Aaron Rodgers lit it up on Sunday, tossing four touchdown passes and throwing for nearly 250 yards in a thrilling 34-32 win over the New York Jets. However, Colin Cowherd still has some concerns about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 41-year-old quarterback.
“He played pretty well,” Cowherd said Monday on FS1’s The Herd on Monday. “Now, he is a statue. By the way, you’ve got to give him credit. In the fourth quarter, he got sacked. And there’s no other quarterback in this league that took the shot Aaron did in the fourth quarter. Aaron sat in there and took shots.”
This clip is likely the play Cowherd is referring to. The pocket collapses around Rodgers, and while Kenneth Gainwell does make good initial contact on his blitz pickup, he slips off the block. The rusher has a free shot at Rodgers, and he takes a decent hit here.
Obviously, those hits are not ideal for your veteran quarterback to be taking. Aaron Rodgers took a total of four sacks on the day, which is not sustainable. The offensive line struggled to do much of anything on Sunday, so the Steelers are going to have to come up with ways to help that unit in the coming weeks.
That said, while Rodgers isn’t as mobile as he used to be, he’s not exactly the statue Cowherd is describing. He can still make throws on the run, like he did on his fourth touchdown of the day to Calvin Austin III.
Rodgers has about as much mobility as you could ask from a quarterback who turns 42 in December on this play. All considered, he had a great day. In addition to his four touchdown passes. Rodgers completed over 70 percent of his throws and was not intercepted. In his first game with new receivers, it’s really hard to complain about his performance.
However, Cowherd’s co-host Jason McIntyre still thinks Justin Fields had the better day.
“The reality is, Justin Fields was more impressive than Aaron Rodgers yesterday,” McIntrye said. “I’m sorry. But Justin Fields was really lights-out for the Jets.”
Justin Fields was impressive, no question. He was very good with his legs and kept the Jets’ offense in rhythm for most of the game. Making some nice throws as well, he led his offense to 32 points against a defense that had extremely high expectations coming into the game.
Still, it’s hard to claim he was better than Rodgers. Both were great, and that’s fine to say. But four touchdowns on a 73.3-percent completion rate with nearly 250 yards is hard to argue against.
Aaron Rodgers answered a lot of questions on Sunday. His mobility seemed to be fine for his age, but you wouldn’t be wrong to have some worries about the offense. The line let him get hit far too many times, and the Steelers had to rely on his arm because they couldn’t run the ball. Both of those will need to be fixed for Rodgers to play at this level throughout the season.
