The Steelers have been cycling through veteran quarterbacks over the last few offseasons. While it’s been said before, they seem much more confident in this year’s version of that trend, Aaron Rodgers. If everything goes right, Rodgers could be the best quarterback Pittsburgh has seen since Ben Roethlisberger.
Steelers reporter Jeff Hathhorn believes that comes with Rodgers potentially having a bigger say in things than some other recent Steelers quarterbacks. Speaking on 93.7 The Fan on Wednesday, Hathhorn was asked if Rodgers has more of a voice in the offense than Russell Wilson or Justin Fields last year.
“I do think quarterbacks always have some kind of say in the offense,” Hathhorn said. “But the level of say seems to be different with Aaron Rodgers… If he gets up in a meeting and says, ‘hey, why don’t we do this?’, it’s not gonna be like ‘we’re just going to listen to your suggestion and move on’. It’s gonna be like ‘yeah, we’ll look into that’. Even some of the language they’ve used, they’ve altered for Aaron. I’m not saying they’re giving the entire offense over to Aaron. But Aaron has a lot of say.”
That wouldn’t exactly be a high bar to clear. The Steelers never seemed to want Fields to start when Wilson was healthy. When Fields ran the offense, Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith kept things extremely basic. It expanded a bit with Wilson at the helm, but even then, he and Smith reportedly disagreed on some things as the season came to a close.
However, Aaron Rodgers is on a different level, as Hathhorn suggests. He has two decades of experience, and while Wilson has plenty of years behind him, Rodgers can read the game at a much higher level. At this point, with him being 41 years old, that might be the best trait he brings to the offense.
He can still toss the ball around, which was evident during the home stretch of the 2024 season. However, his football IQ does open this offense up much more. Russell Wilson really struggled to read the middle of the field, and the Steelers ended up avoiding it. That led to an offense full of checkdowns, moon balls, and little variation outside of that.
Hathhorn sees the Steelers attacking the middle of the field more often with Rodgers.
“Where are the big plays we’ve seen for the most part in the preseason from the Steelers? The middle of the field. We’ve seen them exploit the middle of the field a lot with this group,” Hathhorn said.
If the Steelers attack the middle often, that might be the most significant sign that Rodgers has a prominent voice in the offense. That area is more prone to turnovers, something Tomlin likes to avoid.
However, now he has a quarterback who can handle it. Aaron Rodgers reads a defense like no other and has the accuracy to put the ball in tight windows. Each of those traits is something the Steelers have been living without in recent years. Naturally, that will allow Rodgers to have a big say in the offense.
