June 12, 2025 • 27 mins
Aaron Rodgers not only officially signed with Pittsburgh, but he has been an active member at mandatory minicamp, and it already seems like his impact is being made.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
I wonder if Rogers is going to mosey on down
the Oakmond.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I mean, I saw the Pirates were there there for practice.
I'm trying to I don't want to disrespect anyone specifically
on that team. Easy if jaredry looking go to Oakmont, like,
hey Rogers.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hey I've been there. Anybody can go to Oakmond, buster.
But I was just saying, because Rogers likes to go
to you know, events like this, the Big Tennis matches,
I wonder if he would go and just soak it in.
I mean, why not, right, Sure he's an absolutely off
guy head down there for the weekend, or maybe he
just wants to get back to Malibu. I thought that
(00:47):
was a funny answer in the presser when they asked
him if he's gonna get the guys together for offseason work,
He's like, I just got to convince him to come out,
and shouldn't be that part of itself pretty tough to do,
you know. So one of the let's start here with
picking back up of Rogers. You know, one thing that
people are very nervous and weary about is the drama
(01:07):
that is kind of surrounding Rogers and the attention that
you get with Rogers and how that's going to translate
into a locker room. But Williamson and I were talking
about this on Tuesday a lot too, and there is
kind of this stigma that like, oh, he comes in
and he wrecks the team, and like he'll wreck a
locker room. And yeah, coaches have fallen around Aaron Rodgers
(01:30):
before the McCarthy thing, though, I mean that was really it.
Let's just say, like I guess, yeah, that was the
ugly one. But the McCarthy thing, it's just like, okay,
maybe it ran its course, and you know what, honestly
it was a better decision because laf is a great
and let's say, you know what, let's or let's give
Rogers a little bit of credit, like he's he is
(01:51):
the Green Bay Packers at that point, you know what
I mean, So he has a little bit more of
like a uh, if it's we're gonna make big change,
is it Rogers as a coach, it's going to be
the coach and then lo and behold it actually was
Rogers too. But anyway, there is that stigma around him,
but you never really find any players say that he's
a bad teammate, Like even Mike Williams who got thrown
(02:12):
under the bus right with the redline thing, like it's
just so funny. He never came out though, and was
like you Rogers sucked, like the locker room was miserable.
And if you remember Brandon Eckles, who is the Steelers
slot corner that they signed from New York in the
offseason in free agency when this was kind of just
starting to gain momentum, they asked him about it way
back in like March, like, hey, Rogers might come here.
(02:33):
You played with him last year. Go at the microphone
in front of him, and he's like, Roger's a great teammate,
Like I felt like he got everybody better, like everything
was great around the facility, like we loved Aaron like,
and you seem to not be able to find anybody
to say the opposite of that when you ask actual
players about their experience with him. So I don't want
(02:56):
to say that he can't be turbulent. I don't want
to say that he can't create some rocky waters sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Sure, but I guess that's more so for like the
meteor fan perspective than it is in the.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Lock what the players think. Yeah, right, Also, thank Jacob
that he like, we talked about this too. There's this
big notion that Aaron Rodgers ruined the Jets, right, like,
oh he ruined the Jets, like, oh, he burned them down,
Like the Jets were such a train wreck, and Aaron
Rodgers had a lot to do with that. Can you
(03:26):
ruin something that's already crap? Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I mean you look at the history of coaches and
right and quarterbacks in that franchise.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Peter Schrager had a really good point I think on
get Up. He was talking about shut up computer. He
was talking about how how dare you? How dare you?
He was in the middle of us giving credit to
Peter Schrager of other people. Oh my god, So maybe
my computer's a good morning football fan. She's still salty.
My computer's a girl. She's still salty about him moving
to ESPN. But anyway, he uh, by the way you
(03:57):
go to ESPN, you work boy like Peter y morning.
Well, Well that's that, that's that whole thing.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
You remember before the NBA T and T that crew
moved over like a couple of years ago. Charles was
on one of the its. Vance's like, you're not gonna
get me to go to ESPN.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I'm working like a dog ESPN, ESPN. U E s
like he caught him out. Uh, but yeah, Peter Trugger
used to just wake up, do Good morning football, hang
out with Kyle, and maybe do some hit stuff. Correspondence. Boy,
you're working all day on, you're on, get up, you're
doing everything. But you're getting paid. I'm sure yeah right now. Anyway,
(04:32):
his point was like he goes into the Jets and
he said, they're asking him to be the savior. They're like,
come and save us, Like we need saved, we need
guided out of this this incredible dark place that we've
been in for years and years and years. Like help us,
Aaron Rodgers, you're our only hope. They gave him the
open they lay speech, and that's a lot of pressure
(04:53):
to put on anybody. It didn't work out. It's an
unstable situation always to begin with. Uh, saw on him,
did not agree. They did not lock. Uh, they didn't lock. Jesus,
I can't speak. They didn't walk in lockstep with each
other really, and that turned real sour, real fast. But
(05:14):
that's kind of just what the Jets do, Like it's
just in there. The maple Leafs lose in the first
round of the playoffs most likely, and if they don't,
they get bounced in the second. Uh. Some teams just
have it in their DNA. The Browns pick a quarterback
in the first round, he's gonna bust, like it's just
the way it goes, unless it's Baker, but then.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He yah, or they just or they just don't do
well in Cleveland and they'll find I saw.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I'm named as a sleeper MVP, and I don't agree.
I don't hate it. I don't hate that, oh the Browns.
But anyway, like teams just have things in their DNA,
and the Jets have sucking in their DNA, and sorry,
really have dumpster fire just kind of in their DNA. Like,
so coaches change quarterbacks, change GM's change, the owners still
letting his kid play Xbox and pick the team. And
I know that that was kind of proven to not
(05:56):
be true, but my point is that owner stays the same,
and that owner ain't any good and the Jets are
a dumpster fire, and Aaron Rodgers, as great as he is,
wasn't able to put out the dumpster fire. And then
Treger's point was, now he comes to Pittsburgh, and it's
not don't save us. Who needs saved?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
With the Pittsburgh Steelers, we're gonna We were talking about
having the ability to win nine ten games without you
with Anson Rudolph.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
That was being put forward and people were like, yeah,
I buy that, Like who needs saved? We're not being saved.
We don't need saved at all. Just play football. Just
come play football. You know what, we got a lot
of veterans on this team too.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Here you want a birthday president. Here's DK Metcalf defensive
side of the ball. We've got veterans now and off
Farmer's not on a baby anymore. Dk Metcalf, we traded
for him. You want a rookie running back who's very spry, fresh.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Also someone that's pretty good at pass blocking. There's a
little like Sonic the Hedgehog, kind of like you don't
trust him entirely. Here's Jalen Warren for you. Yeah, so
I think that. You know, it's a lot easier of
a situation for him to, like Peter Schreeger put it,
Just come and play football. Just come in and play football.
