He’s dealing with a fracture in his left wrist after a hard fall late in the first half of the Week 11 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, which has his status in question for Week 12, but even before the injury Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers wasn’t playing sharp football.
In the Week 10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, Rodgers turned in his worst game as a Steeler. He missed a number of throws he usually makes and found himself confused at times by the Chargers, particularly post-snap when they were doing things he wasn’t expecting.
The matchup against a bad Bengals defense was expected to offer him a chance at redemption. Though he threw a touchdown pass to Kenneth Gainwell on the first drive of the game, Rodgers was shaky again. He took one bad sack, missed deep on a throw to DK Metcalf again, and largely just looked chaotic in the pocket.
That has him continuing to slide in both CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin and NFL.com’s Nick Shook’s quarterback rankings.
Benjamin dropped him two spots to No. 15 overall, ahead of Indianapolis’ Daniel Jones and Chicago’s Caleb Williams.
“A fractured left wrist has A-Rod in danger of missing time. Even if he were healthy, the aging signal-caller has been fairly streaky, if resilient, atop a Pittsburgh lineup that lacks consistent playmakers,” Benjamin writes.
Rodgers got off to a nice start this season and finds himself on pace to break the Steelers’ single-season passing touchdowns mark. But in recent weeks things have started to fall apart a bit.
He looks skittish behind the offensive line, has happy feet in the pocket and has just missed some throws. He’s also bailing out of the pocket early, which is really hindering the offense. It’s a bit concerning, but hopefully it’s just a blip on the radar.
Shook doesn’t believe it is, though.
The NFL.com analyst dropped Rodgers three spots to No. 21 overall.
“Aaron Rodgers looked old in a Week 10 loss to the Chargers and continued to appear frustrated with his teammates in the first half of a Week 11 win before exiting with a wrist injury. Now we’re waiting to find out how fast the 41-year-old can heal,” Shook writes.
Shook ripped Rodgers in his rankings last week, stating he looked slow and incapable after the Chargers loss. He wasn’t all that far off.
Things didn’t get much better against the Bengals. While Rodgers did make some nice passes on the move, including a nice rollout throw to Metcalf and a dart across the middle to Darnell Washington leading to his highlight-reel play, he just didn’t look like himself.
Now, the wrist injury could hinder or even sideline him Sunday, raising more questions about Rodgers entering Week 12. If he is able to play, he will face a team in the Chicago Bears that he’s owned throughout his career with a 24-5 record against them. The Steelers need some of that Rodgers magic against the Bears. We’ll see if Rodgers can provide it once again.
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