State of our former QB, Aaron Rodgers

[Thirteen Below]

Today was Pro Day in Ann Arbor, and Steelers GM Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin were eager to make the trip and have a look at DT Kenneth Grant - a prospect they're very hot for.

But instead, they spent the day in Pittsburgh getting yanked around by Aaron Rodgers, and had to send their defensive coordinator to attend the Wolverines' Pro Day.

I'm following up on my own post to add something I wasn't aware of yesterday. Rodgers was the one who called for the meeting, and Khan and Tomlin did not want to skip Michigan's Pro Day - there are 4 projected 1st round picks on the Wolverines, and the Steelers are very interested in at least some of them (Grant and Graham, at least). However, they felt they had to, and missed a Pro Day that some scouts say was one of the most important Pro Days of the offseason. It's highly unusual for the Steelers senior management to skip a big Pro Day.

And now Mike Florio is suggesting that this was just one of Rodgers' mind games - that he was testing the Steelers organization to see whether they leaked information.

According to Florio, Rodgers’ meeting may have been more than just exploring his options — it could’ve been a strategic move to test the waters and create leverage in ongoing negotiations.

“The development remained tightly under wraps until Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette caught wind of it. After he reported it, others mobilized to confirm the news because it’s never good enough to trust someone else’s reporting, apparently.

The fact that Dulac reported it means someone from the Steelers leaked it. Which could have been a test by Rodgers to see whether the S.S. Rooney has leaks. Indeed, Rodgers has complained in the past about leaks with the Jets,” Florio said.

NFL Analyst Shares Theory That Aaron Rodgers’ Free Agency Visit With the Steelers Was a Test - NewsBreak

Mike Florio, a prominent NFL analyst, recently shared a theory about Aaron Rodgers’ free agency visit with the Pittsburgh Steelers. According to Florio, R

www.newsbreak.com

If this was almost any other player, I'd probably roll my eyes and say, "Oh, please...". But Rodgers? I honestly wouldn't put it past him.

Meanwhile, some of the Steelers players are getting bored with the drama. Cameron Heyward said, "I ain’t doing no darkness retreat," Heyward said. "I don’t need any of that crap. Either you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or you don’t. That’s simple, that’s the pitch. If you want me to recruit, that’s the recruiting pitch. Pittsburgh Steelers if you want to be part of it, so be it. If you don’t, no skin off my back."

Steelers star offers blunt message for Aaron Rodgers amid quarterback uncertainty

Pittsburgh Steelers star defensive tackle Cam Heyward delivered a blunt message for Aaron Rodgers as the team awaits his free agency decision.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Firethorn1001]

Nice thought, but I don't expect Rodgers to change who he is. We saw him evolve into the man/player that he is today. He pretends nobody else's opinion matters, yet, he's always complaining about how he is portrayed by the media and others.

Aaron likes to play the victim and yet he is the villain, he just doesn't see it.

I'd like to think that he could tame his emotions/ego for Pittsburgh and Tomlin. If he can't do it for Tomlin and Pittsburgh then there really is no team or coach out there that he would do it for.

Based on what Thirteen followed up with, if he is doing this as some test, they should just move on.

Vikings dodged a bullet IMHO. Maybe Pittsburgh should too.

 

[El Guapo]

Heyward is already displaying "Rodgers Derangement Syndrome" in which players and fans realize that Aaron's **** doesn't smell like roses.

 

[Thirteen Below]

There was a "feel good" story about Rodgers in the news today, and in all fairness, I think it deserves to get some attention.

Marshawn Lynch was Aaron's teammate at Cal in Rodgers' senior season, a freshman with little apparent chance of getting any real playing time because the Golden Bears already had a 2000 yard rusher in J.J. Arrington. But in a pre-season game between the #1 defense and the #1 offense, the coaches decided to give Marshawn a chance to show what he had.

His first snap was a "24 power", a handoff to Lynch going over the right guard. Unfortunately, Lynch was so nervous, he went the wrong way - to the left.

It got worse for Lynch. "I done went the wrong way. I went the wrong damn way," he recalled.

But when Rodgers started to turn to his right and couldn't find any Marshawn Lynches there, he instantly realized what had happened, and saved Marshawn's *** with a split second decision...

Lynch said Rodgers pulled "the smoothest move" by turning around and handing off the ball to Lynch "backwards.
"He was facing the other way," Lynch said. "I come around and get back into the play."

