Rodgers turns Steelers into legit title threat; Stafford doubtful for opener
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Rogers plays great in Pittsburgh this year. Then the Steelers are a problem and a true legitimate Super Bowl contender. Listen, great for Aaron Rodgers is like MVP. And that’s what we saw what 3 years ago while he was in Green Bay with this defense and the ability of Mike Tomlin and this staff. If Aaron Rogers plays out of his mind, then the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to be an issue for everybody and they could very well make their way through playoffs when if you only have to win two or three games for sure. Now, let’s let’s let’s sort of scale it back just a little. Great by Aaron Rogers greatness standards is extremely unlikely, right? He’s 41 years old going on 42. But great by recent Steeler quarterback standards is a very different thing. What if he is just Dominique a market step above what they’ve gotten essentially since they had Rothosberger in his prime? If he’s worth one or two more wins, that’s significant. And I think the real reason why Aaron Rogers feels valuable and why none of us will like completely give up on him is we’ve seen that he has the ability to throw the ball well and we know that no game is over. And so many games in football are decided 50% of the games about are decided by one score. And it felt like the Steelers, they had to beat you, right? Because they weren’t going to lead some game-winning comeback drive too often. We know that Aaron Rogers has the ability to do it even if we didn’t see him do it much last year. We believe he can still do that from time to time. Do we know? Like, do we know? Cuz we haven’t seen We didn’t see him do it last year. We didn’t see him do it the year before. Didn’t really see him do it the year before that. He’s 41. Like, by the way, you talk about a Super Bowl threat. They haven’t won a playoff game in nine years. He hasn’t won a playoff game in a long time. There are 17 NFL quarterbacks that have won playoff games more recently than Aaron Rogers has. It’s possible that this is just over. Yeah. And and that’s the way it looked last year with the Jets and obviously didn’t play the year before that. So I I I would be surprised if he played great. Uh but I’ve certainly been surprised before. Yeah. But I mean Greeney asked the question starting with a great Aaron Rogers season. We all accept that that’s not going to happen. But I think it’s not unreasonable for us to believe that we put him in a similar situation that they had Russell Wilson in last year. We put him in that situation, it’s it’s reasonable suggest that he could do slightly better than that, which I think is great for this team and that gets them in a position to play a first round playoff game and then we see what happens. I do think they have other questions. I think the young offensive line has to come together and we haven’t seen that yet. We don’t know how the run game’s going to look. Defense has a little bit of age on it. I just don’t think they’re like plugged in quarterback and Steelers are great. That’s fair. RC and Jaylen Ramsey are both talking about how well he can still spin it. Here’s the thing. Guys like Aaron Rogers when he’s 65 is still going to be able to spin it. The question is the athleticism. The question is the tendency to injury at players this age. It is extremely rare. Tom Brady may be one of one. Maybe Rogers is able to do it. Let’s talk about another aging quarterback here, Matthew Stafford. Not quite as old. He’s 37. But let’s play this game. Dominique, what if Matthew Stafford and his back are not ready to see the field week one? Oh, we done. We done out there. Like, Matthew Stafford has been playing incredibly well at times. Like, it’s up and down, but he has that ability. And we saw them give the Eagles the toughest game that anyone gave the Eagles last year um in the playoff run. It’s a lot because of how good their young defense is, but Matt Stafford can make those type of incredible throws. And I think this offense is designed around his ability to do that with those receivers. And McVey went and got him because they wanted to build it around him. So without Matthew Stafford, we we done out in LA. You know, Marcus, I always say if you have an ailment, ask a doctor. If a doctor isn’t available, ask a football player because they tend to know. So when you hear that a 37year-old quarterback goes through an entire day of throwing, what did you tell me, Dan? How many throws did he do on Saturday? 68. 68 throws, makes all the throws, then is supposed to come out and practice on Monday, but the back is bothering him and he’s not able to do it. What level of concern does that bring you, Marcus Beers? A very heightened level like Booger with the cold cold red. Okay, pull the power off. Uh, put the chains on the dope, Mr. Clark. Because listen, this is this is one of those situations where where where a lean on me referenc great movie. Uh Matthew Stafford is like like in the off season is very concerning for me, G. But what 68 throws like Ron just said, what about after week one? How you going to feel when somebody hits you when you’ve been throwing a lot? when you’ve had to move and step outside of the pocket and I know they got I know they got medicine and I know they got stuff that is very very strong but you’re asking him like we can’t practice in a controlled environment without getting hit without having to move around and you feel terrible the next day like the maintenance thing kind of is flying out the window for me and Foxy knows this as a football player neck and back are the two worst things that they can tell you as an injury in the NFL and those are those are almost like okay how much clock do I have left because I know it’s coming to an end very very soon and those two things are very very are or bad the concerning part is that it’s this early in the season I’m sure that even the if if he were if it was a game like I’m sure he would be able to play the part that’s scary is like oh we already doing that finish it up yeah look they believe they can get him ready to go he’s been managing this back for a while now, but he was supposed to practice this week and did not. So, there’s there’s definitely been a change of the planet. It’s concerning. Without him, I think they’re in in huge trouble. As you see, Jimmy Garopppolo would be in place to be his backup. Certainly a very capable backup quarterback. So, we’ll see where that goes. Okay, with Dominique in house and so much crazy stuff going on. Let’s do two additions today of Zero Fox Given. And the first one, let’s start on the sideline. Oh, we talking about back pain. You saw CD Lamb on the sideline. The get back coach wasn’t telling people to get back enough because man, I look good. There we go. Because CD Lamb is on the sideline, which I do. Oh, my back, my neck, my neck, and my back. CD Lamb is an incredible football player, but you got to be alert. But I do blame it’s the strip coach. Stri coach is supposed to be get back guy. Get get your get your butt back. All right, get to my favorite base hit of the weekend. And George Wilcow was uh out there trying to call a timeout. No timeout. I don’t need a timeout. I don’t need a second hand. He gives zero about that. Hits a base hit. Manages to get an RBI with one hand. Get that man up to the majors immediately. If he don’t need two hands down there, he don’t need to be down there. What? And then my absolute favorite one of all time. Iowa. Let’s go to Iowa. They’re known for white quarterbacks in this. Let’s go for it. chick. Come on. Chick. First place for 2025. 881. Uh, but that’s the chicken calling contest. It’s it’s there’s an investigation cuz obviously 884 should have been the winner. I think we all It’s not exactly the same. No, you’re no fun. Don’t Don’t disrespect the flyovers. They got good They got good entertainment out there, too. Pretty good, man. I’m good at everything. Give me Give me six. I win that. There’s nothing to do here. All right, as we continue, Sanders set back as our first stop at hour number two. The door sliding away and maybe sliding