You don't have to save us. You don't have to
worry about having that God Complex and be like, I
right this team up to the next level and get
(07:02):
the Jets out of the depths of hell. Like we're
already fine, We're already the Steelers, We're already cruising along
as one of the most iconic franchise in football. Please
just come in and play football. And I think that
that's gonna go a long way. And speaking of that
iconic franchise thing, back to some of his comments at
the press conference, I think it was not a shot
at his old team, but maybe kind of just a
(07:23):
little bit of one, maybe just a little bit of
a side swipe, because he was kind of asked to
talk about his time with the Jets, and he said,
I'm not talking about my past team. Guys, you're not
gonna get me to do that a one little side swipe, Okay.
He said, how Pittsburgh is such an iconic franchise, right,
He said, there's very few franchises like this in the NFL,
these iconic type of franchises. Pittsburgh's one of them. And
(07:46):
then he said, I played for one of them for
about eighteen years. There's a little bit of time missing
there in that example. Again, I don't think that's a
shot at the Jets, but you know, maybe a little
bit of a side swipe there. Yeah. I played for
Iconic franchise for eighteen years. This is another one of
those two years with the Jets more of a clown
show franchise. So I thought that that was funny. H
(08:10):
He really did butter up the Steelers, Mike Tomlin and Pittsburgh. Well,
and I'm not saying that in a bad way. There's
a little bit of a politician aspect to things when
you come in as that as that new quarterback. Right,
we saw Ross do that to the next level. But
you're seeing you know that when he was naming all
the insers right when he was talking about I got
a ton of insers in my life, you know, Mike McCarthy,
(08:32):
Don Clemens or Tommy Clemens, if you know Don Caper's
he was name dropping Frank Signetti. Yeah, late Luke Getzi.
He's like, I don't want to miss anybody like a
lot of in insers in my life. He said ysers
in the press conference, like very he did.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But then he did the thing where he was like
they love to play that song like the third quarter,
fourth quarter for the defense couldn't name renegade.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I like that actually, though, I like that he's cool.
He's too cool to name it. That song they got right,
that's pretty cool. Man. Like, So Aaron Rodgers really buttering
up the city in a good way, and I think
that that needs to be done a little bit because yeah,
I think again, there was that buzz and excitement once
he did officially sign and you saw him in the uniform.
(09:15):
But I do think there are still people out there
that are probably just a little bit skeptical. Still, would
that be fair for me to Yeah, absolutely, just like
I don't really know if I want Rogers to be
my quarterback. And if you don't think it's gonna work out, well,
you know what, you're probably not wrong. It probably won't
work out well. But my god, it's a much better
spot than you were in. Again, we were kind of
lying through our teeth when we were saying, like, yeah,
(09:37):
let me be fine with Mason. That was fine. They
would have been fine with Mason. Sure, been fine. But boy,
it's a major up. It depends on it depends on
what you care about. Do you care about this season
or do you care about the long term success.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I think if you're a long term guy, Like, yeah,
it could work out either way for.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
You, Jacob, I think you can do both right now. Yeah,
Rogers allows you the ability to do that both. Listen,
I am going to choot. Maybe the team will let
me down, and they have not let me down a
lot in my life that maybe they will like it.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
In terms of regular season you're right, not really ever,
but postseason, yes.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
There's been letdowns with Yeah, you know what I mean,
A guy doesn't sign that I think they should sign
let down. Okay, but listen, I don't. I'm gonna get
my hopes really high on this one. I'm putting a
lot of eggs in the basket. They're gonna move up
in twenty twenty six if they like a quarterback. They're
gonna give twenty twenty six's first rounder and twenty seven's
first rounder to move on. Well.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, that's the thing is that, Like, if you really
care more about the future, would you say that, Oh,
I would rather Mason maybe only win five games.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I don't have to give up as much. I don't
care really, because we do it any much capital in
later rounds that you can fill out the roster very
adequately over that twenty twenty six draft, and in twenty
twenty seven, even if you don't have a first round
pick in twenty twenty seven, and I think going up
(10:59):
and get into the top five, getting into the top
ten and getting a quarterback that you think is that
caliber is gonna be wor worth two first round. It's
worth three first round I give if I could get guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
That this is the ones a Colin Coward territory where
he's like trade tj WI three first round picks.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
If I should guarantee that this guy that I'm picking
at number five overall is gonna play for seventeen years,
He's gonna win you one super Bowl at least, and
you're always gonna be relevant, I would give five first
round picks up to get that guy. Like And maybe
that's a little bit of a exaggeration or it defeats
itself because how you're gonna build a team around him
(11:35):
without this, But my point being like, it'll be worth
it to give up twenty twenty seven's first round pick
to move up and get that quarterback. So what you
were saying, Oh, it depends if you're a long term guy,
if you're a short term guy, I think both. Why
not both? You get your little short term satisfaction where yeah,
if you went through a season with Mason runoff in
one five games and organically got picked in the top ten,
(11:55):
it would feel good come January February, sure, but we
have a long time until then. The season would suck. Yeah,
I know, ensurs out there would not be able to
see the forest or the trees and they would be like,
this is not stale or football. We do not lose
six games like that? Would that? You know that that
would be an end. We only lose four games in
a row and then the fifth one in the playoffs.
(12:16):
Shut up, Jacob, but you know my point, like that
would have been inevitable and there they would have been,
like I they there would have been a little bit
of no hope already, I think starting at the beginning
of the season. So you know, you get to have
the ability to look at this season in a vacuum
almost and be like, it's just one year. See what
(12:37):
Aaron Rodgers can do. It gives you just a sense
of more confidence than you had with with Rudolph and
maybe it doesn't work out, or maybe you do go
to the playoffs and maybe maybe you win that playoff
game that has been eluding you, uh for so often.
But I just want to, you know, say to everybody that, like,
(13:03):
now that you have Aaron Rodgers in the fold, now
that he is your quarterback, now that you're rolling with
him forward, now that he's your guy, this season has
legitimacy to it. Now you can do something this year. Sure,
And you would just have been kind of imagining that
with Rudolph and if it did happen, and if legitimacy
(13:25):
did end up playing out, then it would have just
been a happy accident or would have been a nice
surprise with Mason Rudolph. Now I'm not expecting it, but
I'm not gonna be totally surprised. Another ten and seven
comes down knocking maybe a better ten and seven right
where you don't lose your way out to it, but
you kind of win your way to it. I'm not
gonna be surprised by that. I'm not gonna be surprised
if they're dancing in the playoffs. And then Jacob to
(13:46):
that other side of the argument, you move those draft capitals,
you still move up in twenty twenty six, even if
you're picking in the mid twenties, doesn't matter. We'll give
you our twenty fourth pick, we'll give you next year's
twenty twenty seven pick, we'll give you a third round pick.
