Hey, Aaron Rodgers Can Still Play

Hello. Welcome back to Nine Straight Threes. Thanks for your patience. It has been awhile. I intend to make sure that isn’t the case anymore.

Several times this offseason, I have expressed a sort of appreciation for Aaron Rodgers, albeit in a strange way.

I thought that the guy who said whatever he wanted on Pat McAfee’s show, and who was quite publicly not on the same page with Garrett Wilson, purportedly one of the least diva-like wide receivers in the league, was going to be something of a giant pain in the ass with the Steelers.

This was an especially bleak proposition because the 2024 Steelers featured Russell Wilson at quarterback, and listening to him do his usual “Mr. Positivity” routine every week became a chore right around the time the Steelers started losing games in bunches, and he stopped being able to play the position at an acceptable level.

To my very pleasant surprise, the Rodgers the Steelers got in the offseason was a breath of fresh air, of authenticity. Unlike Wilson, who always seemed like a man trying to play the role of veteran quarterback in a sports movie, Rodgers seemed sincere, even earnest.

When he talked about his teammates, his words sounded authentic. Those very same teammates spoke glowingly about his influence. The standoffish, inscrutable Rodgers I thought we were getting instead just sounded and acted like a man who wanted to talk about ball, play ball, and have a better experience than he did the last two years in the swamps of New Jersey.

I was happy to point this out, and did so regularly throughout camp and the preseason. For whatever it was worth, the fact that Rodgers’ teammates and coaches liked and respected him, instead of pretending that they did, was refreshing.

Whether or not it would translate to good football was another story, of course. I would have preferred that Rodgers take a handful of preseason reps, just to knock off the rust, and said as much. It seemed like a reasonable ask; Rodgers’ last four season openers looked like this:

2021: 15-of-28, 133 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT. 38-3 loss.

2022: 22-of-34, 195 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT. 23-7 loss.

2023: 0-for-1, 0 yards. Got hurt. The Jets rather famously won on a walk-off punt return, 22-16.

2024: 13-of-21, 167 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT. 32-19 loss.

He of course did not play a single snap, and so Sunday’s grudge match with the Jets, a sort of “Quarterback Wife Swap” affair, would be his first real action for the Steelers. All the encouraging talk wouldn’t mean much if Rodgers looked his age.

A clunky opener would also dampen whatever enthusiasm surrounded the start of this Steelers season. The quarterback position has been a major issue for Pittsburgh since 2019. The last time they got top-tier play at the position was Ben Roethlisberger’s final season before his elbow exploded.

Rodgers was brought in by Mike Tomlin to fix that, however unreasonable that ask might have seemed to the outside world.

For one week, at least, the new quarterback made his new coach look like a genius.

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Rodgers carried the Steelers to a win in a game where their defense surrendered 6.4 yards per play, gave up 182 yards rushing, and appeared completely incapable of slowing down Justin Fields. It was jarring to watch a Jets line that lost its best player, guard Alijah Vera-Tucker, to a season-ending triceps injury, push the Steelers’ defensive line around with total ease.

It was more jarring, and in a positive way, to watch Rodgers render that moot, even as he was under siege from his left side all day, on account of Broderick Jones playing one of the worst games at left tackle you’ll see all year. Or any year, for that matter.

Even Rodgers haters admitted that his arm still had plenty of pop, and that the ball came out with plenty of steam on it. His willingness to take punishment, stand in the pocket, and create on the move were the aspects of his game that came into question.

He did all those things on Sunday, and the Steelers needed every bit of it. There were back-shoulder throws to Calvin Austin, some catch-and-run connections with D.K. Metcalf, and a few bullets down the middle to Pat Freiermuth.

The play that best represented how much better Rodgers looked than recent Steelers quarterbacks came after Kenneth Gainwell forced an Xavier Gipson fumble on the ensuing kickoff after Rodgers’ touchdown toss to Jaylen Warren pulled the Steelers to within 26-24.

Taking over after the quick change, Rodgers handed to Warren for four yards, then did this.

Feast your eyes on that. It’s a real delight. A play-action pass, some immediate pressure from the Jets, and Rodgers rendering it moot with a one-footed strike to an open receiver. It was vintage Rodgers, and frankly while it might be a throw that every NFL QB can make, it isn’t one that all of them make with regularity.

Rodgers made it look easy, and when the Steelers needed to position themselves for a game-winning field goal, he coolly moved them into position (an easier task when your kicker is Chris Boswell) and then watched as a 60-yarder split the uprights with plenty of room to spare.

That Rodgers did what he did in the absence of any sort of consistent running game while also facing consistent pressure was incredibly encouraging. He took several hits and bounced right back up for more. He didn’t look old when he got sacked, he looked mad.

After the game, he downplayed the idea that he got any sort of extra satisfaction out of beating Aaron Glenn, a man who made it very clear that he didn’t see Rodgers as a fit for what he wanted to do with the Jets. Rodgers has a pretty good poker face, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that he was fibbing.

If you’re wondering, Rodgers is in fact the first quarterback in league history to have consecutive four-touchdown games with different teams. He also hadn’t thrown four touchdowns in consecutive games since Weeks 16 and 17 of the 2020 season, and hadn’t thrown four in a game, period, since Week 14 in 2021.

But wait, there’s more. He also became the first Steelers quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger to throw four touchdowns in a game. Better luck next time, Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, Mason Rudolph, Justin Fields and Russell Wilson. Lastly, he tied Tom Brady with his 28th four-touchdown, zero-interception game. That is an all-time record that the two legends share.

Back to reality, though. The Steelers have a lot of problems, of course. Anyone that watched the whole game can see that. But for the first time in a long time, they got to be on the right side of a modern NFL truism: Great quarterback play can cover up a lot of warts.

Feels good, doesn’t it?