April 2, 2025 • 49 mins
Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Dave Dameshek to tell you why the Steelers shouldn't sign Aaron Rodgers. Reasons include, Rodgers is not that good anymore (07:00), is a weird fit in the Steelers offense (17:25), would make Steelers nation miserable (29:45), would get in the way of developing a rookie (36:50), and more!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
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
(00:26):
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?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
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
(00:59):
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
(01:22):
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.
(01:44):
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
(02:08):
or are we now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I can't
really tell the difference.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
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
(02:32):
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
(02:54):
just just got to some of them. But man, calling
them a weirdo right off the top, that's not nice.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
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
(03:24):
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?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
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.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
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.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
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
(04:35):
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
(04:55):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
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.
(05:27):
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
(05:51):
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
(06:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
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
(06:47):
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
(07:10):
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
(07:32):
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,
(07:54):
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
(08:15):
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
(08:37):
Wilson is maybe a little above. I guess that's how
they're convincing themselves.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
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
(09:02):
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
(09:23):
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,
(09:43):
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
(10:04):
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.
(10:24):
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
(10:47):
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
(11:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
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.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
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
(11:59):
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
(12:21):
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
(12:41):
those rosters. He's the one making those rosters.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
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
(13:06):
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
(13:26):
wasn't a good movie.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
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
(13:51):
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
(14:13):
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,
(14:34):
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
(14:58):
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
(15:20):
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
(15:40):
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
(16:03):
twenty nine and maybe thirty, like I say, teams in
the QB League have looked at this particular QB and
reached the same conclusion.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
That you have.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
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.
(16:34):
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
(16:56):
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
(17:20):
not or not.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
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
(17:41):
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
(18:02):
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
(18:22):
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
(18:45):
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
(19:05):
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
(19:26):
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
(19:47):
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.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Called forties and free Agents?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
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
(20:29):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Got a show tomorrow. We got your buddy mjd on
it too. First time we've had a guest.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
So is that right?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
A long time available? I can come handick, We got
you today. We are fantastic Dave Damasex football program.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
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
(21:15):
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
(21:39):
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,
(22:02):
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,
(22:25):
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
(22:47):
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
(23:07):
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
(23:31):
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
(23:53):
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.
(24:16):
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
(24:36):
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
(25:01):
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,
(25:21):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
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
(26:01):
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,
(26:21):
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,
(26:43):
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.
(27:06):
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
(27:34):
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
(27:56):
mind because of the book. Mister in Pittsburgh. Ye who
am I forgetting here?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
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
(28:25):
named There we go, There we Go, Kelly, And it
goes on and on and as you say, it.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Took you a while. It took you a while, but
there that was who. Yeah, that was who was.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
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
(28:54):
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
(29:15):
the Celtics were obviously great. It would probably.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
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.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
So it's so funny that you think signing Aaron Rodgers
will propel them to their first leader.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
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,
(30:06):
I went on television and otherwise. This isn't advance of
Super Bowl forty five. Then beating the Steelers in that
Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
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
(30:34):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
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
(31:07):
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
(31:27):
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.
(31:51):
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.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
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.
(32:33):
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,
(32:55):
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
(33:18):
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
(33:40):
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
(34:03):
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
(34:24):
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.
(34:46):
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
(35:07):
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
(35:30):
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,
(35:52):
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.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
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
(36:24):
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
(36:45):
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
(37:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
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
(37:33):
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
(37:54):
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.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
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.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
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
(38:41):
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
(39:04):
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
(39:26):
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.
(39:48):
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
(40:10):
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
(40:32):
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,
(40:52):
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
(41:13):
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.
(41:33):
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
(41:55):
a way that they weren't a half a decade ago.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
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
(42:18):
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.
(42:38):
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,
(43:01):
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
(43:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Right, I mean, because I like to make a list,
as you know, I think I go.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
To homes and then Rogers window to.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Window of greatness, like an extended window Rogers like I
don't know, like twenty ten, fourteen, like Peyton.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
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
(44:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
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.
(45:03):
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
(45:24):
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
(45:45):
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
(46:07):
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.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
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
(46:41):
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.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
I think we don't want this rental. We don't, we
don't need this. Well, that's a carpetbagger.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
That's not who we are.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
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.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
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
(47:45):
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.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
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
(48:20):
I'll still admire the character that is James Bond. I
just won't be into.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
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
(48:46):
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
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
(00:26):
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?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
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
(00:59):
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
(01:22):
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.
