FIRST TAKE | “Steelers are real threats” – Stephen A. says Rodgers can push Pittsburgh to the playoffs
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They experience the situation. I’m not sure pressure would be the word I would use, but you know the expectations we have for ourselves. So playoff Super Bowl AFC Championship, that’s the expectation I’m here for you guys to get back to. It’s football. It’s been a while. You know, before it was like, oh, you can’t win a playoff game. No, we won a playoff game. Got to championship two years ago. Then you just fell short like two games short this year. Oh, the ball was dropped. He had the two-point conversion in his hands. When we come back, I feel like we going to have businesses on our mouth this year. The Browns have been league’s most intriguing quarterback. Life and everything is just me versus me. You know, I can’t control any other decision besides that. So, I just try to be my best self. Aaron Rogers headed to Pittsburgh. I’m pretty sure this is it. I played 20 freaking year. What better place to finish than one of the cornerstone franchises of the NFL in the city that expects you to win? So, whoever cut that montage, I like it. Got me hyped for a football season. Training camps underway and we’re taking around the league in a summer installment we’re calling divisional pace and today we’re taking off with the AFC North. The AFC North looks to be competitive once again. Two of the top five quarterbacks, Joe Bor, Lamar Jackson residing in that division. To stay relevant, the Steelers went on to find Aaron Rogers to a one-year deal they hope will be the key to finally winning in the postseason. Something they haven’t done. Ryan Clark, a former Steeler since when? Long time ago. 2017. My goodness. That is not the Steeler way. Uh do you think Rogers will lead Pittsburgh to the playoffs this season? Yes. And is that enough? Yeah. Like like No, it’s not like like the the standard is different, right? But the standard has lessened. We we’ve gotten to a point where I don’t expect or just expect the Pittsburgh Steelers to be competing for AFC Championships yearly. And that’s a discredit to who they are supposed to be. But when you look at Aaron Rogers, the way he played down the tailed end of the season last year, you saw him be able to protect himself, be able to move, but he could still make every single throw. And now you’re playing on a team that has Ju Smith and Pat Patu at the tight end positions. You’re going to play 12 personnel with two tight ends on the field, splitting Ju Smith out, moving him around. Arcer Smith being run first with a team that’s going to have a top tier defense. This is a team that’s going to be a playoff team. It’s going to be a team that you don’t want to play. They can be scary. And Mike Tomlin understands how to work with anyone, but Aaron Rogers only has to play football here. He doesn’t have to coach the team. He doesn’t have to get the team motivated to play. He doesn’t even have to lead and be friendly. You just have to do the job of playing quarterback, which to me is still the thing you can do. That’s a huge thing. You don’t have to be friendly. [Music] You don’t have to be friendly. People are well. Well, this cake will be friendly cuz this this takes be based on facts, which is this. It wasn’t. Yeah, exactly. Since 2022, Aaron Rogers QBR is 29th. The only quarterbacks that are worse than A Rogers guys in the last three years are Ryan Tanahill, Bryce Young, M. Jones, and Will Levis, who’s now out for this season as well. 29th QBR. Yes. And Molly, look, I You watch the Giants play. I mean, the Jets play. Have you seen the Jets play? Yes, I’ve seen the Jets play. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, you were just saying they’re definitely going to the playoffs, so I was very confused. Carry on. So, look, I have sat there and it’s intoxicating. Say we could get Aaron Rogers, fourtime MVP, Super Bowl champ, alltime great, and yes, could he catch Lightning and Bala? Absolutely. with a Hall of Fame coach, but it’s overwhelmingly against that happening. He hasn’t played well in three years. And in the history of our sport, two quarterbacks at 42 have played a playoff game. One is Tom Brady. He doesn’t count. And Drew Brees had one game when he was 42. So, could it happen, guys? Absolutely. But the overwhelming data and history of our sport says it’s over. And the other thing I would say, too, guys, I give him a ton of respect to play. The guy’s made $300 million. He could walk off in the sunset as an all-time great. If you’re in, and you guys know this as foreign players, you should be all in. You should be driving DK Medaf home. You should be having dinner with your teammates. You should be home. RC, we haven’t given the guy a chance to lock ourselves in a room yet. And on this, we know you love the Yeah. But my point fundamentally, guys, is if you’re in and you’re trying to catch Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson, go all in. Move to Pittsburgh and