The Pittsburgh Steelers tried to upgrade their starting quarterback position this offseason by signing Aaron Rodgers. While Rodgers is coming off of a few down years, he’s one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. He’s 41, so it makes sense that he’s past his prime. But the Steelers’ new passer still has talent left. His status as a legend has put a target on his back, too. Detroit Lions corner Terrion Arnold recently pointed Rodgers out as a quarterback he wants to intercept this year.
“Aaron Rodgers,” Arnold said recently on Up and Adams with Kay Adams. “The Steelers. Just because of the significance of it. A-Rod, he’s a really respected guy. Growing up, that was somebody that I looked at like, ‘Dang, that’s A-Rod.’
“It’s one of those things where when you make it to the NFL, now you’re going against that person, so you can’t look at them in that aspect. But it’s still a reminder like, I’m here and I used to watch you when I was a kid. We just wanna manifest it.”
Arnold was a first-round pick by the Lions last year. He had a fine rookie season, starting 15 games and helping the Lions become one of the best teams in the league. He’s yet to record his first NFL interception, however.
This year, the Steelers face the Lions in Week 16. That game seems far away, but Arnold will be keeping an eye on it. Rodgers will also likely be looking forward to playing the Lions. For 15 years, Rodgers quarterbacked the Green Bay Packers, one of the Lions’ biggest rivals. During that time, Rodgers beat the Lions a lot, being 18-8 against them so far in his career.
Arnold wasn’t in the NFC North during the same time as Rodgers, but he did grow up watching the quarterback dominate that division. Not only would Arnold picking off Rodgers mean a lot to him, but it would also likely mean a lot for the Lions and their fans.
Unfortunately for Arnold, not throwing interceptions is one of Rodgers’ greatest strengths. He owns the all-time record for lowest interception percentage for a quarterback with a minimum of 1,500 pass attempts. He’s thrown double-digit interceptions during a season only four times in his career.
Granted, two of those seasons have come in Rodgers’ last two healthy years, but he’s still adept at protecting the ball. Hopefully, Rodgers and Arnold will both be healthy when Week 16 rolls around. Maybe Rodgers will recapture some of his old magic and defeat Detroit one last time.
