
Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon four plays into the 2023 season, knocking him out for the rest of the season. The severity of the injury, coupled with his age, made it little surprise that he looked less mobile than before, especially at the beginning of 2024. Also getting past a knee injury that bothered him in the first portion of the season, Rodgers looked healthier and played better down the stretch. In the regular season finale, he tossed four touchdowns to beat the Miami Dolphins. It was his first four-touchdown showing since December 2021.
As Clements noted in a previous interview, Rodgers won’t be the locker room cancer some in the media make him out to be.
“He’s a very good teammate,” he said. “The players respect him. They like him. And the other thing that you don’t see is in the quarterback room. He is a very good mentor of young quarterbacks.”
Clements cited the good relationship Rodgers had with Jordan Love in Green Bay. Even if Rodgers was unhappy with the Packers looking towards the future by taking Love in the first round, it didn’t sour the relationship between the two. Rodgers also mentored Zach Wilson in New York, and Clements cited that third and fourth-stringers enjoyed their time learning from Rodgers over the years. That’ll work in favor of Steelers’ rookie Will Howard, expected to have a reserve role on the team’s depth chart.
Pittsburgh will bank on Rodgers’ time with the team being what he was supposed to do with the Jets. Be the missing piece and put the roster over the top. Even in a best-case world, the Steelers won’t be considered Super Bowl contenders. But Rodgers has the potential to snap Pittsburgh’s playoff win drought, and if the Steelers get into the Divisional Round as one of the AFC’s final four, all bets are off from there.
