Why the Steelers Should Not Sign Aaron Rodgers

00:00:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're just hoping Pittsburgh Steelers can win another playoff game under Mike Tomlin before we all die. I am Greg Rosenthal. I'm in the garage today and I'm talking to my friend who's across town. And who better to talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers with and their potential quarterback pickup than Dave Dan Ask my friend you know him? You love him? From the Sheech Show. It's on YouTube, on podcasts, also making some dynamite YouTube videos with the Levatard Show. What's up? Sheck?

00:00:37
Speaker 2: Well, what's up? Is the waiting game? You know our two, Mike Tomlin, Omar Kahn, everybody else apparently on the banks of the three Rivers, or some at least willing to debase themselves to see if a forty two year old weirdo decides he maybe doesn't want to move to one of the two twin cities, rather that the head coach in one of those two twin cities doesn't want the forty two year old man joining the thirty teams in the QB League who have rendered the opinion that this particular QB isn't of interest to them. You understand everybody wants good qbs. In the QB League, thirty teams or at least twenty nine have officially issued their lack of interest in this guy. Deja vu. One year ago, last March, there were two teams and only two teams who looked at thirty six year old, washed up weirdo Russell Wilson and had that guy could be our starting quarterback this year. Those two teams were the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Giants. We saw how that turned out. Hey, did you enjoy that rerun sequel? Now let's chase an even older, washed up weirdo who is someone else's legend, someone else's icon. Let's see if we can get him to come play mercenary for the esteem brand that is the Pittsburgh Steelers or are we now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I can't really tell the difference.

00:02:12
Speaker 1: So that's how I'm wow check coming in hot. You know, usually you kind of just dip your toe in into the water, and we're we're just right in. And yes, this is a one issue show. It's kind of like a one issue election or candidate. And the issue is why the Steelers should not sign Aaron Rodgers. And as we're getting closer, we're planning to maybe do this put it out next week. We better put this thing out before it actually happens, because I know we have a lot of pull inside the Steelers building. You certainly do, sheck. And so I actually made a list of just the reasons why the Steelers should not sign Aaron Rodgers. And hopefully they're listening, and some of them are, and you just just got to some of them. But man, calling them a weirdo right off the top, that's not nice.

00:03:01
Speaker 2: What I mean, Listen, the guy who try it's not nice. Also not nice is trying to wreck the franchise for whom you toiled for fifteen some years on your way out the door, failed in that endeavor, then went to the Jets and succeeded. Yeah, of course we want him in Pittsburgh. Why wouldn't you want Aaron Rodgers forty two years old? I mean, the guy who points fingers at everybody but the man in the mirror. This is, of course, the guy who, in his last twenty five games has turned the ball over thirty four times, but hasn't been to a Super Bowl since the Steelers were in a Super Bowl. Certainly is the solution to what ails this franchise right now?

00:03:45
Speaker 1: Right well, they're desperate, and I'm hinting at that with how I open the show. And I think this record is a little underrated the amount of attention that the Tomlin over five hundred record gets or five hundred or better, which is which is impressive.

00:04:00
Speaker 2: It really is, absolutely and I resent when people try to marginalize It's all the significance in the free agency era of always having a winning record, even when Duck Hodges is your starting quarterback.

00:04:13
Speaker 1: Giving your team and your fans something to look forward to in terms of meaningful games all season long, like that is a great starting point of what you should be trying to accomplish. And they do that. But the oh to six record in his last six playoff games, and I'm kind of stretching it here because the last AFC Championship game they were in I was at it was a kind of a forgettable game. I don't think people really remember. The twenty sixteen AFC Championship game was the last game I was at Jellette Stadium four too. It was thirty six to nine at one point I believe. I think the Steelers tacked on a late there were some late scoring, but it was not competitive. And they have not won a game since, so I don't know if you want to call it the curse of Rosenthal or what. But they've been in I believe five playoffs since they haven't won any of them. And adding Aaron Rodgers, so the mix doesn't seem like you're going to be raising the ceiling. I'm getting ahead of myself.

00:05:07
Speaker 2: I just like to get in the way back machine. I do remember the two things I remember primarily from the twenty sixteen title game. Well, the third one is that Roethlisberger took his customary deep shot on the second play of the game. That's the way he always rolled in big spots and missed the Sammy Coats he couldn't wrangle. He dropped the dime to Sammy Coats. It was downhill from there, Chris Hogan running all by himself, like no one in on the screen with Chris Hogan. The Steelers decided not to cover him that day, and so he thrived. And then three that was the game where we got a cameo from Levy and Bell because he was upset at the Steelers for his over usage in his opinion in the freezing Tempts in KC the week before. I think he had forty touches in that grinded out game, and he was raw. He had a bad growing. The Steelers said, ah, you're okay to go. He thought otherwise, so he mysteriously he just couldn't play after a couple of plays there and then never took the field again for the Picksburg. Well, he took the field again for the pick That was the start of the of really how we got to this place to some degree.

