We Talk Ourselves Into the Steelers Actually Being Good

Let's kick it off with Rodgers, because this is what everybody's wondering, and Rodgers was on.

McAfee a couple of weeks ago, 2 weeks ago now, and saying that there was no contract offer.

Our buddy Mike G over at NFL Network reported that the Steelers, while they wait for Aaron Rodgers, are sniffing around on quarterbacks.

So, to me, it seems like that there is a misunderstanding on Rodgers' part as to whether there is a contract offer on the table.

If you're Mike McCarthy, you need to know at some point, and it's unbelievable to me.

That we are just back here again ad nauseam for like the 5th straight offseason.

Like what's going on?

I know, and it's crazy because every year at the start of the offseason he says, I'm not gonna drag this out , and then he drags it out.

Yeah, and I, and I do think to some degree, you know, what protects the Steelers here is the multitude of quarterbacks that are available with starting experience.

So they're not completely screwed, and I do wonder if, you know, for Uh You know, Kirk Cousins, um, for Joe Flacco, if, you know, they're waiting to see what happens with Aaron Rodgers before they make any sort of move, you know, um, so it's one of, I think, like 2, and you could say 3.

Legitimately open starting jobs right now.

Like, I think it's Pittsburgh, Arizona, Vegas would be 3, probably, right, um, and Vegas is like obviously like that's a placeholder, right?

Like, so if Fernando Mendoza is ready to start week 1, then you're not gonna start, but like you could be, you know, have an interesting opportunity there at least to start for part of the year, um.

The Steelers I I really felt like when they signed Aaron Rodgers last year, cause I think this is important and this is the foundation of the conversation.

I thought last year when they signed Aaron Rodgers, it was, here is our one last shot with this core of players, with TJ Watt, with Cam Hayward, with, um, you know, DK Metcalf coming in with, you know, like that, that group of players that they had assembled.

You know, and then there are some guys that are close to the prime of their careers, like your Alex Highsmith, your, um, you know, your Patrick Queens, Jalen Ramsey, an older player on the roster, and it was like, OK, so here we go, like, this team has not won a playoff game in almost a decade, but we're gonna give them the best shot by giving them Aaron Rodgers.

And when it didn't work to the degree that they hoped it would work cause they still didn't win a playoff game, I figured, Time to start over.

Then Mike Tomlin leaves.

You're like, OK , like this is perfect.

You're gonna bring in a young coach like a Chris Shula, and you're gonna strip it down, and it's time to rebuild, and it's time to move on.

Some from guys doesn't mean you're gonna be, doesn't mean you're sinking to the bottom of the league, but it is time to really kind of rework the core of the roster and instead.

They hire Mike McCarthy, which tells me they don't want to be bad, and they don't want to go through an adjustment period, right?

And Art Rooney still wants to, you know, keep the team where it is and win on a year to year basis.

And then they trade for Michael Pittman and then they bring Cam Hayward back.

Start to see all of these things.

They go and sign Rico Dowdell, and it just tells me like, no, they're not rebuilding.

They're not reworking the roster.

They're, they're looking to win right now still with a group that they have and, um, so it sets up for Aaron Rodgers to walk right back in, you know, and, um.

You know, especially with the McCarthy thing, which I don't, the McCarthy er was made separate from um whether or not Aaron comes back, but certainly, I think it doesn't hurt to have, you know, a guy that, that, that Aaron worked for for 13 years as a quarterback.

See, here's what I wonder though, because I, I think as that the coach, I mean, not the quarterback, as the coach, yeah, right, I, I think we can all agree that it's easy for everyone to sit here and say that, oh yeah, time has passed, we love being together again.

You remember the end of the Rogers-McCarthy era.

Like it was primetime television, and he's getting play calls into his headset and rolling his eyes, like audibly waving off play calls.

What's that?

We've seen this before though, right?

But it's like, how does Tom Brady talk about Belichick now, and he was done with him, you know what I mean?

Like he's like I, I just, you know, we've, we've seen time heal wounds before though, you know, yeah.

But if you're McCarthy, is that Where you wanna go, because, I mean, he, I think here's the other side of this.

This is your dream job.

