NFL Countdown | “Rodgers WILL Avenge Tonight!” – Randy Moss warns Jets vs Steelers Wk 1
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We continue commercial free here on ESPN South Pal Antonio covering for us. S you were talking with Mike Tomlin earlier. What should we be expecting from Rogers and the Steelers offense against the Jets defense today? Well, the one thing you can expect is an Aaron Rogers that’s locked in Greeny. And here’s your back page of your New York Post. And there it is. Trading places with Justin Fields. And he is in a very good place. Aaron Rodgers. Whenever you get reports from Steelers camp, it’s all about him taking care of business on the field. That’s what Tomlin said. He was totally locked in in situational offense, third down offense, making sure everybody was in the right alignment and assignment, playing the right alignment and assignment football. And what you can expect from Aaron Rogers is a guy who’s very happy with the offensive components that he has. He said, “Listen, we’ve got a lot of versatility on this offense and we’ve got a lot of guys who can do a lot of different things. Bring some speed from power.” He said, “This was interesting that this is the best tight end room that I’ve ever had in my career, 21 years.” Remember, the Steelers had problems productivity throwing the ball to their tight ends, especially the middle of the field, over the middle. So, this is something that you will look for, especially because Aaron Glenn, you know, he’s going to bring the blitz to Aaron Rogers. Aaron Glenn last year brought the blitz 39% of the time, second most in the league when he was with Detroit. So, they’re going to be aggressive. He learned to bring the blitz under Rex Riot. So, they’re going to come after Aaron Rogers. They’re going to test his mobility, test his maneuverability in the pocket, and Aaron Rogers is going to have to get rid of that ball quickly. But all the reports are that Aaron Rogers likes where he is, likes this new place, and now he’s back in his old place playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Greeny S, thank you very much. Obviously, so many storylines in this game, Rex, this tale of two Aarens, the coach on one side, the quarterback on the other side. What is it you were saying in our meeting yesterday about what this game means to the Jets? I’m just telling you, and nobody said it, this is a must-win game for the Jets. I know it sounds crazy. It is. And why? Because look, the head coach, he decided to kick this guy to the curb. All right, the whole team you they’re going to be energized because you know what? He’s out the building. They they blame everything on Aaron Rogers, right? They tried to give you everything and you know, it never worked. It was a disaster. Let you pick the coaches, the players, all that kind of stuff. Well, there’s no excuses now. And if you’re if you I’m telling you, I’ve sat in that chair. Every game feels like game seven of the World Series. this opener right here. Is it the same old Jets or is it a brand new franchise that every fan can get excited about? That’s what it’s going to be. And you know what? You got the guy on the other end. And he’s not the same guy he once was. All right. Can he function? Absolutely. But here’s the great thing for the Jets. If you’re a Jet fan, this man, Aaron Rogers, as a starting quarterback, uh, to start a season, his last three starts, a total of 29 points. All right. In the openers, By the way, yes, those are the the points right there. By the way, did I mention last in QBR? Last in QBR, Aaron Rogers to start a season. Now, it’s not how he finishes, but it’s how he starts. And today, I’ve got all those pass rushers. You mentioned he’s going to send a blitz. Yeah. With guys that can rush the passer, beat one-on- ones. That dude right there, take a look at him. Are you going to see him flat on his back today? Yeah, I’m with you, Rex. I mean to to from a coming from a former defensive player. I mean those players defensive players on the New York Jets got to watch that debacle for two years really. And and I’ve never seen a player coddled and given as much as as a player that that ended up failing as Aaron Rogers. I mean you push our coach all of this stuff. You get coaches fired and of course the defensive players and the New York Jets are going to be definitely motivated to prove a point here that we have moved on. Now, with as to Aaron Rogers, this is a great situation for him. I mean, I mean, coming into the New York Jets, you could feel the stress from him cuz he felt like things weren’t done right. All right. My coach isn’t doing things right. I don’t like the the culture here and he wasn’t a culture setter. All right. Now, you just plop him in. Just plop him in right there. Fill him in under the quarterback position where the head coach has the culture rock solid. You got a defense that needs nothing from you. We’ll lead. Don’t worry. They just got Cam Hayward back signed. So, he’s there and saying, Aaron just played quarterback. Don’t say anything. We’ve got the leadership part of it. That’s where Aaron is best set up to succeed this year. I wonder I wonder what what what this Aaron Rogers offense is going to look like for the Pittsburgh Spurs Steelers. In the past, you know what we’ve seen? Multiple wide receivers. Don’t worry about it. Aaron Rogers, remember, he brought all those wide receivers into New York. Let’s spread them in the gun. a great amount. But when you talk when you listen to what S Powell said about the love for his tight ends in what 21 years of playing football, there’s one tight end that really stands stands out to me that they