00:06:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, a team that in the Steelers, that always figures out a way to look better early in the season generally than they do late, at least that's lately, and always finds a way to get into the playoffs. But I've occupied a very specific spot lately, which is if you're power ranking the teams entering the playoffs, they're always in the bottom three, and then they don't really even compete in those games. In the one year where they looked pretty good was the COVID year, and then that fell apart late and actually by the time they got to the playoffs, you were expecting them to lose, and they did lose, so Aaron Rodgers did not seem like the guy to turn it around. I'm going to start going through I don't know if you got numbers or you going to just bounce off what I'm saying. Well, this is the most important one. Go ahead, He's not that good anymore. That's the most important one. Forget about the weirdo, forget about everything. I'm going to give you some stats among qualifiers in completion percentage over expected, which it's that I don't always trust, but it matched up what I watched when I went back and I decided to go watch some roder because everyone was saying, oh, he looked pretty good at the end of the season. I do remember that I went back and look, he was thirty fourth out of thirty six in terms of his accuracy in terms of what you would expect. And when I went back to watch the games at the end of the season, that was what struck stuck out to me the most. He just wasn't very accurate. And people who are smarter than me that get into mechanics say, the mechanics were always a little funky, and now we can't make up for it because he's not as athletic as he used to be, and he's taken more sacks certainly, and a lot of the advanced numbers aren't really good. EPA, it's really bad. He can't throw intermedia. But the main thing that I was taken away was he's got a big arm and you see the flashes. If you were evaluating him as a prospect, you'd be like, oh, we got something to work with here. There's some nice throws in, but he just doesn't hit the target. And it's now three years running. You go back to Green Bay and obviously the lost Jets season in this Jets season that he just hasn't been that good anymore. If you're ranking him among all starting quarterbacks or quarterbacks like, he's probably in the mid to low twenties if I had to guess, which is like, he probably is one of the best thirty two quarterbacks in the league. So it's kind of doesn't shock me. He's going to wind up with the starting job, assuming the Steelers get him. But he's just he's not good. I'd put him right around where Russell Wilson is maybe a little above. I guess that's how they're convincing themselves.

00:08:40
Speaker 2: It's a good idea, right, but does that result in any realistic journey to the Super Bowl. Of course it doesn't. You know, in the AFC as it's constituted that Aaron Rodgers, this version Aaron Rodgers, has no chance of getting him to a super Bowl beyond some miracle. I think that's part of the issue. Tomlin has imposed some sort of Stockholm syndrome on a percentage of the Steelers fans, which is the people who buy that Aaron Rodgers, Hey, listen, he's our best bet here, just like Russell Wilson was their best bet here. And it is we can find a relevant QB on the sales rack at TJ Max. And that's just not a serious approach to solving the one position that matters in the QB league. And I think that you mention what he has been able to do, and it is the paradox of Mike Tomlin, which is, I don't think maybe Andy Reid, maybe Kyle Shanahan, but it's a very short list of possibilities of who could keep a team without a franchise QB playoff relevant every year since Roethlisberger hurts his elbow in Week two, against Russell Wilson Seahawks. From that moment on, Tomlin assumes this posture of like I can grind it out. I can win more games than I lose by a final score no matter who we're playing, of twelve to eleven, it will land us at nine and eight, ten and seven consistently. And then that becomes about something other than the point of pro football. And I listen to his advocates Tomlin's at this point, the people who went pressed on this team leader Cam Hayward, Why is Tomlin so great? Why does everybody want to play for him? And it's these things that sound good on a human level. He looks you in the eye, even if he has bad news for you. He gets the best version of you out there between the lines for every game. He respects you as a man, and he approaches you from that. These are things that you want in your life, if you want somebody who is honest and all of that. But it's pro football. And I'm not trying to sound like a hard oh, but I keep going back to like this is the stuff that you hear in praise of David Shaw at Stanford or Bob Knight at Indiana, Like he teaches you lessons that extend beyond the game. It's about how you live your life and all of that.

00:11:22
Speaker 1: And it's like, don't you think that's why there's no other explanation. I think that is his secret sauce to getting them to this point. It only takes you so far. You got to have better prayers. Yeah, but otherwise they would be six and eleven.

00:11:36
Speaker 2: Right that the approach has resulted in. It it's hard to argue against it has resulted in. I've heard Tomlin say, like, people, you think I don't want to win every game thirty to nothing. Yes, coach, I know you would like that, but you don't provide the landscape that would that would make that something that happens on a regular basis. That's not how you approach the games, and so everything pivots off of that. And for the record, since this is a national conversation, I think that I would be willing to bet that some percentage of your audience still believes that Tomlin is to a degree sort of handed a roster by Omar Khan or whoever else this is. Tom Tomlin is the architect of this con is the executor of what Tomlin wants. He makes the deals, the works, the numbers and everything else. But make no mistake of who is in charge of personnel. And so when people express some sort of some sort of pity, like Tomlin, what's he supposed to do? Look what he does with those rosters. He's the one making those rosters.

