The NFL is a 17-game season and if the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers proved anything, a hot start doesn’t matter with a cold finish. Still, in a competitive AFC North and AFC at large, the Steelers can’t afford to be playing catch-up all season. With a schedule that’s, on paper, more forgiving at the start than the end, Pittsburgh has to come out of the gates firing. If Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers don’t, his time missed during spring workouts won’t be forgotten. That’s the case Mike Florio made Thursday on Pro Football Talk.
“When they get on the plane to fly across the Atlantic Ocean should be 3-0,” Florio said of the Steelers heading into their Ireland game. “And if they’re not, you’re gonna have people at Pittsburgh saying, ‘If Rodgers just would’ve been here for the OTAs, if Rodgers just would’ve been here for the mandatory minicamp.'”
Rodgers has missed the first week of voluntary offseason practices. He’s not the only one and he’s not even under contract, meaning he can skip the rest of the spring if he so chooses. But every other quarterback around the league is attending OTAs this spring, giving them a comparative leg up that could carry over into September.
Florio made the case that Pittsburgh begins the season with three winnable games. The season opener at the New York Jets, the home opener versus the Seattle Seahawks, and again on the road to face the New England Patriots. All games the Steelers are capable of winning, facing three teams that failed to make the postseason a year ago. Any stumbles will lead to questions.
“That gives meat. Raw, juicy meat to the people who will say, ‘Hell, we’re already in a hole,'” Florio said. “‘We’re 2-1, we’re 1-2, God forbid, we’re 0-3 because Rodgers wasn’t ready to go.’ And I think that’s a concern that at some level, at some point, the Steelers and Rodgers need to have.”
Starting 2-1 won’t ring those alarm bells. Anything less will. As we recently studied, with the exception of 2024, the Steelers haven’t been a fast-starting team. Rodgers missing the spring won’t help that cause. Still, with a team that carries plenty of other questions at other positions and on the other side of the ball, there will likely be plenty of blame to go around should Pittsburgh falter out of the gate. And Rodgers, if asked, will surely downplay his absence as a nothing-burger the media and people like Florio are fixated on.
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