Despite the play being salvaged, the coaching staff wasn't pleased. Lynch got called out by the running backs coach, but before Tedford could rip into Lynch, Rodgers stepped in to take the blame, saying "I did the wrong thing." He demanded Tedford give them one more chance to run the play the right way.

From what Lynch is describing, it sounds as though Rodgers actually handed the ball off behind his back, without any solid visual confirmation of where Lynch even was. If that's so, it's obviously a hell of a ballsy move. And stepping up to Tedford and the other coaches and taking the blame for the mistake made it an even classier decision than it was a ballsy decision. Lynch went on to have some solid plays in the scrimmage, and wound up getting a fair number of snaps over the following season, positioning himself to step up into the #1 role when Arrington was drafted by the Arizonas in 2005.

I remember that when Rodgers first got off the bus in Green Bay, he quickly gained a reputation among the players as a good teammate, unselfish, going the extra mile to support his teammates (unless your name was Brett Favre; he was reportedly a **** to Favre). It wasn't until his second or maybe third year as a starter that he started to manifest diva symptoms.

I think it just goes to show, everybody's got a "best side" of who they are, and a "worst side" of who they are, and we live almost our entire lives going back and forth somewhere in the middle ground between those extremes. I think that there's a really good side of Rodgers, a really great guy, but over the years we just seem to have seen more and more just the "Darth Rodgers" side of his personality. But he's a complex guy, not easily defined by any one, singular data point.and he dd a good thing here for Marshawn.

Marshawn Lynch credits Aaron Rodgers for his 'opportunity' at Cal

Lynch told the story of how Rodgers vouched for him as a freshman running back when the two were Golden Bears teammates in Berkeley.

www.thebiglead.com

 

[rmontro]

I think it just goes to show, everybody's got a "best side" of who they are, and a "worst side" of who they are, and we live almost our entire lives going back and forth somewhere in the middle ground between those extremes.

For sure, nobody's perfect. I certainly don't see anything unforgivable that Rodgers has done. And he definitely won a lot of games for us. No hate here. The most disappointing thing I find with Rodgers is that 1-4 record in NFCCGs, but it is a team sport, so you can't lay that squarely on him.

 

[Firethorn1001]

Rodgers always struck me as someone that if you got on his good side you were set. If you got on his bad side, you were forever dead to him. Seemed to impact various TE/WRs quite differently.

He isn't a bad guy. He just isn't the most likable guy at times.

 

[gopkrs]

For sure, nobody's perfect. I certainly don't see anything unforgivable that Rodgers has done. And he definitely won a lot of games for us. No hate here. The most thing I find with Rodgers is that 1-4 record in NFCCGs, but it is a team sport, so you can't lay that squarely on him.

I agree. But I was still in the trade him camp. It had more to do with his perfectionism. Which can be good and bad. I thought it was bad for The Pack at that time.

 

[Thirteen Below]

The most disappointing thing I find with Rodgers is that 1-4 record in NFCCGs, but it is a team sport, so you can't lay that squarely on him.

That's true. But then again, Rodgers had a QB rating of 100.1 in the postseason, but only 83.7 in NFCCGs - the game where he went 1-4 in his career. There were some very close playoff games in which just a little better quarterback play would have sent us to another Super Bowl, but for some reason Rodgers picked those games to play perhaps the worst games of his career.

It's true that he was not necessarily the reason we lost (except that last NFCCG he played in, in 2023 - he straight up threw that game away), but in each of those games he had an opportunity to be the reason we won. And that's why he was one of the highest paid players in the NFL, if not the highest paid player - because he was one of the very few players who was supposed to be so good that he could make the difference between winning and losing. But in 80% of the championship games he played, he was unable to rise to that challenge.

 

[rmontro]

That's true. But then again, Rodgers had a QB rating of 100.1 in the postseason, but only 83.7 in NFCCGs - the game where he went 1-4 in his career. There were some very close playoff games in which just a little better quarterback play would have sent us to another Super Bowl, but for some reason Rodgers picked those games to play perhaps the worst games of his career.

I hear you. A guy with Rodgers' talent, you'd think he could put the team on his back and say "I'm carrying us to the win", but that didn't happen. Even the NFCCG that he won, against the Bears, he only had a passer rating of 55.4. No TDs and two INTs. Brady had better defenses, but he was also more clutch in the big games.

 

[rmontro]

I agree. But I was still in the trade him camp. It had more to do with his perfectionism. Which can be good and bad. I thought it was bad for The Pack at that time.