Let us get number seven overall in twenty twenty six,
and then we take Sellers from South Carolina and then
we go to Rogers and we say, hey, Aaron, not
(14:08):
a bad year, right, one more year? Kind of just yeah,
why don't you just help us out? Yeah? All right, yeah,
I like I like coach t I like Pittsburgh. We
want a playoff game together. Uh yeah, I'll sign up
one more year, ten million dollars, same thing, same same,
And then you got him and you got Sellers, and
then all of a sudden, you got something right. Your
quarterback room, all of a sudden has a lot of
(14:29):
potential for the future. So I'm just saying, I think
you can get greedy here a little bit. You can
have it both ways. I think the Steelers can have
the future and compete in here now with Aaron Rodgers.
But all that hinges on trusting and putting your eggs
in the basket that they're gonna do what is necessary
in twenty twenty six. Sure to move up if they
do indeed win too many games this year to just
(14:52):
naturally have a good pick for a quarterback. I don't
think that's gonna be the case, though. Yeah, they're gonna
win ten games. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
This the thing is, I think that's kind of why.
And again we're saying this all on hindsight. With Rogers
now on the team, Like, I think it was kind
of moot to like say that about Mason, like, oh,
you get Mason, you just win five games. It makes
it a lot cheaper for you to move up in
the draft, or maybe you don't have to move up
at all. Maybe you already are picking top five just
with Mason at quarterback. But I just think the team
is too good to only win five games, no matter
(15:23):
who's that quarterback.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah. I didn't think they were gonna win five either.
I thought that they would probably like in the area
like seven, eight, nine, ten. Yeah, but I think they're
definitely gonna get probably ten games this time now.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Like I said, like the team is already so good
and you put a Hall of Fame quarterback on it.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So the greatest strength that Rogers has still is above
the neck. He is still just such a high processor
of things and again back to what in our first
episode we were talking about, like, well we we had
that with Russ, right, it's a different level with totally Rogers.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I mean, you're comparing when we were comparing a year ago,
Russell Wilson and Justin Fields head and shoulders. Russell Wilson
stood a tall above Justin. Yeah, but hey, you want
to get bear Russell Wilson to Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
He's Peyton Manning ish, he's Tom Brady ish, and how
he thinks the game. Everybody can process the game. And
he's very technical and this and that and that. Russ
when he was at his greatest strength. Yeah, he's smart,
he knows, but he's an improv like he was an
improv guy. Like he not say Rogers couldn't improvise. All
great quarterbacks can. But Rogers was really like, I take
the preestat picture. I know what this guy's doing, that
(16:28):
guy's doing, I know what you're doing on this play.
If I motion this guy and I see this, then
why is going to be open? If he stands there
while I motion this guy, I'm an audible into a
run because he's just gonna bust right through it. So
Rogers is just gonna be able to think the game
at a level that is just so high. And really
(16:49):
he probably is the quarterback right now in the NFL
that can think the game at the highest. I mean,
it's just natural that when you're that great, you get
to that age and you just think a game better
than anybody else, but your physical tools diminished. It's like, look,
I think I brought this up with Jordan in the
Last Dance, saying that at the end of my career,
after winning the second three pete and going into the
(17:11):
second retirement before coming out again for the Wizards, he
was saying, you know, I thought, mentally I was the
best I've ever been, sure, like I knew the game
of ASKBA. His body just couldn't keep anymore. And that's
exactly what I think happens with Rogers now. It's just like, mentally,
I'm his best off I've ever been. You know, the
tricks are all like honed to their absolute peak. I
(17:35):
am a just completely next level thinker when it comes
to the sport. I think you're getting that from him.
It's just a matter of the physical tool set. It's
a matter of can his body with stand a full season? Well,
did play seventeen games last year. So he did stand
up season last year with the Jets, and it was
(17:56):
a bad year. They could have benched him, They could
have moved on. He could have been like, em, I
need hurts and I don't want to play, and knew that.
He decided to play an entire season. So I'll give
him credit for that. And man, the arm talent, that's
something that Matt really wanted to get across on our
shows and I'm sure he's been saying it on the
shows that have been there the past couple of days.
Arm talent is still there. I mean he throws that football.
(18:18):
It still has that zip to it. He still has
that ability at forty one years old to make it
rain out there. So even if you look at a
highlight package of the Jets last year, there is some
really just precise and insanely good throws. Only Aaron type
of throw. So you're getting somebody that is not just
(18:41):
the highest processor of the game that you kind of
have right now in football, but someone that still has
a pretty decent amount of physical ability. You got to
protect him. I think that's probably the biggest key here.
If you can give him somewhat of a decent pocket
and with some consistency, I think that you're going to
see Aaron Rodgers really do some nice things and win
(19:01):
some football games for your team. I think that if
there is pressure breathing down his neck, if there's not
time for things to develop downfield, he's not going to
be able to really get out and scramble like he
used to. He's not going to be able to be
that like guy that was so like he really really
was deceptively quick, like you would never think that Rogers
will be fast. But back in his prime, man he
(19:22):
screwed up that sideline and he would kind of dance
and again. But it was also like the brains of
it too, were so well run exactly exactly. But now
he can say, oh, I could run for ten yards,
but be like, my body can't do it, and I
really do that, yeah, two yards before someone finally tracks
me down. So you got to protect the guy. And
we've already said this so much this year, but that
(19:44):
means there's so much pressure on your offensive line and
Broderick Jones trefatane the tackle spots. They need to be big, big,
big time performers this year for Proderck Jones. Time to
make money. It's time to see if that fifth year
option gets picked up. That's an unbelievable race for him
if he just gets that fifth year option picked up
by the Steelers. So you got to show out this year.
You got to protect Aaron Rodgers's blind side, and Fetan's
(20:06):
got to come back from that injury and have a
second year. That makes you feel real good about taking
him in that first round. So it's a huge year
for that offensive line. They have got to protect this
guy right here. And Zach Frazier, the anchor, looks like
he's going to be kind of the folk rum of
this line. No, you know, he is the center. So yes,
(20:27):
he is obviously the folk rum technically, but I just
think that he's going to be the brains of the operation.
And what a boost it should be for him to
have a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers and as Matt put it,
to take a little bit off of his plate now
in the second year. And that also said, you know
with Caleb Johnson in that running game and his biggest
hang up being pass protection and who to take and
(20:50):
who's coming off here, Like you never did that at Iowa.
Maybe you had like five protection sets. Now you're gonna
have fifteen sixteen here in Pittsburgh. And it's not just
about getting in front of the guy taking on TJ.
