Excitement is high surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers entering training camp, especially after the Steelers finally landed 41-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers in free agency, giving them their best quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger retired.
The Steelers and Rodgers are very clearly in the honeymoon phase with everything seeming positive and a buzz building for the Black and Gold, especially with how Rodgers looked throwing the ball and moving around during mandatory minicamp in mid-June.
And yet one former NFL GM believes the Steelers are more likely to have a losing season for the first time under head coach Mike Tomlin with Rodgers at the helm than they are to win a playoff game for the first time in nearly a decade.
Appearing on ESPN’s Get Up Friday morning, Mike Tannenbaum shot down any positivity regarding Rodgers and the Steelers winning a playoff game.
“Mike Tomlin having a losing season. I don’t see there’s any way that he’s [Rodgers] not better than the third-best quarterback in that division and he wasn’t in the offseason program,” Tannenbaum said, according to video via ESPN. “Look, he’s gonna be 42 and can he handle the rigors of a 17-game season? I give him a lot of credit. Obviously he loves playing football. He has all the money in the world, four-time MVP, Super Bowl champion. So, obviously he loves it. But I don’t know.
“The actuarial in me, we want our quarterbacks to look like Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert and young and athletic and Patrick Mahomes. He doesn’t have that juice anymore. That doesn’t mean he can’t be effective and catch lightning in the bottle. But over 17 games, I’m going with those other guys.”
Within the AFC North, Rodgers is the third-best quarterback behind Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson and Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow. That’s not exactly a slight, either, considering Jackson and Burrow are two of the elites of the game and in the top 5-7 discussion path the position in the entire league.
Rodgers was once that, which is why he has four NFL MVPs and a Super Bowl to his name. But he’s not that anymore, especially at age 41. And that’s okay. The Steelers aren’t expecting him to be an elite quarterback, they’re just hoping for a guy who can be consistent, make the right reads and throws, avoid the turnovers and make sure the offense is consistently in the right plays at the line of scrimmage.
Essentially, Rodgers needs to be a game manager who can step up at times and make plays when the offense needs it the most. Based on what he showed late last season with the New York Jets, it’s hard to believe he won’t be able to do that for the Steelers.
If he can, the Steelers should win 10-11 games this season and get back into the playoffs, especially with a run game that should be good behind an emerging offensive line while still having a good-to-great defense filled with a number of big names.
That losing season isn’t going to happen with Tomlin at the helm. It just isn’t. Stating that there’s a better chance of doing that than winning a playoff game at this point with Tomlin is just a hot take for hot take’s sake. So, too, is adding in where Rodgers ranks among the AFC North QB hierarchy.
The Steelers will be just fine this season with Rodgers at the helm. That will play out during the season.
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