Oh, I was fine with trading him. Not because I thought he was some sort of SOB or whatever, just because by that time it was apparent we weren't going to get over the hump with him. It was time to move on, see what we had in Love (I'm still not sure), and hopefully while we could still get something of value for him.

 

[JPPT1974]

Really would take a team to believe in him due to age and productivity!

 

[Thirteen Below]

Oh, I was fine with trading him. Not because I thought he was some sort of SOB or whatever, just because by that time it was apparent we weren't going to get over the hump with him.

That was the last straw for me, too. That was the night I became convinced that we would never win another Super Bowl with Rodgers under center, so might as well start rebuilding or at least reloading now. With whatever draft picks we could get for him.

 

[OldSchool101]

I hear you. A guy with Rodgers' talent, you'd think he could put the team on his back and say "I'm carrying us to the win", but that didn't happen. Even the NFCCG that he won, against the Bears, he only had a passer rating of 55.4. No TDs and two INTs. Brady had better defenses, but he was also more clutch in the big games.

That was a characteristic of Brady from his days at Michigan and possibly before. He apparently elevated with the conditions and his College Coach was convinced he had the makings of a Superstar. I recall a story where his Coach from Michigan called BB and told him he just drafted one heck of a QB. That he was basically a steal.

Favre had a similar trait where he’s internally an ultra competitive personality and he wasn’t going to let his opportunity go to waste. He saw how easy you can lose your job through watching Majik Man.

Aaron also has that inner drive. I don’t know if it’s something that happened to these guys in childhood where they feared not measuring up? But there’s a gear that kicks in under pressure. We saw that in our 4-6 season start where Rodgers called it and backed it up with incredible play. He almost plays better when he’s not expected to? Recall the Bears game where Aaron gets hurt and Khalil Mack just took over. Only for Aaron to come back in 2nd half and Win.

 

[Heyjoe4]

There was a "feel good" story about Rodgers in the news today, and in all fairness, I think it deserves to get some attention.

Marshawn Lynch was Aaron's teammate at Cal in Rodgers' senior season, a freshman with little apparent chance of getting any real playing time because the Golden Bears already had a 2000 yard rusher in J.J. Arrington. But in a pre-season game between the #1 defense and the #1 offense, the coaches decided to give Marshawn a chance to show what he had.

His first snap was a "24 power", a handoff to Lynch going over the right guard. Unfortunately, Lynch was so nervous, he went the wrong way - to the left.



But when Rodgers started to turn to his right and couldn't find any Marshawn Lynches there, he instantly realized what had happened, and saved Marshawn's *** with a split second decision...



From what Lynch is describing, it sounds as though Rodgers actually handed the ball off behind his back, without any solid visual confirmation of where Lynch even was. If that's so, it's obviously a hell of a ballsy move. And stepping up to Tedford and the other coaches and taking the blame for the mistake made it an even classier decision than it was a ballsy decision. Lynch went on to have some solid plays in the scrimmage, and wound up getting a fair number of snaps over the following season, positioning himself to step up into the #1 role when Arrington was drafted by the Arizonas in 2005.

I remember that when Rodgers first got off the bus in Green Bay, he quickly gained a reputation among the players as a good teammate, unselfish, going the extra mile to support his teammates (unless your name was Brett Favre; he was reportedly a **** to Favre). It wasn't until his second or maybe third year as a starter that he started to manifest diva symptoms.

I think it just goes to show, everybody's got a "best side" of who they are, and a "worst side" of who they are, and we live almost our entire lives going back and forth somewhere in the middle ground between those extremes. I think that there's a really good side of Rodgers, a really great guy, but over the years we just seem to have seen more and more just the "Darth Rodgers" side of his personality. But he's a complex guy, not easily defined by any one, singular data point.and he dd a good thing here for Marshawn.

Marshawn Lynch credits Aaron Rodgers for his 'opportunity' at Cal

Lynch told the story of how Rodgers vouched for him as a freshman running back when the two were Golden Bears teammates in Berkeley.

www.thebiglead.com

I only have positive impressions of Rodgers right up until Gluten took Love in - 2020 I think. That was when Rodgers went full-on diva - he felt he should have been at least made aware a QB could be taken. Technically he's wrong. But after so many years of HOF football, and a SB, I do think Gluten should have told him it was a possibility (and I know there is still disagreement about whether Gluten did inform him, or not).

Anyway, Rodgers then morphed into Howard Hughes/Elvis/Michael Jackson - in short, a guy who never got comfortable with his fame. It's a shame, I think Rodgers is an ok guy. But $$$ and fame do funny things to some people.

