Pittsburgh Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers is getting the hang of the offense. In a 1-on-1 interview with Missi Matthews, Rodgers, who said last week that the picture was still a “little fuzzy” when it came to learning Arthur Smith’s offense, said he feels close to mastering it.
“For me, it’s what image is coming to my mind when I break the huddle. For me, I have a lot of offenses on my mind,” Rodgers said via the team’s YouTube channel.. “So the pictures are starting to crystallize a little bit better as we get into the third week here.”
Rodgers has played in a lot of different offenses over the last few seasons, playing under the likes of Matt LaFleur and Nathaniel Hackett recently and Mike McCarthy for the majority of his career. Smith learned under LaFleur, but their offenses obviously aren’t identical, so there’s still a learning curve to be had for Rodgers.
Even though he and Smith talked during his free agency process, getting into the flow of an offense takes time. With Rodgers joining the Steelers in June and not taking team reps in mandatory minicamp, he never really got the chance to have that image in his mind of what things should look like upon breaking the huddle until training camp.
So it’s understandable that it’s taken a few weeks for things to really start to click for Rodgers. While he won’t play in the Steelers’ preseason opener tomorrow, there are plenty of opportunities between now and Week 1 for him to continue to master the offense, including the last two training camp practices on Monday and Tuesday.
With Rodgers feeling comfortable with the offense three weeks in, he should be ready to roll by Week 1. While there’s been some trepidation that he won’t be settled in by then by some analysts, the offense has looked better recently in practice and Rodgers feeling close to having the offense down with a month until Week 1 is a good sign for the Steelers.
Pittsburgh needs to get off to a hot start in 2025 due to another tough end-of-year schedule, and if Rodgers is still getting used to Smith’s offense, that would become much more of an obstacle. But things should be smooth early, and Rodgers has put in the time and the work to get familiar and start seeing the picture clearly.
