Even in Ben Roethlisberger’s final years, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense operated in a certain way. They had a top defense and played conservatively on offense with high-percentage passing plays and running the ball.
How much that changes, if it all, is one of the questions with the Steelers signing Aaron Rodgers.
“I think this is gonna be the biggest thing to iron out. What’s the identity of this offense?” The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo said Friday via The Herd on FS1. “Because when they brought in Arthur Smith, he’s one of the most run-heavy offensive coordinators in the league and last year the Steelers ran the ball the fourth most and now they bring in a quarterback who had the second-most passing attempts. So what do you want to be?
“If I had to guess, I think they’re gonna lean a bit more towards the run game.”
The 2024 Steelers and Rodgers’ Jets were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. The Steelers ran the ball 49.3 percent of the time last season while the Jets ran it just 35.9 percent of the time. The entire offense ran through Rodgers’ arm in New York. The Steelers almost certainly don’t want that to be the case in Pittsburgh. But you don’t bring Aaron Rodgers in to operate the Justin Fields or Russell Wilson offense. They will likely pass more than they did last season.
These may have been some of the things they discussed during Rodgers’ six-hour visit with the Steelers in late March. The vision for the team, and the offense in particular, were likely at the top of the agenda for that visit.
Rodgers had almost 4,000 passing yards in 2024, but his adjusted net yards per passing attempt was a measly 5.87 for one of the worst marks of his career. He was a volume passer, but it wasn’t the most efficient thing. And the Jets’ five wins backs that up.
How much will Rodgers be willing to bend to the Steelers’ style? That goes hand in hand with figuring out the offense’s identity.
“There was some friction between Arthur Smith and Russell Wilson based on how often Russell Wilson could change the play at the line of scrimmage. And that’s a central piece of what Aaron Rodgers does,” DeFabo said. “He has all these complex hand signals that he wants his guys to learn. I think that may be one of the biggest early things they need to figure out is how much freedom are we giving Aaron Rodgers?”
Some would say that letting Rodgers dictate the terms of this offseason and making the Steelers wait three months was a power grab. The cynical angle is that Rodgers wanted to make it known that he was calling the shots. Steelers beat writer Mark Kaboly recently reported “rumblings” of Rodgers wanting to call his own plays, for example.
There is a mutual respect between Rodgers and Tomlin that can’t go overlooked. That relationship and trust in each other should serve them well as they figure out the perfect balance on offense. They will have three days of mandatory minicamp next week and then almost a month of training camp starting at the end of July to figure it out.
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