00:12:44
Speaker 1: Yes, that's a great point to make, and I think everyone that follows them locally has been saying that more lately, and you saying that, and it's a great thing to keep in mind, because you've banged on about and I think it's right on that for all the credit he got for trust in his gut and that's why I make a lot of money to start Russell Wilson. By the end of the season, Russell Wilson collapsed pretty hard and they decided Justin Fields was the better option for twenty twenty five. And if Dustin Fields hadn't gotten such a great offer from a young new coaching staff in New York, he would be their starting quarterback. That's that's who they wanted, but they didn't want to go as far financially, and now they're in this spot. So it wasn't a good movie.

00:13:27
Speaker 2: I think you made a great point first of all, about Aaron Rodgers and how Justin Fields lands with the Jets, and it's part of a bigger issue, but it's the New York Jets. Everybody, we understand them to be pathetic. We all agree they looked at Aaron Rodgers, they were steeped in the Aaron Rodgers experience for the last two years and said, no, thanks, We're done with it. And now here we are. And as far as the Justin Fields contract from the Jets goes, it is spot on to I mean to the if I understand what the numbers are, exactly what I said it was going to be in guaranteed money and term and everything else. And people scoffed in November when I said that, But it's exactly how it goes, because that's the rate you pay for a viable option at quarterback, for an intermediate term, length and intermediate level quarterback. And it all sort of hinged on the idea that Mike Tomlin and otherwise and the Steelers like, you're not going to go to the Jets over the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, Like, if you're Justin Fields, what evidence is there that the Steelers are a better situation. You can't lean on the history, like do you think justin Fields are any twenty five year old in the league cares about the many Lombardi trophies in the Steelers building. I don't think that has nearly the cachet that apparently some seem to seem. And also empirical evidence matters. It's not just the Jets, maybe the Vikings. We have to wait and see. And that's I'm sure we're going to get to that. But why hasn't Aaron Rodgers signed yet? One of two reasons is to me, there are all the other pap out there is about him being a weirdo. And when I say weirdo, he's a different kind of weirdo than Tom Brady is. Tom Brady was a weirdo who was obsessive about his profession so much so that it cost him his superstar, I mean, his supermodel wife. That's how dedicated to football he was. I don't get the sense that Aaron Rodgers is that committed to pro football. And if you remove the brand name, it seems to me that at least twenty nine teams out there, maybe thirty if we include the Vikings in this, because they don't know exactly where JJ McCarthy is in his progress and if he's physically ready to roll in September. If he is, then I think they are going to fully cut bait. And then the pathetic Steelers will say, we still got the spot for you, Aaron, if you want to come here. Never mind the fact that at least twenty nine and maybe thirty, like I say, teams in the QB League have looked at this particular QB and reached the same conclusion.

00:16:12
Speaker 1: That you have.

00:16:12
Speaker 2: He's not good anymore. He's not a difference maker. It's just embarrassing. And I keep making this analogy, and I'm gonna make it again for you. Mike Tomlin has assumed this weird posture that he is now fly st alone trying to cobble together another sequel to the Expendables movie franchise. You know he got now last year he got Dolph Lungren aka Russell Wilson. Now he's after some other washed up old action star to show everybody that they still have some juice. Now, come Awards season, when they hand out the Academy Awards are Lombardi. The Steelers aren't going to be relevant for that, but they can still make some hey at the box office. That seems to be Tomlin's approach. They're like, let's prove everybody wrong. I have a chip on my shoulder, and so do you, Russell Wilson or is it now Aaron Rodgers. Either way, let's show everybody and it will work to the extent that they are nine and eight or ten and seven, or maybe even eleven and six or it matters. It's complete not or not.

00:17:21
Speaker 1: To me. The best case scenario, and this is number six on my list I got seven numbers, is that it's actually not that great. Like the best case scenario is similar to last year on balance, whereas the worst case scenario is like this ends Tomlin's streak and exposes what's been going on the last few years, which is a little bankruptcy of ideas on offense. And that's my number two like reason is that he's a weird fit with Arthur Smith and the Steelers. I think he's he's taken a lot of sacks over the last few years, and so that was one of the things he was really excellent at most of his career. He was sacked forty times last year. His pressure to sack rate was pretty high, so when he got pressured, he tended to sack. Like people were saying, he played great late in the year, and I'm watching that Rams game where they just can't finish a drive and it was one of the worst sack fumbles of his entire career. It's in a nine to nine game and he's just holding onto the ball for like five seconds. He was sneaky in a good situation late last year with the Jets. I know, the coaching you could question, but he was kind of the coach. The offensive line was great. I watched where he watched that game, and like they protected him really well against the Rams, who have a really great pass rush. Their offensive line was pretty dynamite by the end of last year, and they had Breslid running back Garrett Wilson at receiver DeVante Adams, and you think, well, he's not totally on the same page and figuring out like he's so smart he sees it one way in his receiver seat the other. The receiver he had the most problems with was DeVante Adams. There couldn't have been more like miscommunications, misconnections, off target throws where Adams is going one, and I know Adams was new to the team too, but it just is a weird fit. I think if you put him with Arthur Smith, you get a lot of different opinions on Arthur Smith. But there are a lot of people that say, look at the numbers. It's been a little while since Arthur Smith's really gotten the running game going, which is supposed to be what he does well. And they do have a good young offensive line for the Steelers. I think that's one thing you can be excited about. But he's a weird fit with the two wide receivers. I don't even know if Pickens is going to be on their team. Jeremiah's kind of thrown it out. He thinks he might get traded over the draft, and I was like, oh, that does kind of make sense. But he's a weird fit because Rogers, if he does one thing well now, it's get rid of the ball quickly. It's the quick game. It's rhythm and timing and throwing the ball because once he holds the ball forever, if there's any pressure, he doesn't want to throw a deep He gets a little skittish and he just throws the ball away. So a weird fit with Arthur Smith.