 

[rmontro]

That was the last straw for me, too. That was the night I became convinced that we would never win another Super Bowl with Rodgers under center, so might as well start rebuilding or at least reloading now. With whatever draft picks we could get for him.

We had those two consecutive #1 seeds, where we were the only team in the NFC to have a bye, under the new playoff rules. But still couldn't get over the hump. I've brought this up a lot, but it really sticks in my craw. Seems like such a wasted opportunity, just like all those NFCCGs we lost. I wonder how many times a team has had two consecutive #1 seeds without making the Super Bowl. I'm guessing that it has to be a relatively rare occurrence.

 

[Heyjoe4]

We had those two consecutive #1 seeds, where we were the only team in the NFC to have a bye, under the new playoff rules. But still couldn't get over the hump. I've brought this up a lot, but it really sticks in my craw. Seems like such a wasted opportunity, just like all those NFCCGs we lost. I wonder how many times a team has had two consecutive #1 seeds without making the Super Bowl. I'm guessing that it has to be a relatively rare occurrence.

Good points. A lot of these teams were built to win a lot of regular season games. But the playoffs, where the pressure is immense? On too many occasions in the last 10-12 years the team just hasn't been up to the challenge.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

I'm still an Aaron Rodgers fan, on the field. However, off the field, I think he has his issues. The first clue of that, for me, didn't involve football, it involved his family drama. It was basically "Aaron VS His Family". Now I know that there are situations that family can get too involved, but it sounds like Aaron had managed to alienate himself from his entire family. Eventually, he alienated himself from a lot of Packer fans and honestly, I think some teammates.

Aaron is a smart guy, but his continual efforts to try to prove that fact to everyone else, has gotten old, tiring and frankly a personality disorder that turns most people off.

It sounds like with the Giants signing of Russel Wilson, Pittsburgh is about the only team that is interested in Rodgers. I hope for their fans sake, they find another alternative and Rodgers career ends with "nobody wanting him".

 

[Firethorn1001]

We had those two consecutive #1 seeds, where we were the only team in the NFC to have a bye, under the new playoff rules. But still couldn't get over the hump. I've brought this up a lot, but it really sticks in my craw. Seems like such a wasted opportunity, just like all those NFCCGs we lost. I wonder how many times a team has had two consecutive #1 seeds without making the Super Bowl. I'm guessing that it has to be a relatively rare occurrence.

Found an old article on history of #1 seeds (was from 2018 : https://www.profootballhof.com/news/2018/01/news-top-seeds/).
Looking at the list looks like 3x. Chargers in 79-80, Eagles in 2002-3 (although, #1 in 2004 and made the SB) and then the Packers in 2020-21.

 

[gopkrs]

I guess I'm in the minority in that, if he has a good O line; I think he'll do well in Pittsburgh.

 

[rmontro]

Found an old article on history of #1 seeds (was from 2018 : https://www.profootballhof.com/news/2018/01/news-top-seeds/).
Looking at the list looks like 3x. Chargers in 79-80, Eagles in 2002-3 (although, #1 in 2004 and made the SB) and then the Packers in 2020-21.

I knew someone here would find it if I brought it up.
But it looks like my hunch was right, it's a fairly rare event.

 

[Schultz]

Stats are from memory. Correct me if wrong. Last season Pitt was good when things were good (Wilson starts out 6-0 replacing Fields who had a winning record I believe) then finishes 0-5. Pickens is a diva. Metcalf seems to have matured. Who is going to rub off on who? Signing Rodgers may finally accomplish what some Steeler fans have been asking for. Tomlin losing his job.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Stats are from memory. Correct me if wrong. Last season Pitt was good when things were good (Wilson starts out 6-0 replacing Fields who had a winning record I believe) then finishes 0-5. Pickens is a diva. Metcalf seems to have matured. Who is going to rub off on who? Signing Rodgers may finally accomplish what some Steeler fans have been asking for. Tomlin losing his job.

Are Steeler fans itching for a new coach? I like Tomlin, but he's been in Pittsburgh a long time. He wouldn't be unemployed very long.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

He wouldn't be unemployed very long.

I think you answered your own question as to his job security in Pittsburgh.

 

[rmontro]

Signing Rodgers may finally accomplish what some Steeler fans have been asking for. Tomlin losing his job.

Are we completely eliminating the possibility that a Rodgers-led Steelers team might be pretty good?

 

[Schultz]

Are we completely eliminating the possibility that a Rodgers-led Steelers team might be pretty good?

Not we. Just me.