It's probably always been to some degree.

This is your last coaching job.

Um, you are coming in on the heels of like a historic streak of 500 or better seasons, and to the fan base, that is not good enough, right?

And so is this how you want to run it back?

I don't know.

I mean, like, did he walk in and he was just like, yeah, like this is what, this is how I want this to look?

I, I don't know.

Yeah, and I, I, I, but I think that's part of the deal though, like, I think, you know, Again, like one of my favorite facts about the, you know, during the coaching cycle this year was that Mike McCarthy was the oldest coach in Steelers history the minute he walked in the door.

Insane, you know what I mean?

Like you hire a guy and on day one, he's the oldest coach in a nearly 100-year history of the franchise, um, you know, but I don't think you're, again, like I don't think you're doing that unless You think.

You The team is good enough to compete in the here and the now, right?

And like, again, like I, I think their moves since then, bringing Cam Hayward back, trading for Michael Pittman, signing Rico Dowdell, like all point in that direction.

They all point in the, no, we're gonna do this again.

And what does TJ Watt have left at this point?

Like they doubled down on him.

Like I think most teams that played against them would tell you they were more concerned with Alex Ale Alex Highsmith, and this isn't a shot at TJ Watt, but Like that's just sort of what it's become, you know, like, so, um, uh, you know, again, like what is this gonna look like, um, what is this gonna look like in October and November and December, um, I think for Aaron Rodgers in, in , in particular, the reason this works is because as quarterbacks get older, they start to You know, I, I remember talking to Brady about this, and he would, he use his hands to describe it, right?

He says, like, as you get older, your knowledge of the game is going like this, and your physical abilities is going like this.

So his whole thing was, what if I can get it to it, what if I can make it so my physical ability is like that?

And people watching on YouTube can see it.

If you're listening, you can't, and my and my, my knowledge of the game is going like this, right?

So like, I, but I think one of the things about that with Brady was this is why the Patriots could never.

Never put rookie receivers on the field as he got older, like, and you look at the guys who succeeded with Brady over the years, they were, most of them were veteran acquisitions, you know, it was Wes Welker.

Julian Edelman didn't come around until later in his career, right?

It took him like 5 years.

Danny Amendola was a veteran acquisition.

Chris Hogan was a veteran acquisition.

Um, Randy Moss came in at the end of his career.

Um, there were, I mean, Dion Branch was like the unicorn of the group.

So, like, I look at this for Aaron.

You've got DK Metcalf going into year 7.

Or 8, I think year 8 for DK Metcalf, right?

Michael Pittman, he's right around there.

He's, he's, he's not far off from that.

Pat Friarmuth is on his second contract.

Rito, Rico Dowdell is a, is a, is a, is a veteran back going into year 6, I believe.

You've got this offensive line in front of you that now has played together for a couple of years.

It actually sets up.

For Aaron to play offense the way he wants to play offense, and you have his old coach there, you know, so I just like look at the totality of all of that, and I'm like, this.

Uh, it's almost like they're saying, hey, come on back.

You know what I mean?

Like, like to Aaron.

And I do think for Aaron, like one of the things for him, and this is just, you know, kind of an aggregation of my own conversations with him over the years, I, I do think like, he got to a point last year where he was really starting to enjoy football again, you know, and just football for football, and not worrying about, you know, you know, All the other stuff that he engaged in, you know, like that was what he was looking for the last few years, and I think he found it in Pittsburgh.

So I think there's a good chance he still comes back, and I do wonder, um, how long the Steelers are willing to wait for the, the final answer on that.

So yeah, so let me, let me put it to you this way, uh, we have the draft in like a month and a half.

What's your percentage chance that Rodgers has a signed contract?

And is on the team's website, on the roster by the time that that takes place.

I don't know, like 51%, I guess.

I don't know.

So, what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I just can't say with any confidence.

I mean, it's certainly not going to say that it's 90%.

I think that, and, and, and here's why I, I think you made a great point at the top of the show.

Everything now is at a standstill because let's imagine at some point that Rogers is like, you know what, I, I, I want to live.

In, uh, I, I wanna live in the Philippines.