00:19:52
Speaker 2: I think, of course that is accurate. Quickly you name drop Daniel Jeremiah Big and his and a big fan of his new show around the Draft forties and what's it.

00:20:06
Speaker 1: Called forties and free Agents?

00:20:07
Speaker 2: Yes, y forties in free eight whatever. No, it's it's a it really is. It is jumped to the very top of my list of shows. If you are interested in draft talk, it is those things tend to be uh pretty uh pretty dour conversations evaluating twenty year olds as though anybody knows anything about these people, and talking about the sand in his pants and all that kind of stuff. This is this is the exception to that. If you are interested in draft talk, I recommend we've.

00:20:41
Speaker 1: Got a show tomorrow. We got your buddy mjd on it too. First time we've had a guest.

00:20:46
Speaker 2: So is that right?

00:20:47
Speaker 1: A long time available? I can come handick, We got you today. We are fantastic Dave Damasex football program.

00:20:54
Speaker 2: Wow, Maurice is the best. Yeah, so have fun with him and send him my best. But it's funny you mentioned the Arthur Smith thing because is he a fit for the offense? Is it to some extent? Sincerely, rendered moot by what Arthur Smith or Mike Tomlin wants to do. I mean that was sort of the headache down the stretch with Russ was getting frustrated by what Arthur Smith obviously handed down from Mike Tomlin, how Mike Tomlin wants to approach the game. Russ was vexed by that. Do you think Aaron Rodgers is not going to, you know, put his sauce into the mix here with what he wants to do? And sincerely, like, does I really do wonder it's gotten so pathetic that they're willing to wait him out. And my hypothesis is, as I say, it's one of two things. Either he has heard from Kevin O'Connell, I have to see JJ McCarthy up close and an affair amount of him to really evaluate where he is, because I like where our roster is for twenty twenty five and I don't want to ghost that roster if JJ McCarthy isn't ready to go. So I think that's one possibility, But the other one is I think it's probably the more likely thing is especially given art to Art Rooney saying that we're going to wait a little longer, not much longer, but things are looking good. What I imagine he is telling you is Pat McAfee has a live show next Wednesday in Pittsburgh. You know, Pittsburgh's son, Pat McAfee coming back, prodigal son, big celebration and everything else. As you may have noticed, Aaron Rodgers is his most prominent regular guest, and so it wouldn't surprise me if at least Aaron Rodgers, maybe the Steelers too, but probably mostly Aaron Rodgers understands the value in the laundering that McAfee introducing him would provide. I was just in Pittsburgh over the weekend and bounced off of all range of people, and I kept making some jokes here and there about like I was saying, like any update on Rogers has he signed yet? So whatever I would say about that, and I mean consistently to whomever I was a bartenders, old people, young people. Everybody's response was please don't let that happen. This is this is so ridiculous. So I think Rogers, although he's a little deluded, I think deep down he understands that he that there's value in that. I understand the value for McAfee as a brand and as a show. What it does to sort of bring in under your wing the new starting quarterback for your hometown football team, that's obvious to me. The only thing I don't fully understand is what the Steelers get out of this. Is there a super Bowl run in the offing? If you bring in this forty two year old guy, absolutely not, given the rest of the contenders in this So then really, what is the goal other than providing some tepid Mike Tomlin always says, we don't see comfort. This is a mild form of comfort that the head coach will gain from if he can say, like we went ten and seven and we won a playoff game with Aaron Rodgers. What that amounts to in the bigger picture is unclear to me. In fact, it's quite clear to me it's meaningless. It would it is a meaningless achievement if they win a playoff game. So why would you do this? Why would you bring in a mercenary like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers might And again the bigger picture is maybe it would be worth it if in football terms purely, if you heard that let's say Tennessee in Indianapolis and anyone else who Cleveland needed a quarterback was looking at this guy. These are professional talent evaluators as well, and they all have said no, but you know better. Color me skeptical, especially since you didn't know two years ago that Mason Rudolph, much mock now as the potential starter, was the best option between Mitchell Trubisky, Kenny Pickett and Rudolph. They didn't know that until they just got so desperate they were like, I throw him in there, and then he lit it up. In the short term. I don't think he's taking them to a Super Bowl ever, but at least either but at least you don't debase yourself in the process of bringing in a mercenary someone else's legend. Fat uh.

