Against all odds, the Pittsburgh Steelers, with Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback, made it to the playoffs last season. Injuries to Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson certainly played a part in it, which became wildly apparent during their postseason game against the Houston Texans.
A blowout loss ended their year and triggered a coaching change that reunited the four-time MVP with Mike McCarthy as his head coach once again. However, for one analyst, that pairing comes with a huge question mark.
Aaron Rodgers Might Not Be the Quarterback for Mike McCarthy Anymore
After a disastrous run with the New York Jets, Rodgers came to the Steelers amid a lot of fanfare. Unsurprisingly, though, the partnership wasn’t revolutionary even as they won the AFC North.
Over the course of the year, the former Super Bowl champion threw for 3,322 passing yards and 24 touchdowns against 7 interceptions. A passer rating of 94.8 was among the lowest of his entire career, and he finished at number 29 on PFN’s QB Impact Metric with an impact score of 71.9.
The offense as a whole was far from revolutionary, ranking at number 16 on PFN’s Offense Impact Metric. But even as they substitute an offense run by Arthur Smith for one Rodgers is familiar with, the switch might not be seamless.
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NFL analyst Jon Ledyard made an appearance on “The Mina Kimes Show”, where he questioned how effective a 42-year-old Rodgers would be in the system. Explaining the problem, he went into detail about the playstyle differences that now exist between them.
“I think the big question in this offense is the funniest one to ask: Is Aaron Rodgers a good fit for it? Which seems crazy considering it’s Mike McCarthy and considering the history the two of them have together,” Ledyard said. “But Aaron Rodgers hasn’t wanted to be a quarterback who’s dropped back with true pass sets and thrown the ball down the field and ripped it in the middle of the field.”
Instead, he believed that a lot of the issues from the offense last season stemmed directly from the Green Bay Packers legend. Rather than utilizing his arm strength and spending considerable time in the pocket, Ledyard believed that Rodgers had completely revamped his playstyle.
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“He really wanted to be a guy that, as much as we make fun of last year’s offense, and Arthur Smith certainly has his limitations as an offensive coordinator that were shown last year, too, Rogers wanted to play that way. He wanted to get the ball out quickly,” Ledyard added.
Rather than slinging it around the field, Ledyard argued, “He wanted to throw to backs a bunch. He didn’t want to get hit. He has not shown a great desire to drop back and rip the thing around the yard the way that McCarthy was.”
Ultimately, the regular season will provide many of these answers for fans in Pittsburgh. But the warning signs for a partnership between McCarthy and Rodgers in 2026 are impossible to ignore.
However, after the first game of the preseason, in which he threw for 153 yards and 2 touchdowns on 13 passing attempts, while adding another score on the ground, Drew Allar might be a name that the franchise can turn to if things don’t pan out with Rodgers.