Watt and taking on a linebacker. It's knowing which guy
is gonna come free. It's knowing which guy the line
is strategically going to let through. That is Caleb Johnson's
job to clean up so that this play works. And
(21:14):
A you have Jalen Warren that is great at it,
so you don't have to like third passing situations, you
throw him out there you feel comfortable. But as Matt
Putt like just the same thing with Fraser, tak things
off his plate. Now you have the sidecar and Aaron
Rodgers where it's like if Caleb Johnson's a little like
wait is it forty two? Is it ninety one? Like
who's coming? Rogers just leans over to the side, not anyone,
(21:35):
Like he just lists like niney one right there, like
take him like it's just a guy. It's just gonna
it's gonna hopefully make everything so much easier and smoother
for these guys and allow them to really learn and
grow as they enter for one or his rookie season
for Fraser his second season in the NFL. There's a
(21:56):
lot of youth that can benefit from the Rogers factor
him being dropped into this scenario. And all you can
do is take a guy at his word. And that's
what he's said so far, is that he's going to
be really open to being a mentor, going as far
as to even saying Will Howard and my name being like, yeah,
Will and I sat next to each other, and see
if that continues. But I'm more than happy to open
(22:17):
up to Will saying all the right things. You know.
It's funny too, and I'm sorry, but just back to
that point we had before about how you know, oh,
he's bad in the locker room. He's a turbulent guy.
Jordan Love has nothing but good things to say about
Aaron Rodgers too. I know that Aaron Rodgers like I'm
not mentor and blah blah blah. But like Jordan Love said, like, yeah,
I can't wait to play him, like Rogers is great,
Like you know, he was such a good mentor to me,
(22:38):
Like I learned a lot from him. And if you
watch Jordan Love, he has very similar Rogers mannerisms now
when he plays honestly, his throwing style is very wrist
flicky like Rogers is. And Matt was kind of talking
about this too. I'm just ripping off Matt today, but
I was on the show with him, so it's cool.
It's like cause but like he was saying, you know,
Rogers kind of did that with far If, like that
(22:58):
improvisation stuff, and like kind of just like that play
it kind of loose and cool, like Rogers kind of
picked it up from Farv And now you see Love
kind of picking up something from Rogers. Like they've just
had this thing in Green Bay where this next guy's
just been a sponge of an all time great before
him and taking some of the tools and using him
as his own. And now Will Howard has an opportunity
to do that, to just kind of be that sponge
(23:20):
and take some of the tools from Rogers and maybe
he'll start throwing a little bit differently or like have
a little bit of a different approach to things because
of what Rogers brings to the table. But it's not
just Howard, it's the other young guys on that offense.
Now you have a true leader that you can fall behind,
and you did have that with Russ last year. Too,
and you saw how much of a boost that was
when that guy, the commander of the troops comes in.
(23:42):
But Russ has that toxic positivity about him. So that's
what I'm looking get a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
That's what I'm trying to get at last a year ago,
when Russ came into town and we were all listening
to him. His initial remarks of oh my gosh, I
love Mike t I love the coaches, coaching staff, love
the guy, naming every single guy on offense, talking about
how much he how excited he was to be in Pittsburgh.
We were drinking the kool aid, but also kind of
being wary of it because we knew this is what
(24:07):
he does. He does that kind of stuff where he
makes you a little on edge because it's this weird
toxic positivity thing. Compared to Rogers. Now a year later,
it's okay, this guy isn't We've seen him interact with
the media, we know how he acts, and he's saying
like he really appreciated how Mike Tomlin treated him throughout
the entire process. He really respected him, and that's why
(24:30):
he wanted to come here, and that's why he he
showed up before mandatory mini campus. Him showing up after
mandatory miniacamp, like it makes you feel better about it.
I think these comments that he's making compared to a
year ago when you heard Russ make all kind of
similar comment.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I think he's got a different kind of leadership too,
yeah kind of yeah, where he's not going to just
be like, you know, if you lose three straight games.
He's not gonna be like hey baby, right right, it's
gonna be like this sucks, like this we suck right now,
but guess what next week. It's all about not sucking.
That's the new. That's the new. Like it's a different
kind of style, Like it's a different kind of like
just like hey, everything's great, No it's not. We're losing.
(25:08):
Like say it's bad. Say you could say it's bad.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Like I think the lasting legacy of Russ and Pittsburgh
will be that that footage that we saw from Hard
Knocks of him going up to camp Heyward after that
Cincinnati game the final week of the season. He's like,
hey man, we just got one more all we got one,
doesn't matter these last four weeks.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Just get one.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
And Cam's like yeah, okay, like not really believe in it, right, No,
I didn't believe it, didn't believe.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
In russ at all at that point. How could you so?
Rogers brings a little bit of a different swaggered, a
little bit of a different aura. I do think they
are going to go out and get another weapon for him.
I think that there's gonna be another receiver that comes in,
whether that's a training camp, whether that's in the time
between mini camp and training camp, I don't know. I
don't know who it's going to be. They're kicking tires
(25:59):
though they're calling Johnny, They're bringing in Gabe Davis is like.
I think that there is gonna be something Darren mc.
I do not think that they should do that, and
I do not think that that's gonna happen. I think
that's a money play strictly by Scary Terry, and I
think Washington gonna pay. Why would you not keep right?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Why would you go out and get deebo number one
right and let Terry go? Scary Terry is a number
one absolutely now.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Don't get me wrong. Scary Terry's like at the top
of my wish list as far as like you know,
because you can't put like Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson
and you look they're scary. Terry's like right there, I'd
be like, I would love DK wasn't far off either
as far as kind of right player, kind of that
next tier of potential number one guys. But scary Terry
Man is just a beast. I mean he gave Porter
(26:46):
fits last year because I think physical receivers can give
Joey Porter Junior a little bit of a tough time.
And Darre mcglorane ain't scared like he is a very
physical type of wide receiver. Guys got his head on
straight as well. They're not going to do that. They're
gonna get a Keenan Allen, They're gonna get a free agent,
or they're gonna have a trade kind of appear after
camp and like the Packers have to move on from somebody.
(27:07):
They're gonna go through so many camp and they're gonna
be like, we can't Dobbs can't be five, Like he
needs to go somewhere else and be the number two
on some team. So I think you're gonna have an
opportunity as this offseason moves forward. We're gonna keep talking Rogers.
Of course, in the third episode, and you know what
we have to do. You know we have to do now.
We have to do a new win loss because we
(27:29):
have Aaron Rod.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Great, I never got to do with you. You did
it with Cassidy after the schedule, which you did one
on your own, of course, but it's far more fun
to do with with the partner.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
It is with the partner. I think I had the
Steelers like seven and ten when I had done it
with Mason Rudolph so and I had them losing like
three straight games right out of there. So we'll see
what happens. So we'll get into that next as the
Steelers Standard rolls along on Steelers Nation Radio and the
Steelers Audio Network
I wonder if Rogers is going to mosey on down
the Oakmond.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I mean, I saw the Pirates were there there for practice.