say, “Hey, we’re gonna go till glass breaks. We’re going to go till next January and I’ll then at that point I’ll I’ll hook up. Mikey, I mean that was a phenomenal date. I I feel like you might have called somebody. Do we have a tiebreaker? I got you. I got you. Only in one. [Music] They just came in and sucker punched you with your 20 and then you’re see the death and then you totally just stepped on your team. No, but my point is the entire team though. My point is from you. It doesn’t have to be friendly. I got the back right here. RC. What the Steelers have the Jets didn’t have. Okay. Jaylen Ramsey, Joey Porter, TJ Watt, and even if you look at the Steelers from a year ago. Okay. Let me read some names to you, Mike. And you tell me if you think Aaron Rogers is better than these names. Are you ready? Mhm. Trabiscy. Okay. Pickicket. Yeah. Wilson. Yep. Fields. Yep. Okay. Rudolph. Yep. Hodes. Yeah. I’ve been in the playoff with all them, all playoff team, all eight, nine win. Never a losing season with Mike T. So the the reality is is there a delta between Aaron Rogers being at the quarterback position. And what we can guarantee from the Steelers, say what you want, he’s never had a losing season and he routinely wins 8, 9, 10 games. Aaron Rogers in the building, he cuts. He doesn’t have to do as much as he did with the New York Jets. Absolutely. Not only makes them a playoff team, I think they win a playoff game because can you get one great game out of Aaron Rogers for 400 yards? Did he have that ability at 42? For sure he did. So is something you can phone up front and tell people. Yeah. Yeah. We’re going to go back to facts though, boss. The justosition of that list is that AFC, which is we know the other two teams in North are really good, especially Treasure St. You look at the West guys like we we we talked about it earlier, right? Kansas City is Kansas City, but Denver’s better, Chargers better. I just don’t see how Pittsburgh at the end of day when it all sorts itself out that they were one of the seven best teams. Well, I think you know, but you look at Pittsburgh, right? If we’re going to talk about facts, talk about the games that TJ Watt has closed out. Talk about the games that Alex Heisman has closed out. Cam Hayward continuing to get better down the tail end of his career. Having somebody opposite Joey Porter like a Darius Slate who understands it, adding a chess piece like Jaylen Rams into the defense, going out getting DK Metav, giving getting John Smith where you’re giving Aaron Rogers big bodies where he can put the football on guys who can make plays for him. and also understanding that Arthur Smith is built on physicality. So you go get Caleb Johnson from Iowa to have that power back. That’s a one-two to Jaylen Warren who to me was the more explosive of the backs when you look at him and Naji Harris last year. This team will be better this year. This team will finish stronger and Calvin Austin who’s a guy in the slot and Hawk knows this who is an extremely tough cover. I get what the number said, right? And before Drew Brees played in the playoff games, guess what? The numbers said something different. Before Aaron Rogers play, I mean, before Tom Brady played in the playoff games, the numbers said something different. But those two are in a different tier of talent as it pertains to quarterbacks. That tier Aaron Rogers is also in now with the head coach who’s a surefire Hall of Famer. He understands working with people and understands how to get his team to be the best they can possibly be. I I get that RC, but earlier this week we talked about Kansas City, right? Work in progress. They’re going to get better better as the season goes on. When you look at Pittsburgh, they got four stars over 30. TJ Watt, Cam Hayward, Jaylen Ramsey, and Darius Slate. So again, where I get concerned is like as the season goes on, are they getting better or are they going to wear down? And I’m going to say this, and this is and we talked about Cam Newton speaking from perspective, right, early on. Best years of my career, I was 31 to 33. It was the best years of my career. It was the opportunity to go to a Pro Bowl. It was the opportunity to play at a high level. It was right when my athletic ability and my understanding of the game met its peak. And that can be the same thing for these players cuz we’re seeing it with Cam Haven. Your honor, I wrestle my case. You just contribute. You didn’t say when you were 42, but you weren’t talking about them though. I I don’t play quarterback, right? If I play a position where you got to run and I banged. It was different for me. Right. From a quarterback position, we’re not asking Aaron Rogers to go be Justin Fields. We’re not asking him to go be Lamar Jackson. We’re asking him if we protect you, if you see that man open, can you throw the football to him? And you saw that against Jacksonville last year. You saw that against Miami last year. He can still do that. Here’s the [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Give me a Please