I'm done, you know, I'm, I'm gonna get out of here .

That changes Kirk Cousins' plans.

That changes the idea of whether or not you'd call Derek Carr.

That changes Joe Flacco's plan, you know, it changes everybody's plans.

Isn't it weird too?

Like, I, I almost feel like this is a strange one too, because I almost feel like with each day he doesn't retire, the chances of him retiring go down.

Each day that he doesn't retire, the chances of him reti, yes, I agree with that, you know what I mean, yeah, um, that was probably like not great, that makes sense, yeah, not great use of the English language there, but like I, uh, I, I, I, I think like with, uh, but I think like as this goes on.

Like you just have, I just think back to last year, where Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith and those guys were completely unaffected, and they had like kind of a quiet.

Affirmation that he'd be there, you know, and so if you have that quiet affirmation that he's gonna be there.

I, I, it's just, I mean, to me, it's, it's, it, it, it, it, it feels like we're gonna get another year of Aaron Rodgers, um, which would be year 22 for him, I believe, right?

Which, by the way, isn't, uh, you know, I, I, I've said this to everybody, um.

I, I think he was good, and here's, here's where, that's almost a Brady, by the way, Brady played 23 years.

And maybe that is something in the back of his mind.

I know that with a good season this year, he gets sole possession of 2nd place in the NFL's all-time touchdown pass, uh, leaderboard.

And so I, I, I, you know, and I don't know if any of that matters to him or it doesn't matter to him, but I, I went back to that Ravens game last year where remember he had the broken wrist and there was the tipped ball that he was worried was going to get picked, and he's Bodying up in there, you know, banging up against like the Ravens defense to try to get this ball down.

He hasn't lost the, the chutzpah, you know what I mean?

Like he really still possesses the ability to, to, to bang around.

He's like the competitor who wants everybody to think he doesn't give a crap, you know what I mean?

Like he kind of has that effect, which is great.

Like I actually appreciate that about him.

Like it's almost like that like.

Like he's able to kind of toggle like the, I don't give a fuck, uh, persona with like actually being a pretty fierce competitor.

I don't think you become as good as he is without being a fierce competitor, and I, he can still sling it, you know, the question is gonna be, Can he protect himself?

And, you know, I think that Pittsburgh line, to be honest with you, is gonna continue to get better because there are good young players in that line, Frazier and Vitano and McCormick, and like I, I just, I, I, I don't know.

Now I'm talking myself into them being pretty good this year.

Now, we'll see, I, I can only make room for, um, because, uh, age and injury is inevitable and Mother Nature and all these kind of things, but like, it's either the Forty-Niners or the Steelers for me.

I have to pick one geriatric franchise , uh, to, to believe in.

I, and, and here's my one problem with Pittsburgh, and I'll leave it at that, and we can move on to the rest of, uh, the rest of the world, much to Aaron Rodgers' chagrin.

We are in this always sticks in my head.

I remember doing a story on um Adam Stenovich, who's the Packers offensive coordinator, and talking to the offensive line that was there for McCarthy and then there when Adam came.

And here's the one thing that sticks out to me is that guys like David Bakhtiari would say, I was on an island in McCarthy's offense for 60 snaps a game.

You know, if you're a left tackle, that means that you are dropping back one on one against an elite edge rusher 60 times.

That is exhausting.

A Mike McCarthy offense doesn't necessarily have what like a LaFleur offense had, what Art Smith's offense had, which a lot of them, which is a run game that is, Intricately tied into the pass, the marriage of the run of the pass, right, and that, and, and, and what that gives you is like that every play looks like it might be a run play.

Every play looks like 5 different things, yeah, and it takes some of the stress off of your offensive line.

If we're, if we're putting McCarthy back with Rodgers and Rodgers would presumably want to run a version of the offense that was the Rodgers offense in Green Bay.

You know, are, how good do you feel about Broderick Jones?

Um, you know, I think Troy, uh, Fatano is in a little bit of a different spot where I think he's getting better.

I think the curve is going up there.

Um, Broderick Jones is like your anchor left tackle in that kind of an offense.

Um, I don't know.

I mean, we'll see.

That's, it's gonna be tough.