I'm trying to I don't want to disrespect anyone specifically
on that team. Easy if jaredry looking go to Oakmont, like,
hey Rogers.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hey I've been there. Anybody can go to Oakmond, buster.
But I was just saying, because Rogers likes to go
to you know, events like this, the Big Tennis matches,
I wonder if he would go and just soak it in.
I mean, why not, right, Sure he's an absolutely off
guy head down there for the weekend, or maybe he
just wants to get back to Malibu. I thought that
(00:47):
was a funny answer in the presser when they asked
him if he's gonna get the guys together for offseason work,
He's like, I just got to convince him to come out,
and shouldn't be that part of itself pretty tough to do,
you know. So one of the let's start here with
picking back up of Rogers. You know, one thing that
people are very nervous and weary about is the drama
(01:07):
that is kind of surrounding Rogers and the attention that
you get with Rogers and how that's going to translate
into a locker room. But Williamson and I were talking
about this on Tuesday a lot too, and there is
kind of this stigma that like, oh, he comes in
and he wrecks the team, and like he'll wreck a
locker room. And yeah, coaches have fallen around Aaron Rodgers
(01:30):
before the McCarthy thing, though, I mean that was really it.
Let's just say, like I guess, yeah, that was the
ugly one. But the McCarthy thing, it's just like, okay,
maybe it ran its course, and you know what, honestly
it was a better decision because laf is a great
and let's say, you know what, let's or let's give
Rogers a little bit of credit, like he's he is
(01:51):
the Green Bay Packers at that point, you know what
I mean, So he has a little bit more of
like a uh, if it's we're gonna make big change,
is it Rogers as a coach, it's going to be
the coach and then lo and behold it actually was
Rogers too. But anyway, there is that stigma around him,
but you never really find any players say that he's
a bad teammate, Like even Mike Williams who got thrown
(02:12):
under the bus right with the redline thing, like it's
just so funny. He never came out though, and was
like you Rogers sucked, like the locker room was miserable.
And if you remember Brandon Eckles, who is the Steelers
slot corner that they signed from New York in the
offseason in free agency when this was kind of just
starting to gain momentum, they asked him about it way
back in like March, like, hey, Rogers might come here.
(02:33):
You played with him last year. Go at the microphone
in front of him, and he's like, Roger's a great teammate,
Like I felt like he got everybody better, like everything
was great around the facility, like we loved Aaron like,
and you seem to not be able to find anybody
to say the opposite of that when you ask actual
players about their experience with him. So I don't want
(02:56):
to say that he can't be turbulent. I don't want
to say that he can't create some rocky waters sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Sure, but I guess that's more so for like the
meteor fan perspective than it is in the.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Lock what the players think. Yeah, right, Also, thank Jacob
that he like, we talked about this too. There's this
big notion that Aaron Rodgers ruined the Jets, right, like,
oh he ruined the Jets, like, oh, he burned them down,
Like the Jets were such a train wreck, and Aaron
Rodgers had a lot to do with that. Can you
(03:26):
ruin something that's already crap? Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I mean you look at the history of coaches and
right and quarterbacks in that franchise.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Peter Schrager had a really good point I think on
get Up. He was talking about shut up computer. He
was talking about how how dare you? How dare you?
He was in the middle of us giving credit to
Peter Schrager of other people. Oh my god, So maybe
my computer's a good morning football fan. She's still salty.
My computer's a girl. She's still salty about him moving
to ESPN. But anyway, he uh, by the way you
(03:57):
go to ESPN, you work boy like Peter y morning.
Well, Well that's that, that's that whole thing.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
You remember before the NBA T and T that crew
moved over like a couple of years ago. Charles was
on one of the its. Vance's like, you're not gonna
get me to go to ESPN.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I'm working like a dog ESPN, ESPN. U E s
like he caught him out. Uh, but yeah, Peter Trugger
used to just wake up, do Good morning football, hang
out with Kyle, and maybe do some hit stuff. Correspondence. Boy,
you're working all day on, you're on, get up, you're
doing everything. But you're getting paid. I'm sure yeah right now. Anyway,
(04:32):
his point was like he goes into the Jets and
he said, they're asking him to be the savior. They're like,
come and save us, Like we need saved, we need
guided out of this this incredible dark place that we've
been in for years and years and years. Like help us,
Aaron Rodgers, you're our only hope. They gave him the
open they lay speech, and that's a lot of pressure
(04:53):
to put on anybody. It didn't work out. It's an
unstable situation always to begin with. Uh, saw on him,
did not agree. They did not lock. Uh, they didn't lock. Jesus,
I can't speak. They didn't walk in lockstep with each
other really, and that turned real sour, real fast. But
(05:14):
that's kind of just what the Jets do, Like it's
just in there. The maple Leafs lose in the first
round of the playoffs most likely, and if they don't,
they get bounced in the second. Uh. Some teams just
have it in their DNA. The Browns pick a quarterback
in the first round, he's gonna bust, like it's just
the way it goes, unless it's Baker, but then.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He yah, or they just or they just don't do
well in Cleveland and they'll find I saw.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I'm named as a sleeper MVP, and I don't agree.
I don't hate it. I don't hate that, oh the Browns.
But anyway, like teams just have things in their DNA,
and the Jets have sucking in their DNA, and sorry,
really have dumpster fire just kind of in their DNA. Like,
so coaches change quarterbacks, change GM's change, the owners still
letting his kid play Xbox and pick the team. And
I know that that was kind of proven to not
(05:56):
be true, but my point is that owner stays the same,
and that owner ain't any good and the Jets are
a dumpster fire, and Aaron Rodgers, as great as he is,
wasn't able to put out the dumpster fire. And then
Treger's point was, now he comes to Pittsburgh, and it's
not don't save us. Who needs saved?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
With the Pittsburgh Steelers, we're gonna We were talking about
having the ability to win nine ten games without you
with Anson Rudolph.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
That was being put forward and people were like, yeah,
I buy that, Like who needs saved? We're not being saved.
We don't need saved at all. Just play football. Just
come play football. You know what, we got a lot
of veterans on this team too.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Here you want a birthday president. Here's DK Metcalf defensive
side of the ball. We've got veterans now and off
Farmer's not on a baby anymore. Dk Metcalf, we traded
for him. You want a rookie running back who's very spry, fresh.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Also someone that's pretty good at pass blocking. There's a
little like Sonic the Hedgehog, kind of like you don't
trust him entirely. Here's Jalen Warren for you. Yeah, so
I think that. You know, it's a lot easier of
a situation for him to, like Peter Schreeger put it,
Just come and play football. Just come in and play football.
