00:00Aaron Rodgers was kind enough after the schedules were released.
00:05I guess he's just licking his chop to play the Falcons in week number one
00:11to agree that he will be back and slated to be the starting quarterback, Joe,
00:18for the Pittsburgh Steelers once again.
00:22Aaron Rodgers off of a season where some of the numbers look nice,
00:2724 passing touchdowns to just seven interceptions,
00:30but the deeper you dive, the less encouraging it is.
00:36What is your reaction to Rodgers being back in Pittsburgh?
00:40It's the same old, right?
00:41I mean, I think when you look at the Pittsburgh Steelers
00:44and now the departure of Mike Tomlin,
00:47the addition of their new head coach, Mike McCarthy,
00:49there's no doubt this team has the ability to potentially win 8, 9, or 10 games, Kevin,
00:55but when we look big picture, is this team any poised better this season
01:01or offseason in 2026 to challenge for an AFC championship?
01:06And I think the answer is no.
01:07I think they got completely exposed in the playoff loss to Houston
01:11when they played bigger, more physical teams,
01:14especially from an offensive perspective.
01:16Aaron Rodgers and the passing attack was nonexistent.
01:20And again, they do have success.
01:23When they dink and dunk and Kenneth Gainwell was a big part of that passing offense
01:27in the second half of the regular season,
01:29DK Metcalf didn't live up to the hype as a pure number one.
01:33They still have major needs for this offense to take the next step
01:37to challenge the likes of, I'll throw it in there,
01:40Buffalo, Jacksonville, and Kansas City,
01:43just a few others that they have to compete with,
01:45along with Lamar Jackson and Baltimore.
01:47It's not going to be easy.
01:49They're a mediocre football team, and Aaron Rodgers coming back,
01:53yeah, just allows them to put a Band-Aid on the wounds,
01:56but they're completely exposed as a contender this year in the AFC.
02:01It's another uninspiring decision made by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
02:09Aaron Rodgers does not give this team any type of ceiling,
02:15and I actually think he could come equipped with quite a low floor as well,
02:20but just to the ceiling piece of it, okay?
02:22And look, no stats are perfect, but I bring up QBR.
02:26I mean, again, everybody's graded on the same scale.
02:30And in the best quarterbacks, Joe finished the season with the QBR in the 70s,
02:34pretty much your top 10 quarterbacks for the season,
02:37the season their QBR was a 60 or better.
02:39Those are also, they grade individual games via QBR.
02:44Aaron Rodgers had three games with a QBR of 60 or better.
02:51Forget the season.
02:52That means there were three games that the Steelers had out of 16 Aaron Rodgers starts
02:58where it's like, oh, we just got top 10 quarterback play this week out of 16.
03:05It's, it's, no, there's no reason to believe it's going to look better, right?
03:10It's not as if this Mike McCarthy pairing is going to be some match made in heaven, right?
03:16I don't think anybody would argue that the Dallas Cowboys wildly missed Mike McCarthy
03:23in his, with him obviously not coaching the team last year.
03:26A lot of people actually are somewhat high now all of a sudden for the first time
03:30and maybe his entire career, Ryan Schottenheimer, obviously calling the plays for Dallas
03:33with Dak Prescott at the quarterback position.
03:35So the Rodgers stuff is just incredibly unexciting and their quarterback room
03:44just doesn't even, I mean, it doesn't make sense.
03:47Mason Rudolph is headed towards being a decade long backup on the same roster.
03:52I don't know why.
03:53They drafted Will Howard last year after winning a national championship with Ohio State.
03:57They don't seem to like him all that much.
04:00They've brought Drew Aller in.
04:02If you're Will Howard, by the way, you got to be like, you got to be kidding me.
04:05Have you ever once put on a, we played the, no way, man.
04:09Like, no way you're, you're giving Drew Aller the chance here because he's some hometown kid.
04:15I just, the Steelers are desperate.
04:20Joe, I think everybody can agree on this.
04:22With Mike Tomlin gone, it was like, man, hey guys, one bad season.
04:25And let's try and refresh, a la the San Antonio Spurs.
04:30See if you can find your Victor Webinyama.
04:33And Pittsburgh is just interested in being mediocre.
04:38There's no one with a straight face in that organization, Joe,
04:41who could think they're giving themselves a chance to compete at a high level this year.
04:45There's no way.
04:45There's no way.
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