Leading up to the Week 10 Sunday Night Football matchup against the host Los Angeles Chargers, veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers was playing some sound football within the Pittsburgh Steelers’ scheme.
To that point, he was everything the Steelers had expected: a guy who could lead a young offense, get them in the right looks and situations, and distribute the football efficiently. After all, he was on pace to set the Steelers’ single-season passing touchdowns mark.
And then, he had his worst game of the season and one of his worst games of his career against the Chargers.
Rodgers completed just 16-of-31 passes for 161 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He also took a bad sack for a safety in the 25-10 loss to the Chargers.
That performance has many questioning Rodgers moving forward, though he isn’t panicking and knows bad games happen in this profession.
For NFL.com’s Nick Shook, Rodgers plummeted in his quarterback rankings, Shook dropping from a top-10 quarterback to No. 18 overall, falling eight spots.
“Aaron Rodgers looked old on Sunday night (please, keep your age/bedtime jokes to yourself). He looked slow and incapable of overcoming challenges presented by the Chargers’ defense,” Shook writes. “His 51.6 completion percentage was his lowest in years. We can pin a lot of this on a lack of weapons available to him (and the Steelers’ inability to consistently move the ball outside of 13 personnel), but Rodgers certainly wasn’t without fault in Week 10.”
Stating Rodgers looked slow and incapable is rough, but there might be some truth to it looking back on last Sunday’s performance.
Rodgers, who turns 42 next month, took three sacks in the game, and none was worse than the safety he took on a sack from Khalil Mack. He tried to extend the play, retreating into his own end zone to try and get around Mack, who had defeated right tackle Troy Fautanu on a second-effort play. In that moment, Rodgers looked his age.
He also tried to step up later in the game and scramble, but took a hard hit from Bud Dupree, showing that Rodgers can’t exactly move like he once did. Not that it’s a surprise, but it was jarring to see, especially considering how Rodgers had played in recent weeks.
It wasn’t just his ability to move, either. He was skittish in the pocket and missed a number of throws he typically makes. Though DK Metcalf took the blame for his route running on the first miss down the field from Rodgers in the game, the miss to Jonnu Smith was all on Rodgers as it came from a clean pocket. So, too, was the high throw over the middle for Metcalf that led to an interception, and the underthrow to Calvin Austin III downfield that led to an incomplete pass.
The Chargers gave Rodgers fits pre- and post-snap all night. The Steelers credited defensive coordinator Jesse Minter for that. Rodgers isn’t panicking after the bad showing. But others are.
CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin dropped Rodgers two spots in his quarterback rankings.
“Rodgers turned in his first real dud of the 2025 campaign against the Chargers, sailing balls while appearing to turn away from contact,” Benjamin writes. “The Steelers’ severely limited skill group doesn’t exactly help.”
While Rodgers was bad, a lot of attention has focused on the Steelers’ receivers and tight ends and their inability to get open quickly in the loss. There were concerns about the Steelers’ receiver room behind Metcalf coming into the season, and after not doing anything at the trade deadline, those concerns remain — and are growing louder.
Fortunately for Rodgers and the receiving room, there’s a soft defensive opponent ahead in the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 11, presenting an opportunity to bounce back, and do so in front of the home crowd. Rodgers was very good in the Steelers’ Week 7 matchup against the Bengals; he’ll need to be so once again this week.
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