You don't have to save us. You don't have to
worry about having that God Complex and be like, I
right this team up to the next level and get
(07:02):
the Jets out of the depths of hell. Like we're
already fine, We're already the Steelers, We're already cruising along
as one of the most iconic franchise in football. Please
just come in and play football. And I think that
that's gonna go a long way. And speaking of that
iconic franchise thing, back to some of his comments at
the press conference, I think it was not a shot
at his old team, but maybe kind of just a
(07:23):
little bit of one, maybe just a little bit of
a side swipe, because he was kind of asked to
talk about his time with the Jets, and he said,
I'm not talking about my past team. Guys, you're not
gonna get me to do that a one little side swipe, Okay.
He said, how Pittsburgh is such an iconic franchise, right,
He said, there's very few franchises like this in the NFL,
these iconic type of franchises. Pittsburgh's one of them. And
(07:46):
then he said, I played for one of them for
about eighteen years. There's a little bit of time missing
there in that example. Again, I don't think that's a
shot at the Jets, but you know, maybe a little
bit of a side swipe there. Yeah. I played for
Iconic franchise for eighteen years. This is another one of
those two years with the Jets more of a clown
show franchise. So I thought that that was funny. H
(08:10):
He really did butter up the Steelers, Mike Tomlin and Pittsburgh. Well,
and I'm not saying that in a bad way. There's
a little bit of a politician aspect to things when
you come in as that as that new quarterback. Right,
we saw Ross do that to the next level. But
you're seeing you know that when he was naming all
the insers right when he was talking about I got
a ton of insers in my life, you know, Mike McCarthy,
(08:32):
Don Clemens or Tommy Clemens, if you know Don Caper's
he was name dropping Frank Signetti. Yeah, late Luke Getzi.
He's like, I don't want to miss anybody like a
lot of in insers in my life. He said ysers
in the press conference, like very he did.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But then he did the thing where he was like
they love to play that song like the third quarter,
fourth quarter for the defense couldn't name renegade.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I like that actually, though, I like that he's cool.
He's too cool to name it. That song they got right,
that's pretty cool. Man. Like, So Aaron Rodgers really buttering
up the city in a good way, and I think
that that needs to be done a little bit because yeah,
I think again, there was that buzz and excitement once
he did officially sign and you saw him in the uniform.
(09:15):
But I do think there are still people out there
that are probably just a little bit skeptical. Still, would
that be fair for me to Yeah, absolutely, just like
I don't really know if I want Rogers to be
my quarterback. And if you don't think it's gonna work out, well,
you know what, you're probably not wrong. It probably won't
work out well. But my god, it's a much better
spot than you were in. Again, we were kind of
lying through our teeth when we were saying, like, yeah,
(09:37):
let me be fine with Mason. That was fine. They
would have been fine with Mason. Sure, been fine. But boy,
it's a major up. It depends on it depends on
what you care about. Do you care about this season
or do you care about the long term success.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I think if you're a long term guy, Like, yeah,
it could work out either way for.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
You, Jacob, I think you can do both right now. Yeah,
Rogers allows you the ability to do that both. Listen,
I am going to choot. Maybe the team will let
me down, and they have not let me down a
lot in my life that maybe they will like it.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
In terms of regular season you're right, not really ever,
but postseason, yes.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
There's been letdowns with Yeah, you know what I mean,
A guy doesn't sign that I think they should sign
let down. Okay, but listen, I don't. I'm gonna get
my hopes really high on this one. I'm putting a
lot of eggs in the basket. They're gonna move up
in twenty twenty six if they like a quarterback. They're
gonna give twenty twenty six's first rounder and twenty seven's
first rounder to move on. Well.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, that's the thing is that, Like, if you really
care more about the future, would you say that, Oh,
I would rather Mason maybe only win five games.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I don't have to give up as much. I don't
care really, because we do it any much capital in
later rounds that you can fill out the roster very
adequately over that twenty twenty six draft, and in twenty
twenty seven, even if you don't have a first round
pick in twenty twenty seven, and I think going up
(10:59):
and get into the top five, getting into the top
ten and getting a quarterback that you think is that
caliber is gonna be wor worth two first round. It's
worth three first round I give if I could get guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
That this is the ones a Colin Coward territory where
he's like trade tj WI three first round picks.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
If I should guarantee that this guy that I'm picking
at number five overall is gonna play for seventeen years,
He's gonna win you one super Bowl at least, and
you're always gonna be relevant, I would give five first
round picks up to get that guy. Like And maybe
that's a little bit of a exaggeration or it defeats
itself because how you're gonna build a team around him
(11:35):
without this, But my point being like, it'll be worth
it to give up twenty twenty seven's first round pick
to move up and get that quarterback. So what you
were saying, Oh, it depends if you're a long term guy,
if you're a short term guy, I think both. Why
not both? You get your little short term satisfaction where yeah,
if you went through a season with Mason runoff in
one five games and organically got picked in the top ten,
(11:55):
it would feel good come January February, sure, but we
have a long time until then. The season would suck. Yeah,
I know, ensurs out there would not be able to
see the forest or the trees and they would be like,
this is not stale or football. We do not lose
six games like that? Would that? You know that that
would be an end. We only lose four games in
a row and then the fifth one in the playoffs.
(12:16):
Shut up, Jacob, but you know my point, like that
would have been inevitable and there they would have been,
like I they there would have been a little bit
of no hope already, I think starting at the beginning
of the season. So you know, you get to have
the ability to look at this season in a vacuum
almost and be like, it's just one year. See what
(12:37):
Aaron Rodgers can do. It gives you just a sense
of more confidence than you had with with Rudolph and
maybe it doesn't work out, or maybe you do go
to the playoffs and maybe maybe you win that playoff
game that has been eluding you, uh for so often.
But I just want to, you know, say to everybody that, like,
(13:03):
now that you have Aaron Rodgers in the fold, now
that he is your quarterback, now that you're rolling with
him forward, now that he's your guy, this season has
legitimacy to it. Now you can do something this year. Sure,
And you would just have been kind of imagining that
with Rudolph and if it did happen, and if legitimacy
(13:25):
did end up playing out, then it would have just
been a happy accident or would have been a nice
surprise with Mason Rudolph. Now I'm not expecting it, but
I'm not gonna be totally surprised. Another ten and seven
comes down knocking maybe a better ten and seven right
where you don't lose your way out to it, but
you kind of win your way to it. I'm not
gonna be surprised by that. I'm not gonna be surprised
if they're dancing in the playoffs. And then Jacob to
(13:46):
that other side of the argument, you move those draft capitals,
you still move up in twenty twenty six, even if
you're picking in the mid twenties, doesn't matter. We'll give
you our twenty fourth pick, we'll give you next year's
twenty twenty seven pick, we'll give you a third round pick.
