FIRST TAKE | Rodgers Fails = COMPLETE DISASTER for Steelers, Warns Stephen A.
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Several bigname quarterbacks change teams this off season with Pittsburgh most recently landing its new QB1. After a long off seasonason, Aaron Rogers decided to sign with the Steelers on a one-year deal in what seems to be his final NFL season. Four-time MVP is going to be looking to end his career on a high note with Mike Tomlin and company. And in what will be his 14th season in the NFL, Russell Wilson signed a one-year deal with the Giants as he looks to lead Big Blue back to the playoffs for the first time since the 2022 season. One more for you if you missed this one. Entering his fifth year in the league, Justin Fields will be playing on his third team as he signed a two-year deal with the Jets. 2021 firstrounder looking to get his career on track and find success with the Gang Green. Welcome back to First Take. Got a little around the horn reunion. Plus Mike Tony here today. Looks looks a little different today. Kevin, I’m going to start with you here. We’re going to play a game called Boom or Bust. Those three quarterbacks that I just mentioned, how do you see their seasons ending up in 2025? Let’s start with Aaron Rogers. Boom. In the context of what they need from him. He’s not going to be MVP 2021 Aaron Rogers. They don’t need that. They need the 14th, 15th best quarterback in football. That way they can do the normal Steelers thing. W 10 games, rely on their defense, relying on agent core, going all in in the context of what they are. So, it’s going to work. It’s just not going to be vintage Aaron Rogers. And that’s okay. I got to go boom for 14 games. Here’s why. He’s going to be 42 in December. Last year, Pittsburgh gave up sacks at the 28th worst rate, meaning they really struggled protecting the P. You get back Troy Fno this year, but I just don’t see him making 17 games. Will Howard, remember that name? sixth round pick from Ohio State, won a national championship, had a really rough pre-draft process. I like his ability and I think at some point late in the season, we’re going to see him play meaningful games. Forget the name, by the way. Forget the name Will Howard. You said remember the name, forget the name. So, you’re considering a boom is a situation in which the Steelers end the season with six round pick Will Howard. That’s boom. I feel that feels busty to me and I’m going to agree with you because I’m changing your answer to bust because that’s what it feels like what you’re doing. This is a bust. This is a bust for AR. I just don’t believe it. You want a 14 to 15th best quarterback. I’m not sure Aaron Rogers is that guy to even be that good of a quarterback. He has not been good for half a decade now as Aaron Rogers. He’s not been that good of a quarterback, but also you’re also bringing the Aaron Rogersness to this. You’re not just bringing a guy who may be a middle of the pack quarterback. You’re bringing a guy who is a middle of the pack quarterback who is a dent, who is a guy who can cause issues in that locker room. I know Tomlin is there to sort of stabilize, but Tomlin may be on his way out. Also, I just don’t think Aaron Rogers is more bad and more disaster than he has a possibility of being good for them. Yeah. I mean, if you’re saying he’s not been a good quarterback in the last 5 years. 3,800 something yards, nearly 30 touchdowns, 11 interceptions. That’s That’s pretty good. That’s like I’d put that in the above average category for most quarterbacks. Which is why I think this will be boomed for a number of different reasons. Particularly the fact if it doesn’t work, it’s the greatest thing. This is the reset of all resets that they would need. Pittsburgh has been trying to do things differently this offseason in a really weird way. Like the most unpitts Steelers way of doing business. So if it works out, if it’s a boom, they get to the playoffs, they win a playoff game. If they don’t, it forces the hard reset. Maybe Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers end up parting ways finally. Maybe they go all in and do something completely different. I don’t think it can possibly a be a bust in any way, shape, or form. I know you’re laughing. I just want to say because it’s win either way. He said boon because Will Howard starts in December and you’ve got Mike Tomlin getting fired perhaps. I think that they need the push in the direction that we all know that they need to go to reach. It’s a one-year deal. Not a lot. In my rightness here of being of saying bust because sounds like your definition of boom is everything falls apart. Your definition of boom is them getting Will Howard the sixth round pick to start. Seems like everybody’s busting. I’m just going to sit here and just uh lean in on being right. Mine is the 15th best quarterback. It seems like nobody had what success is, you know, layered on all this. They just gave their GM a three-ear extension. So, I don’t see this massive reset necessarily. And that’s why I think they want to see what they have in Will Howard. Like, I I Why is that so funny? It’s funny. He’s not good. He’s not good. They would go to Mason Rudolph before they before they would go He just won a national championship and played really well. Jeremiah Smith won a national championship. Ryan Day, Chip Kelly, that defense, the offensive line, Henderson. I I running back way down on the list is Will Howard. But but here’s what I say. We have Will Howard B-roll going on right now. And shout out to Will Howard. Happy 4th of July to him. Yeah, exactly. But look, stats and history tell us that at 42 years old, it’s unlikely that Aaron Rogers has been playing 17 games. All right. Well, we’ve