Germie Bernard
Germie Bernard
Rookie wide receiver Germie Bernard came alive during the Pittsburgh Steelers’ preseason opener. He showed sure hands, run-after ability, and tied for the team lead in receptions Thursday night. That’s the good.
Here’s the rub. Bernard is making as many mistakes as plays. Some of it is expected as a rookie, especially when Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback. If Adam Thielen felt the heat, there’s no telling what Bernard thinks each time he lines up.
That doesn’t change the reality. Bernard has yet to earn Rodgers’ trust. He’s struggling with the basics like snap count and his route. Sunday’s practice summed it up. At least three errors during team periods. A slant Rodgers threw near the goal line where Bernard never got his head around. A false start. And on the final play, a specialty two-point play, Bernard never saw the ball as Rodgers rolled left and flipped it to him for what should’ve been an easy score.
Rodgers’ reaction said it all. Hands raised in the air, clearly frustrated at the missed chance.
This isn’t a one-off either. Bernard’s been prone to these errors. His false starts have piled up. By my charting, he’s up to three throughout the open camp practices. A number that’s far too high for anyone, especially a receiver who shouldn’t be influenced by any defensive line shifts or tricks and games that can cause offensive players to jump. He’s clearly getting used to Rodgers’ hard count but combined, the number of false starts by the other wide receivers might be two.
There have been other issues, too. He’s run the occasional incorrect route, including during Thursday’s otherwise solid performance. On Will Howard’s second drop back, he wanted Bernard to break his route off sooner, but Bernard ran to the sticks. Howard had to throw the ball away. Perhaps Howard made the wrong read, but I tend to put those errors on receivers, not quarterbacks who know the offense as well as anyone.
Bernard’s hardly the only one who needs to clean up his play. Troy Fautanu’s had even more false starts than him. Riley Nowakowski has jumped a time or two. Jaylen Warren is fumbling far too often. But for all the hype generated the plays he made against Green Bay, that will matter little if Rodgers doesn’t believe he can consistently execute.
“Germie just needs to learn the offense inside and out,” Rodgers told reporters via a team-issued transcript ahead of the preseason opener. “When he does that, he has a lot of great physical traits, he can get his feet in the ground quickly. He’s very sudden. He’s got natural hands. He’s a great kid. I mean, I think he’s got a really bright future because his attitude, his approach. His practice habits are phenomenal. We just got to get him where he feels super confident in the playbook and plays as fast as he can.”
There’s plenty of praise there. But it’s all baked in the underbelly of time. A bright future. A present that might look dimmer. It’s not going to be a popular opinion coming off his preseason showing, but it’s a warning to temper expectations that debut may have created.
Those problems might feel minor and outweighed by his talent and playmaking. The NFL carries a high level of detail. Coaches must trust you. Double that for Rodgers. Perhaps the silver lining is Bernard appears to be a more viable outside receiver option than Roman Wilson, who does most of his damage from the slot and has struggled to beat press coverage. That still puts him behind DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr.
Bernard can make plays. His mistakes have been just as frequent. He’s a rookie, it’s his first camp, this is not writing his career in pen. Still, the season starts in less than four weeks. These types of issues don’t often get corrected in short periods of time.
That could be the reason why Bernard spends the year ironing out the details on the sideline rather than making plays on the field.