Let us get number seven overall in twenty twenty six,
and then we take Sellers from South Carolina and then
we go to Rogers and we say, hey, Aaron, not
(14:08):
a bad year, right, one more year? Kind of just yeah,
why don't you just help us out? Yeah? All right, yeah,
I like I like coach t I like Pittsburgh. We
want a playoff game together. Uh yeah, I'll sign up
one more year, ten million dollars, same thing, same same,
And then you got him and you got Sellers, and
then all of a sudden, you got something right. Your
quarterback room, all of a sudden has a lot of
(14:29):
potential for the future. So I'm just saying, I think
you can get greedy here a little bit. You can
have it both ways. I think the Steelers can have
the future and compete in here now with Aaron Rodgers.
But all that hinges on trusting and putting your eggs
in the basket that they're gonna do what is necessary
in twenty twenty six. Sure to move up if they
do indeed win too many games this year to just
(14:52):
naturally have a good pick for a quarterback. I don't
think that's gonna be the case, though. Yeah, they're gonna
win ten games. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
This the thing is, I think that's kind of why.
And again we're saying this all on hindsight. With Rogers
now on the team, Like, I think it was kind
of moot to like say that about Mason, like, oh,
you get Mason, you just win five games. It makes
it a lot cheaper for you to move up in
the draft, or maybe you don't have to move up
at all. Maybe you already are picking top five just
with Mason at quarterback. But I just think the team
is too good to only win five games, no matter
(15:23):
who's that quarterback.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah. I didn't think they were gonna win five either.
I thought that they would probably like in the area
like seven, eight, nine, ten. Yeah, but I think they're
definitely gonna get probably ten games this time now.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Like I said, like the team is already so good
and you put a Hall of Fame quarterback on it.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So the greatest strength that Rogers has still is above
the neck. He is still just such a high processor
of things and again back to what in our first
episode we were talking about, like, well we we had
that with Russ, right, it's a different level with totally Rogers.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I mean, you're comparing when we were comparing a year ago,
Russell Wilson and Justin Fields head and shoulders. Russell Wilson
stood a tall above Justin. Yeah, but hey, you want
to get bear Russell Wilson to Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
He's Peyton Manning ish, he's Tom Brady ish, and how
he thinks the game. Everybody can process the game. And
he's very technical and this and that and that. Russ
when he was at his greatest strength. Yeah, he's smart,
he knows, but he's an improv like he was an
improv guy. Like he not say Rogers couldn't improvise. All
great quarterbacks can. But Rogers was really like, I take
the preestat picture. I know what this guy's doing, that
(16:28):
guy's doing, I know what you're doing on this play.
If I motion this guy and I see this, then
why is going to be open? If he stands there
while I motion this guy, I'm an audible into a
run because he's just gonna bust right through it. So
Rogers is just gonna be able to think the game
at a level that is just so high. And really
(16:49):
he probably is the quarterback right now in the NFL
that can think the game at the highest. I mean,
it's just natural that when you're that great, you get
to that age and you just think a game better
than anybody else, but your physical tools diminished. It's like, look,
I think I brought this up with Jordan in the
Last Dance, saying that at the end of my career,
after winning the second three pete and going into the
(17:11):
second retirement before coming out again for the Wizards, he
was saying, you know, I thought, mentally I was the
best I've ever been, sure, like I knew the game
of ASKBA. His body just couldn't keep anymore. And that's
exactly what I think happens with Rogers now. It's just like, mentally,
I'm his best off I've ever been. You know, the
tricks are all like honed to their absolute peak. I
(17:35):
am a just completely next level thinker when it comes
to the sport. I think you're getting that from him.
It's just a matter of the physical tool set. It's
a matter of can his body with stand a full season? Well,
did play seventeen games last year. So he did stand
up season last year with the Jets, and it was
(17:56):
a bad year. They could have benched him, They could
have moved on. He could have been like, em, I
need hurts and I don't want to play, and knew that.
He decided to play an entire season. So I'll give
him credit for that. And man, the arm talent, that's
something that Matt really wanted to get across on our
shows and I'm sure he's been saying it on the
shows that have been there the past couple of days.
Arm talent is still there. I mean he throws that football.
(18:18):
It still has that zip to it. He still has
that ability at forty one years old to make it
rain out there. So even if you look at a
highlight package of the Jets last year, there is some
really just precise and insanely good throws. Only Aaron type
of throw. So you're getting somebody that is not just
(18:41):
the highest processor of the game that you kind of
have right now in football, but someone that still has
a pretty decent amount of physical ability. You got to
protect him. I think that's probably the biggest key here.
If you can give him somewhat of a decent pocket
and with some consistency, I think that you're going to
see Aaron Rodgers really do some nice things and win
(19:01):
some football games for your team. I think that if
there is pressure breathing down his neck, if there's not
time for things to develop downfield, he's not going to
be able to really get out and scramble like he
used to. He's not going to be able to be
that like guy that was so like he really really
was deceptively quick, like you would never think that Rogers
will be fast. But back in his prime, man he
(19:22):
screwed up that sideline and he would kind of dance
and again. But it was also like the brains of
it too, were so well run exactly exactly. But now
he can say, oh, I could run for ten yards,
but be like, my body can't do it, and I
really do that, yeah, two yards before someone finally tracks
me down. So you got to protect the guy. And
we've already said this so much this year, but that
(19:44):
means there's so much pressure on your offensive line and
Broderick Jones trefatane the tackle spots. They need to be big, big,
big time performers this year for Proderck Jones. Time to
make money. It's time to see if that fifth year
option gets picked up. That's an unbelievable race for him
if he just gets that fifth year option picked up
by the Steelers. So you got to show out this year.
You got to protect Aaron Rodgers's blind side, and Fetan's
(20:06):
got to come back from that injury and have a
second year. That makes you feel real good about taking
him in that first round. So it's a huge year
for that offensive line. They have got to protect this
guy right here. And Zach Frazier, the anchor, looks like
he's going to be kind of the folk rum of
this line. No, you know, he is the center. So yes,
(20:27):
he is obviously the folk rum technically, but I just
think that he's going to be the brains of the operation.
And what a boost it should be for him to
have a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers and as Matt put it,
to take a little bit off of his plate now
in the second year. And that also said, you know
with Caleb Johnson in that running game and his biggest
hang up being pass protection and who to take and
(20:50):
who's coming off here, Like you never did that at Iowa.
Maybe you had like five protection sets. Now you're gonna
have fifteen sixteen here in Pittsburgh. And it's not just
about getting in front of the guy taking on TJ.