00:25:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's my Number five is, Hey, you've kind of always wanted to just try out Mason Rudolph, haven't you. I feel like, for some reason, there's like some deep down part of Tomlin that you're talking about that wants to prove everyone wrong, and they've always liked Mason Rudoff. It's like, you don't think I could go nine to eight with Mason Rudoff. I absolutely could, so just give it a shot. I agree with you, by the way, on the theory of why it's held up. I think they must just feel and Rooney, I think, let the cat out of the bag that for all intents and purposes, he is their quarterback. If you look at their over underwind total, it's pretty high, it's eight and a half. Like that seems to think that they think rogers. I mean, not that they know anything, but just that the McAfee announcement would be interesting because I don't know how that would go. You might get some booze in the crowd. I don't need like I think that's his best shot though, right think, yeah, it would be a true I don't have to have a public appearance. You just do a press conference, you just do a normal signing. But yes, he might win them over that way. They actually, I believe, addressed that and kind of made a joke out of it, as if we have so much power to unveil it. But we'll see next week. That's partly why I wanted to get this show. And let's let's take a quick break. And I do want to remind people, Yeah, check out the check show on YouTube. He also gave a very touching thank you to the the NFL billionaires out there. Uh that that's connected to the Levatard Show, which was really excellent. So find that on his socials. Uh, we will take a quick break and we're gonna we're gonna finish out all these reasons. Why Aaron Rodgers, if you're listening, just don't do it. You could you could retire back on NFL Daily with Pittsburgh's favorite son, Dave Danish. Pittsburgh really has more, you know, great people from it than you would expect. I mean, I I say, favorite son and and my my friend Anthony Jessel Knicks from there you met you mentioned McAfee, I mean, what what greats Michael Michael Chabon, great author for some reason comes to mind because of the book. Mister in Pittsburgh. Ye who am I forgetting here?

00:28:02
Speaker 2: The great I mean the the inventor of the Ferris Wheel. It's the home of the first big radio station in the world. Doctor Thomas Starz will began transplant surgery on the banks of the Three Rivers. Gene Kelly h every Or an outsize percentage of Hall of Fame quarterbacks Marino named There we go, There we Go, Kelly, And it goes on and on and as you say, it.

00:28:30
Speaker 1: Took you a while. It took you a while, but there that was who. Yeah, that was who was.

00:28:34
Speaker 2: Dark dark times. By the way, we might be having this conversation, and this sounds hyperbolic, this may be the darkest time on the banks of the Three Rivers in the last half century in sports terms. Okay, pirates are bad, the Penguins are bad. The Steelers are about to on purpose sign Aaron Rodgers when no one else outside of the New York Football Giants are willing to give a look. Pit basketball and football are in bad spots. This may be it, This may be it. What's the worst time Boston sports would be you had some good baseball team The Red Sox were good in the mid eighties, and the Celtics were obviously great. It would probably.

00:29:18
Speaker 1: Means, which is my peak adolescens, there was no real championship contenders for a while, and you know, those Patriots teams were generally horrible. The Celtics were in a weird spot. But yeah, you mentioned it though, but it will get worse because if you signed Aaron Rodgers. Actually, now this whole five hundred above five hundred, every season streak could end.

00:29:39
Speaker 2: So it's so funny that you think signing Aaron Rodgers will propel them to their first leader.

00:29:44
Speaker 3: I think so because of my point number three. I said he was a weird thing. It's crazy, but I don't disagree. I'm just saying, consider what you're saying. Aaron Rodgers, the guy who hasn't been to a Super Bowl in fifteen years, but nevertheless is held up by me by the way, October of twenty ten, before you and I had ever met each other, I went into public forums, I went on television and otherwise. This isn't advance of Super Bowl forty five. Then beating the Steelers in that Super Bowl.

00:30:13
Speaker 2: I said, Aaron Rodgers will go down as the greatest quarterback of all time. He is certainly, right now, to my eyes, the most talented quarterback I've ever seen. And he went on from there, and he has had probably two of the five or six best single seasons in the Super Bowl era four quarterback. Two of those five or six belonged to Aaron Rodgers. And yet you are saying here and now that he would be the reason, the primary reason why they wouldn't meet the standard that Tom Win always meets. That's wild.