all we’re all in really weird disagreements. Everybody, good job. Good job. All right, Kevin. Going down the line again. Is Russell Wilson going to be boomer bust? This one’s going to be a bust with no qualification here. Okay, I’m not going to call him the 18th best quarterback or whatever. Uh I I I struggle to see the vision here with the New York Giants. I think that they’re in job preservation mode with coach and GM. I think they’re going to want to go to Jackson Dart as soon as possible in order to build a proof of concept and say, “Hey, we deserve these jobs in 2026 because we’re building a young quarterback.” Russell Wilson is not good enough to win 8 n 10 games. the type of performance you need to save your job. It’s going to be a bust for Russell Wilson. Next stop, the broadcast. All right, David, I’m actually going to you next on this. Calling an audible here. You going bust as well? I’m going boom based on the expectations for what we have for Russell Wilson. So, I’m going to kind of do what y’all did last time. The boom here is that Russell Wilson is going to be a leader in that locker room and he’s going to be somebody who can you, a young quarterback, would want to learn under. So, I’m not sure how many games he’s going to necessarily win. He can be a stabilizing force. He’s not going to turn the ball over a ton. It’s not going to be a disaster for this team. But in terms of what you brought Russell Wilson on there to do, which is be a locker room leader, which is be somebody who can guide the future of your organization, I think it’ll be a boom. Okay. Mike T. Yeah. I’m going to go bust and go back a little bit similar to what Kevin said. I think if you’re the Giants, you’d rather win five games with Jackson Dart than six or seven with Russell Wilson. I go back to when I was with the Jets and Mark Sanchez. We put him in from day one. Snap one. We got fortunate got to the AFC Championship game. But if I’m the Giants, it’s more than a proof of concept. It’s, hey, this guy has to like show competency from day one. If they do that, that gives the organization and the locker room hope. Okay, since I guess I’m feeling in a positive mood, I’m spinning everything on the boom side of this because I don’t think this is bad one way or the other. At very worst, he starts five games. You move on to the rookie that you drafted in the first round. They absolutely had to do this in order to save their jobs. They didn’t have to use their third round, their pick at three to take a quarterback. They were able to take Jackson Dart much later on. Russell Wilson just needs to play above average. And I know that can be a little difficult. We’ve saw what happened in Pittsburgh last year. I think you get him through five, six games. You start your succession plan a year early. That buys the coaching staff, the front office time, and I think it’s uh boom all the way around. What more does he have to prove? He’s won a Super Bowl. Like he’s at this point of his career, 14 years in that I think he’s happy to be around. He’s a locker room guy and he’ll be fine. So, let’s go to the last one. We’re going to stay in New York here. Kevin, is Justin Fields going to be boomer bust? I’m going to qualify the bust here. Okay. Like a hard bust. It’s not like the soft like qualifier here. Hard bust. All right. So, he’s a bridge quarterback, right? And until Aaron Rogers signed a couple weeks ago, he was the only quarterback in football making between I think 12 and $30 million. Okay, that’s the definition of a bridge quarterback. The thing about Aaron Glenn is he’s going to build that team the right way. Very similar to Dan Campbell. He’s not going to skip steps. I think this year is going to be maybe a step back, maybe a little less talent and then they’re going to build it and by year three they’re really gonna hum. So for me, I think it’s a stop gap. I think Justin Fields get the floor is high because he can obviously do a handful of things really well at the NFL level, but I still don’t see franchise quarterback from him. So bust, but I think he’s going to be okay this year. I’m saying boom. Why are we putting a ceiling on Justin Fields and saying that he’s just a bridge quarterback? Look, I had the good fortune of working both with Aaron Glenn and Dan Campbell. They’re very similar guys. This team is going to be the Detroit Lions East. Maybe not the highest ceiling, but they’re going to be well coached. They’re going to be tough. And I think Justin Fields is a manifestation of Aaron Glenn as a quarterback. Much the way we hear Todd BS and Baker Mayfield being very like-minded. And I just think this is a team that’s going to be hard to beat. Penalties, turnovers, those will all go down. And I think Justin Fields has some really intriguing ability. He’s given the starting job unconditionally. This is going to be a very intriguing team and quarterback to watch in the fall. I’m going boom. I’m going not not no caveat. Standing on business. Boom. Two words. Sam Darnold. I think that this may be a situation in which Justin Fields has that sort of growth where I think he got a raw deal for the first part of his career. Courtney, you know all about the situation that he was dealing with. And I think the talent is there and I think that he is in a better situation. I think we’re going to see that improvement. I just have hope and belief in Justin Fields as somebody who can turn this team around. What franchise failed Darnold the first time? Okay. Well, that’s a different It’s a different, you know, the people there are different. It’s different. It’s different. Okay. So, you know what my day job is and you know that that’s the reason I’m going bust here on this. I saw Justin Fields in the early part of