The 2026 Steelers will be different. Better, though? That's up to Aaron Rodgers

There is something to be said about the value of change, of seeing something different, even if it's not necessarily better. In no arena is this thought more applicable than professional sports, where only one team wins each year, but all teams can provide slivers of joy, frustration and rage, and where the biggest sin is being boring or bland. It is an entertainment product, after all.

For years, my major frustration with the Pittsburgh Steelers was that they refused to be different. This was largely a critique that traced back to Art Rooney II. Not only did he refuse to authorize a rebuild, despite mounting evidence that one was necessary, he kept around Mike Tomlin, the chief architect of the team's slide into the NFL's mushy middle.

No one who actually had power in the organization seemed willing to acknowledge what fans and media had been saying for multiple seasons: The franchise was stale, the results were predictable, if ever-so-slightly above average, and in the absence of tangible change, there was empty rhetoric and deck chair reshuffling.

This offseason brought with it real, actual, change. Of the major variety, no less. Tomlin stepped down, Mike McCarthy came in, and virtually the entire coaching staff turned over. There's a new sheriff in town, and he actually cares about the quarterback position.

General Manager Omar Khan swung a deal for bruising Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr., and the Steelers continued to invest in their offensive line, drafting Arizona State tackle Max Iheanachor with the 21st overall pick.

Patrick Graham is going to run the defense, and his reputation is that of a man who has done an admirable job at cobbling together solid, middle-of-the-pack defenses with bottom-tier talent. He will have more pieces to work with than he ever has before.

So, yeah, this will be different. That alone has me more excited and interested heading into a season than I have been in two or three years. Graham's potential positive influence on a massively underachieving defense in particular gets me thinking optimistic thoughts about the Steelers.

There's one big roadblock to potential success, however. His name is Aaron Rodgers.

Sure, he won them the AFC North with a thrilling fourth-quarter performance against Baltimore last year. No one can take that away from him, nor should they. In the moment, it ruled.

Take a 30,000-foot look at his season, though, and you get a sense of how fortunate he and the Steelers were to win the North. Nate Tice and Robert Mays broke Rodgers' performance down in sobering fashion on the Football 301 podcast. The whole thing is worth taking 15 minutes to watch, but the red meat is at the 3:25 mark below:

Rodgers' average completion last season was 3.4 yards past the line of scrimmage. Not only was that the lowest mark in the league, it was the lowest by any quarterback since 2017, which also happens to be the extent of Next Gen Stats' record-keeping.

It gets worse, as Tice lays out above. Since 2013, of the 377 qualifying quarterback seasons, Rodgers' 2025 campaign ranked 363rd in rate of passes that traveled 10 or more air yards. There's a lot more to mine there, but the "too long, didn't watch" version of the breakdown is this: Rodgers is getting rid of the ball quickly, but throwing too short, too often, or relying on sideline isolation balls to generate big plays.

Unlike, say, Tom Brady in 2020, who used two decades of accrued pre-snap knowledge to torture defenses by taking big chunks, Rodgers is taking his wealth of experience and trying to nibble his way down the field, which is unsustainable in the modern NFL.

Lest you think that McCarthy's arrival will result in an "old dog, new tricks" final season for Rodgers, consider this: That stat above, the one about passes that travel 10 or more air yards? By rate, the second-lowest season of Rodgers' career in that department was his final one with McCarthy in Green Bay.

So how much is going to actually change this year? The ball is in Rodgers' court. Does he want to try and turn back the clock philosophically, and play more like the guy who racked up back-to-back MVP awards in 2020 and 2021? Or is he content to play out the string like he did last year, trying to squeeze points out of an offense that looks more like a jumble of disparate plays than it does a cohesive system?

The Steelers have given him more and better weapons. They've beefed up his offensive line. They've added a defensive coordinator that Rodgers himself has praised, which is interesting, given his known level of respect and admiration for Tomlin. As best they can, the franchise has set the table for Rodgers' swan song to be a good one.

We'll start to find out Sunday whether or not he wants to sing it.