00:30:44
Speaker 1: He's turning forty two, I did, and you look at so you look at the last three seasons, and they had a losing record. With Matt Lafleur, I think we recognize as a good coach, they had some offensive weapons, Rogers was coming off those MVPs. They had a losing season, and that was the season that reminds me a lot of Russell Wilson's last season in Seattle where I started banging the drum. He's not the guy that he used to be, and he was that way in Green Bay. So is he still better than some quarterbacks out there? Sure? But if DK if Pickens is on this team, like his next best receivers are Calvin Austin and Scottie Miller and Roman Wilson and Ben Scronick, And then the reason why I think they might have the losing record is an important one point number three. He would just he'll make you miserable that it won't be fun. Life is meant to be fun, and the entire Jets experience for everyone in that building and all their fans was not fun the last year in Green Bay, maybe the last few years, even when he was winning MVP, but especially the last year. It wasn't fun, and life is short. And if you give me Mason Rudolph and Jackson dart Or or whoever you want to say, Will Howard or Tyler. So you just want to give some third round pick a shot. I don't really get. I'm not really up on forcing it too early. But you want to go Rudolph and that might be fun. But I don't think Aaron Rodgers is going to be fun.

00:32:12
Speaker 2: I think I'll go more extreme than I think most people will. People. The starting position for a lot of people with the Steelers is they're so far away from being contenders and everything else. And I refer you to the Washington Commanders at this time a year ago. They were a punchline and they got their quarterback in Voila. They're in the title game. You know, then you get into well, you can't just take a quarterback and expect that result. But of course, who regarded Jade and Daniels as that level of transformative a year ago in the Drake May and Caleb Williams discussion. Now cam Ward doesn't rise to that level. Ask Daniel Jeremiah like I did, where is cam Ward in comparison to the twenty four class. He said he probably slots alongside JJ McCarthy and Michael Pennix, which sounds like he's to a degree denigrating cam Ward. But you would take either one of those options in Pittsburgh right now obviously, and I don't think they're going to do it realistically. But if we are, if we have decided that this, if Mike Tomlin has decided to pursue an avenue that, if, for lack of a better way of saying, it feels unstealery and in a bat then why abide by stuff like well, our franchise guys only wear black and gold, then trade TJ. Watt? Then I mean for real, and I'm not just saying that in a cavalier like for you know, all sacred cows are out now, but legitimately and practically you're nowhere without the quarterback. As the twenty twenty three comedies and then the twenty twenty four where commies just proved how much that one cat walking through the door when he is the guy, what a difference that can make. You should be swinging, And this is the Greg Rosenthal approach to finding your quarterback. You gotta keep taking the swings. You know who else lives that way, Sean McVay and Less Snead. They did it that way. They drafted Jared Goff, they paid Jared Goff. That was a mistake, so they traded Jared Goff and got another franchise, QB. They won the Super Bowl. The problem was they had to give away all those draft picks. Well, they've screwed themselves. They made a deal with the devil to get that one Lombardi for relevance in pro football in tough football town Los Angeles. They want to draw fans, but this look at that. They got the Lombardi, but now they're going to be lost at See for a decade. No, they had a down year and now they're right back into contention. You are limited only by your lack of willingness to take some swings. Do what it takes to go at cam Ward. And by the way, the comp I have for cam Ward that I took to your pal Daniel Jeremiah when he was on check Show, was tell me what you think of this he is He's gonna go to Tennessee. You assume he is the exact physical dimensions of Steve McNair and Jake Locker two other first round draft picks of the Tennessee Titans. I mean they are like within a couple of pounds, the three of them at the when they were drafted. The measurables are like within three pounds of each other, and they're the same height, and they're the same husky build, and they both got They all three had those big whips, and they all three could run. And it shows you how difficult it is to evaluate these guys because Steve McNair has a borderline Hall of Fame career and Jake Locker watches out from injury, which is cam Ward. I don't know. It takes me back to the Greg Rosenthal approach of you gotta just keep taking swings taking him, and I think they will.

00:36:02
Speaker 1: I think if it's funny you mentioned the Rams, because I actually think the Rams might be looking at the Steelers, and I don't know if they love Jackson dart or shoulder if he falls, but I feel like those are two of the most likely teams to take a quarterback or even to move up for a quarterback in that middle to later portions of the round, because I think the Rams c they just went through it with Stafford. He is very much year to year, and I think they do want to start planning because they know they want to keep taking swings. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Steelers took dart Or Sanders, if if he somehow got past the Saints. I don't think that's gonna happen. I don't think he's going to go that long in the draft, or Jackson dart Or who knows. Maybe maybe someone will fall in love with Milroe, maybe the Steelers will, But either way, Rogers doesn't fit with all that. And so that's that's my number four, which is he will get in the way of a rookie, and it feels like they they should just give a shot to a rookie. And it doesn't I know, like you wasted time on Kenny Pickett, but just you get a year with this rookie, and if you don't a lot of them, like, just take another one next year too, in the first or second round. Because of Tomlin, you're probably never going to be picking that high in the first place.