Watt and taking on a linebacker. It's knowing which guy
is gonna come free. It's knowing which guy the line
is strategically going to let through. That is Caleb Johnson's
job to clean up so that this play works. And
(21:14):
A you have Jalen Warren that is great at it,
so you don't have to like third passing situations, you
throw him out there you feel comfortable. But as Matt
Putt like just the same thing with Fraser, tak things
off his plate. Now you have the sidecar and Aaron
Rodgers where it's like if Caleb Johnson's a little like
wait is it forty two? Is it ninety one? Like
who's coming? Rogers just leans over to the side, not anyone,
(21:35):
Like he just lists like niney one right there, like
take him like it's just a guy. It's just gonna
it's gonna hopefully make everything so much easier and smoother
for these guys and allow them to really learn and
grow as they enter for one or his rookie season
for Fraser his second season in the NFL. There's a
(21:56):
lot of youth that can benefit from the Rogers factor
him being dropped into this scenario. And all you can
do is take a guy at his word. And that's
what he's said so far, is that he's going to
be really open to being a mentor, going as far
as to even saying Will Howard and my name being like, yeah,
Will and I sat next to each other, and see
if that continues. But I'm more than happy to open
(22:17):
up to Will saying all the right things. You know.
It's funny too, and I'm sorry, but just back to
that point we had before about how you know, oh,
he's bad in the locker room. He's a turbulent guy.
Jordan Love has nothing but good things to say about
Aaron Rodgers too. I know that Aaron Rodgers like I'm
not mentor and blah blah blah. But like Jordan Love said, like, yeah,
I can't wait to play him, like Rogers is great,
Like you know, he was such a good mentor to me,
(22:38):
Like I learned a lot from him. And if you
watch Jordan Love, he has very similar Rogers mannerisms now
when he plays honestly, his throwing style is very wrist
flicky like Rogers is. And Matt was kind of talking
about this too. I'm just ripping off Matt today, but
I was on the show with him, so it's cool.
It's like cause but like he was saying, you know,
Rogers kind of did that with far If, like that
(22:58):
improvisation stuff, and like kind of just like that play
it kind of loose and cool, like Rogers kind of
picked it up from Farv And now you see Love
kind of picking up something from Rogers. Like they've just
had this thing in Green Bay where this next guy's
just been a sponge of an all time great before
him and taking some of the tools and using him
as his own. And now Will Howard has an opportunity
to do that, to just kind of be that sponge
(23:20):
and take some of the tools from Rogers and maybe
he'll start throwing a little bit differently or like have
a little bit of a different approach to things because
of what Rogers brings to the table. But it's not
just Howard, it's the other young guys on that offense.
Now you have a true leader that you can fall behind,
and you did have that with Russ last year. Too,
and you saw how much of a boost that was
when that guy, the commander of the troops comes in.
(23:42):
But Russ has that toxic positivity about him. So that's
what I'm looking get a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
That's what I'm trying to get at last a year ago,
when Russ came into town and we were all listening
to him. His initial remarks of oh my gosh, I
love Mike t I love the coaches, coaching staff, love
the guy, naming every single guy on offense, talking about
how much he how excited he was to be in Pittsburgh.
We were drinking the kool aid, but also kind of
being wary of it because we knew this is what
(24:07):
he does. He does that kind of stuff where he
makes you a little on edge because it's this weird
toxic positivity thing. Compared to Rogers. Now a year later,
it's okay, this guy isn't We've seen him interact with
the media, we know how he acts, and he's saying
like he really appreciated how Mike Tomlin treated him throughout
the entire process. He really respected him, and that's why
(24:30):
he wanted to come here, and that's why he he
showed up before mandatory mini campus. Him showing up after
mandatory miniacamp, like it makes you feel better about it.
I think these comments that he's making compared to a
year ago when you heard Russ make all kind of
similar comment.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I think he's got a different kind of leadership too,
yeah kind of yeah, where he's not going to just
be like, you know, if you lose three straight games.
He's not gonna be like hey baby, right right, it's
gonna be like this sucks, like this we suck right now,
but guess what next week. It's all about not sucking.
That's the new. That's the new. Like it's a different
kind of style, Like it's a different kind of like
just like hey, everything's great, No it's not. We're losing.
(25:08):
Like say it's bad. Say you could say it's bad.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Like I think the lasting legacy of Russ and Pittsburgh
will be that that footage that we saw from Hard
Knocks of him going up to camp Heyward after that
Cincinnati game the final week of the season. He's like,
hey man, we just got one more all we got one,
doesn't matter these last four weeks.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Just get one.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
And Cam's like yeah, okay, like not really believe in it, right, No,
I didn't believe it, didn't believe.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
In russ at all at that point. How could you so?
Rogers brings a little bit of a different swaggered, a
little bit of a different aura. I do think they
are going to go out and get another weapon for him.
I think that there's gonna be another receiver that comes in,
whether that's a training camp, whether that's in the time
between mini camp and training camp, I don't know. I
don't know who it's going to be. They're kicking tires
(25:59):
though they're calling Johnny, They're bringing in Gabe Davis is like.
I think that there is gonna be something Darren mc.
I do not think that they should do that, and
I do not think that that's gonna happen. I think
that's a money play strictly by Scary Terry, and I
think Washington gonna pay. Why would you not keep right?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Why would you go out and get deebo number one
right and let Terry go? Scary Terry is a number
one absolutely now.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Don't get me wrong. Scary Terry's like at the top
of my wish list as far as like you know,
because you can't put like Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson
and you look they're scary. Terry's like right there, I'd
be like, I would love DK wasn't far off either
as far as kind of right player, kind of that
next tier of potential number one guys. But scary Terry
Man is just a beast. I mean he gave Porter
(26:46):
fits last year because I think physical receivers can give
Joey Porter Junior a little bit of a tough time.
And Darre mcglorane ain't scared like he is a very
physical type of wide receiver. Guys got his head on
straight as well. They're not going to do that. They're
gonna get a Keenan Allen, They're gonna get a free agent,
or they're gonna have a trade kind of appear after
camp and like the Packers have to move on from somebody.
(27:07):
They're gonna go through so many camp and they're gonna
be like, we can't Dobbs can't be five, Like he
needs to go somewhere else and be the number two
on some team. So I think you're gonna have an
opportunity as this offseason moves forward. We're gonna keep talking Rogers.
Of course, in the third episode, and you know what
we have to do. You know we have to do now.
We have to do a new win loss because we
(27:29):
have Aaron Rod.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Great, I never got to do with you. You did
it with Cassidy after the schedule, which you did one
on your own, of course, but it's far more fun
to do with with the partner.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
It is with the partner. I think I had the
Steelers like seven and ten when I had done it
with Mason Rudolph so and I had them losing like
three straight games right out of there. So we'll see
what happens. So we'll get into that next as the
Steelers Standard rolls along on Steelers Nation Radio and the
Steelers Audio Network
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