Nick Wright is not a fan of the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s gone on the record with a 7-10 prediction for the team. He didn’t like the Steelers trading S Minkah Fitzpatrick for CB Jalen Ramsey (and TE Jonnu Smith, too). He didn’t like the team extending OLB T.J. Watt’s contract.
And Wright doesn’t like QB Aaron Rodgers on the Steelers, at least at this point in his career. He expects mediocrity at best.
“I do not think Rodgers is going to be good,” Wright said Thursday on What’s Wright? “I do not think Rodgers is going to, this year, be a top-20 quarterback in the league. Doesn’t change that he’s one of the greatest players ever. I don’t think he’s going to get the Brett Favre second-to-last year in Minnesota, where he almost won MVP and took them to the conference championship game.”
As Wright alluded to, Aaron Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks ever. He has four NFL MVP awards and a Lombardi Trophy (complete with Super Bowl MVP award). He’s a four-time first-team All-Pro and 10-time Pro Bowler. Rodgers will be a Pro Football Hall of Famer when it comes time.
But Rodgers hasn’t played to that level over the last few years. His last season with the Green Bay Packers wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t to the level we were used to out of him. He completed 64.6 percent of his passes and threw for 26 touchdowns. But his 3,695 passing yards snapped a streak of five straight seasons of 4,000-plus yards when he played the full season.
Since then, Rodgers has torn his Achilles tendon and turned 41 years old. Both of those play a big role in why Wright doesn’t feel good about Rodgers with the Steelers. He certainly doesn’t expect Rodgers to play like the quarterback he replaced in Green Bay did at the age of 40.
In that second-to-last season of his career, Brett Favre completed a career-high 68.4 percent of his passes. He tossed 33 touchdown passes, tied for fourth-most he threw in a single season. He also threw interceptions at a career-low rate of 1.3 percent. The previous career-low was 2.3 percent in 1995, his fourth season with the Packers. And the Minnesota Vikings won 12 games.
It’s understandable to lack confidence that Aaron Rodgers will be an MVP-caliber quarterback in 2025. He hasn’t played at that level in years, and he’ll turn 42 in December. But I don’t think the Steelers are expecting, or even needing him, to play at an MVP level. That’s not head coach Mike Tomlin’s modus operandi. He wants his defense to dominate and the running game to control the clock. He’ll likely want Rodgers to simply manage the game and make the key plays when he’s needed.
But maybe Rodgers will surprise us all, kind of like 93.7 The Fan’s Jeff Hathhorn expects him to with his play Sunday against the Jets. Maybe he’ll prove that Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith can trust him to sling the ball around like the old days.
Only time will tell. Unfortunately for Aaron Rodgers, time is more of an enemy these days.
