Aaron Rodgers DeShon Elliott
Aaron Rodgers DeShon Elliott
Pittsburgh Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers is not the same quarterback as when he was an MVP-caliber player with the Green Bay Packers. Age does that to a player. He’s 41 years old and will turn 42 in December. But one thing reporters noticed at training camp was that Rodgers can still throw the ball with zip.
However, legendary Steelers pass rusher James Harrison thinks he’s lost some of that arm strength.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think he’s the player that he used to be,” Harrison said Monday on the Deebo & Joe podcast. “I think now it’s to the point where those balls that he would zip out there, and it’s just the fingertip away and you couldn’t get to it. Now, guys are getting a hand on that ball. Some guys are picking that ball. The placement is not exactly perfect like it was. It’s three inches off. Three inches off, it’s the difference between somebody touching the ball, picking the ball, and the ball getting into the receiver’s hands.”
Part of what Harrison says is true. Football is a game of inches, whether you’re talking ball placement, first-down markers, or the goal line. In the case of a quarterback, yes, those inches can be the difference between a catch, a pass breakup, or an interception.
But has Aaron Rodgers lost that zip? Harrison played against Rodgers in the Super Bowl, so he’s seen those pinpoint-accurate throws as they zipped right by him. But everything we’ve heard from training camp is that Rodgers can still rip the ball down the field.
Even Harrison’s former teammate saw it. Ryan Clark called Rodgers’ passes the “best footballs I ever saw thrown on those fields.” And while that may not surprise fans in recent years, Clark spent quite a lot of time practicing against QB Ben Roethlisberger during his prime. And Clark is saying that Rodgers at 41 is throwing passes unlike anything Clark’s ever seen in Latrobe.
That’s not to say Aaron Rodgers has been perfect throwing the ball in recent memory. In Rodgers’ final year with the Packers in 2022, his interception rate was 2.2 percent. That was his fifth-highest mark of his career. And Rodgers’ rate was 1.9 percent last year with the New York Jets.
“Those throws and those plays that he had his whole career, I think over the last year or two, he just doesn’t have those perfect throws anymore,” Harrison said.
At one point, Steelers S DeShon Elliott may have agreed with Harrison. He was initially very critical of the team’s pursuit of Rodgers, but his training camp experience with Rodgers has changed his tune. He specifically highlighted Rodgers’ ball placement as something that sticks out to him.
Now, we all know that training camp and regular-season games are two different beasts. So maybe James Harrison’s thoughts will play out over the course of 17 games. But from what we have all seen at training camp, Aaron Rodgers has not lost any zip on his passes.
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