got and that’s John New Smith with Arthur Smith. You we know what we’ve seen out of John New Smith in Tennessee just running all over defense. Then he went to Miami. So the Pittsburgh Steelers seen something in John Smith that can help this offense out today. So, multiple tight end packages being able to run the ball because they just signed a uh not just signed it, but they drafted a another running back rookie in Johnson. So, what is this Pittsburgh Steelers offense going to look like? I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but just by what I hear, man, don’t be surprised you see a lot of heavy run with some tight ends tonight. I got to push back here a little bit on this. The truth is Aaron Rogers is a major upgrade for the Pittsburgh Steelers at the quarterback position. That that’s a fact. I mean, we could take last year, the worst year of his career. You’re getting crapped on up here. He’s a failure. Put his numbers up against Jordan Love, who replaced him in Green Bay from a season ago. They’re better. His He threw for the third most touchdowns in Jets history for a single season because they were last year because their defense was struggling, right? Again, the problem wasn’t just him. He played good down the stretch. I I listen, I we I know we’re jumping on the Jet train and all this. I just I I don’t see it again. The truth is he doesn’t have to do a whole lot. I agree. He needs to be good situationally. This Pittsburgh Steelers defense is unbelievable. Yeah. And I’m talking about the mood. Okay. All right. The tone that should be like Rex is talking about in that locker room and what Aaron Glenn is trying to start. The Jets. I mean, this is a team that has new coaches, new players, new quarterback. I mean, they’ve got all the work to do today. This Steeler team with this if Sal’s right and this guy’s happy now. Okay. Because I think that’s very important the way he feels. It’s like I’m telling you this team is very good and they can compete for this division in in my opinion because of Aaron in the year that he can possibly have. Look, we’ve been talking about this game for a long time here and Randy there are three words we haven’t said and they are DK Metaf DK. What do you anticipate from him? You talk about the tight ends. Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator, we know him for being one who likes to run the ball. You’re talking about tight ends over the middle of the field. But what do you expect Rogers and Metav? They are they can plug a guy like like DK Metave within this offense. get it to him early and often, but what I’ve seen coming out of Pittsburgh all all season, you know, wasn’t a lot of noise. They showed a lot of connection between him and DK Metav, but like I said, what I’ve heard over the last couple of weeks, what Aaron Rogers fell in love with, don’t be surprised what we’ve been seeing, four and five multi- receiver sets. Don’t be don’t be surprised if they shrink it down to run the ball for Aaron Rogers. That’s a fascinating game in the early window. We continue commercial free here on Countdown. One of the best games in the middle of the afternoon today. One of the most important games and two of the best pass rushers in the NFL on the field at Lambeau Field as the Lions visit the Packers. Micah Parsons making his Green Bay debut after being traded. Aiden Hutchinson returning from that devastating broken leg that ended his 2024 season. The Lions swept the Packers last year. Detroit was the only team in the NFL, in fact, that was perfect in divisional games, while Green Bay was on the wrong end of that, struggling against the NFC North with a 1 and5 record. Lindseay Theory has the Lions and Packers for us today. Lindsay, set the scene for us. What’s it like at Lambeau Field so far, Greenie? It is already buzzing outside Lambo, even though kickoff’s not till a little bit later today. In fact, across Lombardi Avenue outside Lambeau Field, there are some fences that fans paint before the season, those were finished up just last night. And expectations here have skyrocketed. The golden ring that Micah will bring. That is the expectation. A Super Bowl here in Green Bay, Wisconsin. And the visions don’t just stop with the fans looking at a Super Bowl. Jordan Love, he has a vision for how this will go today. Typically the season opener, you’d expect for the offense to be announced in stadium and the quarterback to run out last. Nope. Jordan Love wants the defense to be announced and he wants the last player to be called to be Micah Parsons. He says this crowd will absolutely go crazy. Another vision he has, the defense goes out there, gets a three and out, and it’s Parsons with the sack to cap it off. The people not envisioning that, the Lions. Yeah, the Lions are here today though. They have a lot of challenges ahead of them. Among the biggest challenge is the fact Parsons arrived here in their group text messages reacting to the Parson’s trade news. There were a lot of words that I cannot repeat on TV, but the biggest theme of them all was just challenge. The other challenge the Lions will face today. They have coordinators, new ones on both sides of the ball. Focusing on the offense, John Morton takes over. He was here in 2022. It’s because of that familiarity that Jared Goff says it’s been a smooth transition and they’ve been able to speak freely to each other about what they want this offense to look like. As for what we’ll see today, John Morton does say expect for this offense to look very much like it has the last few seasons. They’re going to be out there doing the same things they have already done. Greeny. All right. So many Hey, hey, hey.