00:37:12
Speaker 2: I think you're right. And I think when I talk about limited by your own imagination or whatever your own will, I think that the Kenny Pickett experience maybe does get in their way of doing that. Like, let's take a shot. I wonder if that's a thing. But you know, I want to go fifteen minutes back to your point about just quickly about Aaron Rodgers being a fit with Arthur Smith the joke guy was going to make. But legitimately, does Mike Tomlin say like, we're the Steelers and we're not going to completely debase ourselves. We're not bringing in Allen Lazard, and we're definitely not bringing in Nathan You'll hack it to be your caddy or to supplant Arthur Smith on any level. I legitimately wonder if that kind of stuff is like if if Aaron Rodgers has finally come to Jesus at least enough to say like, okay, I can't just dictate what's going to happen. And as far as that goes, Hey, when Tomlin or whoever says like, we want to look at the rookie here, how easily does Rogers, uh, you know, sit, take a seat and assume the backup job. But to your point of.

00:38:13
Speaker 1: Effort the second part, ever, I think maybe he sees the reality of the situation in a way because like he has to be a little hummy.

00:38:21
Speaker 2: I think that's in the fact that he says they didn't they yanked Justin Fields at four and two to ride with the vet. Obviously Mike Tomlin is not inclined to do that to me for a rookie if you're Aaron Rodgers and you're sort of thinking through all that. But the other thing quickly is I agree, I am glass half full on the trajectory of the offensive line as a as a collective, it has been bad, and they have really with Andy Widel, done their best to address it over the last couple of drafts and have accept at least now. I am no o line expert, but Broderick Jones with I think he was what was he the fourteenth pick? Fifteenth pick? Wherever he was has been a bust based on performance to this point. They've moved him around. He's going to be on the left side if major if but if he does in year three start to approach that that offensive line is going to be a position of strength. And who's ever behind it, whether it's Mason Rudolpher, Aaron Rodgers or a rookie, I think we agree the number one factor in determining a quarterbacks performance, more than the coach, more than the receivers, more than the if it's a dome or if it's rainy or anything else, is the quality of the offensive line. If you keep any of the thirty five or forty best quarterbacks on the planet clean, if you give them an extra couple of beats, they're probably going to be effective. So I think somebody stepping in there has a chance where Aaron Rodgers, though specifically, is he's, like you say, not a great intermedia throw. Get the ball out of his hands quick, okay. But if if it's all about the Arthur Smith offense, run the ball, run the ball, run the ball with a couple of tight ends and then hit those deep shots. That was the whole simplest you know, a rudimentary Steelers offense a year ago with Russell Wilson. If it's well Aaron Rodgers hitting those deep shots to those big wide receivers to DK and Pickings in the some speed out there and everything else, like Broderick Jones better be good. I mean, he better hold up. Because Aaron Rodgers is a mortal human being. I think he sometimes maybe forgets that but he is, in fact a mortal human being. And I've talked to a lot of quarterbacks over the years, and I ask him this question because when Blaine Gabbert came into the league, the knock on him was, boy, he gets happy feet. He doesn't like guys getting around him. And you know, is that a fixable thing. Some scouts, some guys would say, like, you can kind of fix that. The degree, in fact, though, the reality is that gets worse is your career goes on because you understand your own mortality better. I think we all can relate to that. If you think about it. You thought you could get away with a lot more when you were twenty one versus when you were thirty six, you understood it a little bit more. Aaron Rodgers doesn't want to be taken smack, getting catching smacks from three hundred pound guys running faster than he is. Forty two year old Rogers understands that way better than twenty four year old Rogers did. Yeah, primarily because he wasn't getting he could run away from them. He can't anymore. Tom Brady never had the gear to evade pressure with athleticism. It was always with his brain, so when he got old, he didn't lose anything. He was only smarter than he was at twenty five. Aaron Rodgers is a diminished physical specimen, so he but because he's a narcissist, doesn't fully accept that he's not what he used to be. So that's why he is trying to make throats he's no longer capable of making and those passes are getting intercepted in a way that they weren't a half a decade ago.

00:41:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even Brady, I mean, and this happened to Manning too. It got next level of just like how quickly, like if he didn't like it, you would just get rid of the ball. He refused to take a hit, which that did change, But you make the right point, which is overall mentally, he won it so quickly that he could make that work. Even the last year in Tampa where it was a little exaggerated like, he still made it work. Whereas Rogers, when you watch that tape and he's on on the edge, it bums you out a little bit because he really does have a great arm, and when he does hit his throws it looks sweet. He still looks like Aaron Rodgers, So I could see why you could kind of convince yourself that it could be. But when he is running away from pressure, he just looks old. And if you were trying to make the optimistic case, you would say, well, he's another year removed from the Achilles taire, which is such a massive injury. And I think if you're making a case for Kirk Cousins this year, that's one you could make. Kirk Cousins is four or five years older. Was never that fast to begin with. But when Rogers is out there and look, he's such a supreme athlete, even at this stage, obviously compared to the regular humans, but he's being surrounded by these NFL players, he's just it's like these twinkle toes and he just looks so old that it kind of bums you out, because this was a guy who you said it, you thought he'd be the greatest of all time. And I do think, if I'm just grading what's the highest level of quarterback play I've ever seen, I think there's still a pretty strong argument that Aaron Rodgers at his absolute zenith when it was just cooking in those stretches. Sometimes it'd only be for like eight weeks at a time, he might be my pick of guys I've seen, and so it's a little bit of a bummer that it's just it's not happening.

