PIT has ‘different vibe’ given Rodgers headlines
Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss Aaron Rodgers' farewell tour and explain why the vibes in Pittsburgh are different given Rodgers' situation and the presence of new head coach Mike McCarthy.
Video Transcript
2026 for Aaron Rodgers.
He was back at camp.
And who can forget, those introductory press conferences may be epic.
Remember the year he showed up and just torched the Green Bay Packers?
So you never know what you're gonna get with Aaron Rodgers.
But yesterday there was an issue that was teed up by DK Metcalf, because DK Metcalf, speaking before Rodgers, said, "Hey, it may not be his last year.
If he comes out of this season healthy, maybe he'll play another year."
So that set the stage for Rodgers to address whether or not 2026 is indeed his final NFL season.
I thought last year might be it, and then Mike got hired, and I talked to the wife and she said, "You can do one more year."
So I said, "Well, see if it works out."
And then it kind of all came together.
We just talked to DK earlier, and he said, "Well, you know, saying it's the last year might just be something guys say.
Maybe you don't get hit this year, you wanna come back another year."
Do you think you'll have any kind of debate or?
No.
Zero debate.
Zero.
That was really funny.
That was a great- I really like- Zero zero.
Zero.
It really would be the ultimate Aaron Rodgers move, though, to be the first guy who ever does a farewell tour that I can remember.
Ben Roethlisberger, late in the 2021 season, said, "This is my last year."
This is the only franchise quarterback wire-to-wire farewell tour that I can recall.
It would be the ultimate Aaron Rodgers move to then play one more year after.
That would be That's what Kiss did for 25 years.
They had their farewell tour in 2000.
I went to see it, and, and 20 years later, I went to their final farewell tour.
You had to be there, sure.
And I wasn't even sure then whether it was the farewell tour.
Right.
Right.
I, well, you know, with this one, I, I, I think he was so close last year to making it his last year.
He certainly was debating it.
It, it, it does feel like this, this is it right here for Aaron Rodgers.
And you're right, I don't know if I really remember a farewell tour that's anything like that either.
I mean, Peyton Manning, you know, we got a sense at the end of that year in 2015 that it was coming to an end and this might be it, but there was no farewell tour.
So this'll be interesting.
I mean, again, it's him, Mike McCarthy.
It's, it's right back where he started.
And of course there's questions about the Pittsburgh Steelers and their football team, and no Mike Tomlin and everything else around it.
I mean, it's to me one of the more interesting stories in the league to see what they're gonna be this year.
There's some parts of their team where you go, "Ooh, I like that," but there's some big questions in, on other parts of their football team as well.
And you know, Aaron Rodgers used to be able to cover all those questions when he was in his prime, and he can't do that anymore.
So that's gonna be interesting, too.
Remember with Peyton Manning, the biggest clue was that he spent extra time talking to Bill Belichick after the AFC Championship game.
Oh, yeah.
That was it.
Yeah.
And that was when we were all kind of like, "Yeah, we think he's probably gonna be done."
Yeah.
So compare and contrast.
It's a Derek Jeter style final year.
And hey, guys can handle their careers however they want, but it does give the Steelers a different vibe this year that we know.
And not let- I mean It's not like, it's not like there wasn't a pretty good chance it was gonna be, but to come out and say it ahead of time, that's a bold move.
It's a bold move.
And I don't know, maybe it takes some of the focus off of all the transition in Pittsburgh.
And there's different things that I see.
They're trying to get themselves excited about Mike McCarthy.
The offense is gonna be more creative.
They're gonna be doing more things.
I, it, it's almost like they sent out a memo to the beat writers to talk about how detail-oriented Mike McCarthy is, which, I mean, we could have a, we could have a, a spirited debate on whether or not he's really detail-oriented based upon his time with the Packers and the Cowboys, but they're putting all this stuff out there.
Meanwhile, they're not gonna tackle to the ground at training camp, which- I saw that it's gonna be a different vibe for the Pittsburgh Steelers after 20 years, nearly, of Mike Tomlin, to have no tackling to the ground during training camp practices.
Well, I, I mean, that's what they're famous for.
It's, it's, you know, you've heard me tell stories, you know, going around training camp, and teams that gotta play Pittsburgh early in the year, and seeing coaches and them going, "What, you were at Pittsburgh?
Were, were they hitting?
Were they tackling?"
yeah, they were.
They were going full speed.
Oh, like, that's, that's, that's what made Pittsburgh so great.
It's what made them capable of being a playoff football team was the physicality and Tomlin's ability to manage a football game with a crappy offense for the last eight years, basically.
So it's interesting.
And this year, yeah, the onus has to go onto the offense a little bit.
And can Mike McCarthy change that with his detail and his creativity on the offensive side of the ball?
Getting Michael Pittman Jr. As another receiver to go along with DK Metcalf.
That'll be interesting.
Does the way they play change?
Because watching Pittsburgh Steelers is boring football most of the time.
It's been, "Oh, we're real conservative on offense, and we don't take a whole lot of chances, and we're just gonna hang around.
And hopefully TJ Watt'll get a strip sack, or somebody'll make a play and we'll block a punt, and then we'll, you know, slowly bleed the clock out from there."
And it's not fun to watch.
Now there's some parts that are effective, but we know the offense has to show up in a different way, and they have not been able to do that in any big game really for quite some time in Pittsburgh.
By the way, Aaron Rodgers needs 3,726 passing yards to get to 70,000- Wow for his career.
Do you think he'll get 3,726?
Last year he had 3,322 in his first season with Pittsburgh.
I would say no.
I, you know, I, I, I would say that's gonna be tough.
He's gonna have to exceed my expectations.
As you've heard me say a lot through the last few years, he plays the position way too conservatively now for the 2026 NFL.
It's about making plays.
It's not about taking care of the ball and completion percentage all the time.
So, you know, I just, I gotta see it to believe it.
Will he stand in the pocket?
Will he make the aggressive decisions that m- the top quarterbacks in the league do?
You know, again, that was one of the reasons I, I watched him, you know, for a second time when I was doing my quarterback rankings with him and Jacoby Brissett, and you know, that was kind of controversial.
And I just went, man, I mean, Jacoby Brissett makes way more throws and plays than Aaron Rodgers.
It's, it's really not close.
And you know, it's just crazy to say that out loud because it's a guy that in his prime made more throws and plays than any quarterback I might have ever seen in the history of football.
So that's where it's crazy, and I hope that can change this year.
He needs 219 passing yards per game to get to 70,000.
So you're right, the offense has been an issue in Pittsburgh ever since Ben Roethlisberger retired, and there were years late in his career where the offense kind of sputtered.
Yeah.
We'll see if they turn it around.
Okay, when we return, Klint Kubiak liking the Kirk Cousins for now.
At least.
The Raiders depth chart takes some form at the quarterback position.
Discuss it right after this on PFT Live.