(01:44):
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
(02:08):
or are we now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I can't
really tell the difference.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
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
(02:32):
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
(02:54):
just just got to some of them. But man, calling
them a weirdo right off the top, that's not nice.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
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
(03:24):
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?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
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.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
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.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
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
(04:35):
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
(04:55):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
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.
(05:27):
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
(05:51):
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
(06:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
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
(06:47):
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
(07:10):
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
(07:32):
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,
(07:54):
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
(08:15):
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
(08:37):
Wilson is maybe a little above. I guess that's how
they're convincing themselves.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
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
(09:02):
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
(09:23):
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,
(09:43):
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
(10:04):
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.
(10:24):
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
(10:47):
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
(11:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
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.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
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
(11:59):
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
(12:21):
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
(12:41):
those rosters. He's the one making those rosters.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
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
(13:06):
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
(13:26):
wasn't a good movie.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
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
(13:51):
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
(14:13):
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,
(14:34):
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
(14:58):
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
(15:20):
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
(15:40):
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
(16:03):
twenty nine and maybe thirty, like I say, teams in
the QB League have looked at this particular QB and
reached the same conclusion.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
That you have.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
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.
(16:34):
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
(16:56):
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
(17:20):
not or not.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
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
(17:41):
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
(18:02):
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
(18:22):
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
(18:45):
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
(19:05):
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
(19:26):
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
(19:47):
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.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Called forties and free Agents?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
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
(20:29):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Got a show tomorrow. We got your buddy mjd on
it too. First time we've had a guest.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
So is that right?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
A long time available? I can come handick, We got
you today. We are fantastic Dave Damasex football program.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
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
(21:15):
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
(21:39):
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,
(22:02):
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,
(22:25):
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
(22:47):
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
(23:07):
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
(23:31):
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
(23:53):
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.
(24:16):
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
(24:36):
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
(25:01):
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,
(25:21):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
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
(26:01):
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,
(26:21):
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,
(26:43):
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.
(27:06):
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
(27:34):
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
(27:56):
mind because of the book. Mister in Pittsburgh. Ye who
am I forgetting here?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
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
(28:25):
named There we go, There we Go, Kelly, And it
goes on and on and as you say, it.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Took you a while. It took you a while, but
there that was who. Yeah, that was who was.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
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
(28:54):
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
(29:15):
the Celtics were obviously great. It would probably.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
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.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
So it's so funny that you think signing Aaron Rodgers
will propel them to their first leader.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
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,
(30:06):
I went on television and otherwise. This isn't advance of
Super Bowl forty five. Then beating the Steelers in that
Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
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
(30:34):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
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
(31:07):
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
(31:27):
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.
(31:51):
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.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
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.
(32:33):
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,
(32:55):
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
(33:18):
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
(33:40):
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
(34:03):
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
(34:24):
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.
(34:46):
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
(35:07):
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
(35:30):
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,
(35:52):
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.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
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
(36:24):
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
(36:45):
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
(37:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
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
(37:33):
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
(37:54):
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.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
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.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
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
(38:41):
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
(39:04):
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
(39:26):
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.
(39:48):
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
(40:10):
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
(40:32):
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,
(40:52):
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
(41:13):
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.
(41:33):
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
(41:55):
a way that they weren't a half a decade ago.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
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
(42:18):
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.
(42:38):
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,
(43:01):
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
(43:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Right, I mean, because I like to make a list,
as you know, I think I go.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
To homes and then Rogers window to.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Window of greatness, like an extended window Rogers like I
don't know, like twenty ten, fourteen, like Peyton.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
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
(44:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
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.
(45:03):
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
(45:24):
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
(45:45):
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
(46:07):
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.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
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
(46:41):
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.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
I think we don't want this rental. We don't, we
don't need this. Well, that's a carpetbagger.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
That's not who we are.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
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.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
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
(47:45):
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.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
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
(48:20):
I'll still admire the character that is James Bond. I
just won't be into.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
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
(48:46):
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
Host
Gregg Rosenthal
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