Coming off three-day mandatory minicamp, there’s seemingly a lot of optimism for the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 2025 season, especially now that Aaron Rodgers is under contract and is “all in” on the team moving forward.
Of course, the T.J. Watt contract situation is concerning, but outside of that things are looking up for the Steelers. Almost everyone believes things will go pretty well for the Steelers this season with Rodgers under center, too. Unless you’re ESPN’s Dan Graziano.
Last week in a piece for ESPN.com, Graziano stated he doesn’t believe Rodgers will make a “big difference” for the Steelers this season and that they’ll be the same old Steelers. On Monday morning he doubled down on that during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up.
“He didn’t make the Jets instant contenders, not to bring up a sore subject. He’s 41, gonna be 42 by the end of the year. And this is not a team that was like plug-in a quarterback and now you have a contender,” Graziano said of the Steelers with Rodgers, according to video via ESPN. “They have question marks on the offensive line. They have one receiver who’s averaged 73 catches a year in his NFL career. They have, what, a defense that’s average age is like 28, 29? Probably one of the older defenses in the league.
“And by the way, they’re having the exact same problem right now with T.J. Watt that the Bengals are having with Trey Hendrickson and nobody’s getting on their case about it. I think Pittsburgh could be in for a rough one.”
Rodgers’ two seasons with the New York Jets were rather rough. He tore his Achilles just four plays into the 2023 season, and then in 2024 had a lot of ups and downs as the Jets went just 5-12. Rodgers started to play well late in the season, but it was too little, too late, and led to a quick exit from the Jets after they hired new head coach Aaron Glenn.
As for the Steelers, they have cycled through a number of different quarterbacks since Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement, and while they’ve made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, they haven’t been all that good and remain adrift at the most important position in sports.
For 2025 at least, they’re banking on Rodgers being the answer, a guy who can stabilize the offense and potentially lead the Steelers to a playoff win, all while having plenty of draft capital for 2026 to try and trade up for the signal caller.
While things might not have gone well in New York for Rodgers, the Steelers aren’t the Jets. There’s more stability, better talent and better coaching in place. They should be better this season.
As for Graziano’s concerns outside of Rodgers, it seems a bit unfair to criticize DK Metcalf for averaging just 73 receptions a year in his career, as if he’s not some sort of No. 1 receiver who was in an offense that primarily leaned on the run game for much of his time in the Pacific Northwest.
Questions about the offensive line and the age of the defense are fair. The offensive line is still young and has much to prove, while the defense has plenty of star power but fell apart late last season during a five-game collapse to end the year.
The Watt contract situation in comparison to Trey Hendrickson in Cincinnati is just a swing and a miss from Graziano. It’s not even remotely the same. Hendrickson has been in need of a new deal for two years, and has been public about it. The Bengals, historically, don’t like to pay players market value and really only started to break some precedent in recent years with Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
That they’re not paying Hendrickson is puzzling, but the Steelers will pay Watt, without a doubt.
One thing is clear with Graziano’s appearance on Get Up Monday morning: he’s down on the Steelers in a big way. That’s certainly fine, but he had some reaches with his criticism of the Steelers in the process.