00:43:45
Speaker 2: Right, I mean, because I like to make a list, as you know, I think I go.

00:43:49
Speaker 1: To homes and then Rogers window to.

00:43:52
Speaker 2: Window of greatness, like an extended window Rogers like I don't know, like twenty ten, fourteen, like Peyton.

00:44:02
Speaker 1: The funny thing is, though, I'm going to stop you there. Within that he would have very disappointing for him seasons. I remember it very well, where it would it would kind of come and go. Sometimes he even have hot like eight weeks at a time. But those MVP seasons that he had were just were just crazy. He was a really interesting guy because I was doing the QB rankings every week, a really interesting guy to follow, where I really felt like there was something he had inside, like a feel, a vibe he could get like on a roll that was just absolutely next level. But he didn't always have it in the same way that Manning and and and Brady, and he was like channeling something from above that like he could only channel.

00:44:41
Speaker 2: Some of the times, I thought he was the coolest h his comportment compared to the type a personalities finger wagon and you know Peyton, like, you know, shouting down receivers on the field in front of millions of people watching on TV and otherwise, and Brady to a lesser degree, and Dan Marino and and all of those those guys coming off of that, and even Brett Favre. The big personality. Aaron Rodgers was more I don't know, introverted, but introspective at least, And I agree with you completely. He had this sort of quiet, cool, thet swagger about him that differentiated him from the group. So it's funny then to consider him in that way, because I think he has yielded yet another iteration of sort of like the way the starting quarterback presents, which is now the Jordan love maybe because of Aaron Rodgers and watching that up close and CJ. Stroud and everybody else have this sort of like just one of the guys kind of vibe about them. They don't feel like I'm the field general and you do as I say, which is what Aaron Rodgers has sort of transformed into in a way a little bit like I blame everybody else if this doesn't You don't know what you got New York Jets and let me go kind of attitude, which goes back to the narcissism love of his exceptional talent that I think maybe he doesn't fully recognize ain't there the way it was? I don't think he's full get like all great athletes, Ali, every boxer is that guy, like, oh he he is the one who doesn't realize it's it's it's evaporating.

00:46:18
Speaker 1: Well, maybe he'll listen to this, and yeah, his style just that to pre athleticism. When you hear Patrick Mahomes talk about like who he kind of looked up to, and I've heard Drake May like they didn't want to be Tom Brady, they want to be Aaron Rodgers like that. Mahomes is the next evolution of where Rogers was. But he's he's not that guy. So yeah, maybe he'll listen to this and he'll listen my reasons again, Yet just number one was not that good anymore. Weird fit with with Arthur Smith, make you miserable, get in the way of a rookie You've always kind of wanted to try Rudolph. The best case is not that great. You could end Tomlin's whole streak, and then number seven, the most important one, Sek doesn't want it, and if Sek doesn't want it, the city of Pittsburgh doesn't want it, and it doesn't make sense. Thank you, Seck.

00:47:02
Speaker 2: I think we don't want this rental. We don't, we don't need this. Well, that's a carpetbagger.

00:47:07
Speaker 1: That's not who we are.

00:47:08
Speaker 2: Go to Minnesota. They'll trade their dignity for uh for a Lombardi? When did it who who took the vote in Pittsburgh that we're willing to do that. I am here to say that we are not stay away Yan's. We don't, we don't want Yan's.

00:47:24
Speaker 1: I love it. This episode is very close cousin to the one that I did with Ali Connelly before last season, where it was again a single issue show, and the single issue was what if Kirk Cousins is just the bad Kirk Cousins this year and it's a total mess and look, how will that one age? So I hope that Rogers and Steelers fans aren't stuffing this one in our face all season. With him doing well, I'm now put in a bad position you are too, where you almost have to root against them. But I don't want to.

00:47:56
Speaker 2: I wouldn't root against them. It's as I have said about it, and that I think this is a good spot to bring it on home is I like James Bond as a character. I think James Bond is a fascinating character. If Aaron Rodgers is the starting quarterback, it's like Timothy Dalton James Bond movies. You understand, Like I I'll still admire the character that is James Bond. I just won't be into.

00:48:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just hope it's not like Clooney Clooney and Batman and Robin, Like there's a potential, there's a potential for it to be George Clooney still an all time great and Batman and Robin almost sunk the entire franchise. That's it for our show again, I say, check out check show on YouTube. Check out his videos as part of the Levatard Metal Arc family. I love that marriage. That's a good it's a good combo. I'll be back with Daniel Jaremaya. I mentioned MJD is going to be our show. Forties and free Agents that'll be in the feed next and then yeah, NFL Daily, you'll hear me really start digging deep into the draft. When we're telling Aaron Rodgers to stay away, you know football is back. See Next Day