Should Steelers’ Aaron Rodgers be throwing deep to DK Metcalf, others more often?

Live around 5 p.m., Post-Gazette sports columnist Paul Zeise reacts to QB Aaron Rodgers’ comments about the lack of downfield throws within the Steelers’ offense.

Should OC Arthur Smith be dialing up more longer passes for Rodgers and targets including DK Metcalf, Calvin Austin III, Jonnu Smith, Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington and Roman Wilson? Or is he wise to take what opposing defenses are giving him with a lot of two-deep safety, “Cover 2” looks? And will it be easier for names including Jaylen Warren, Kenneth Gainwell and Kaleb Johnson to get going in the running game if defenses are more worried about big plays? Paul tackles those questions and more ahead of an NFL Week 6 showdown with the AFC North division rival Cleveland Browns.

Good afternoon and welcome to the big show. The big show uh is brought to you every day here at the Post Gazette by you know about five o’clock right around there. We try and do it every single day. Brought to you by FanDuel Casino. Uh get to the FanDuel app. We’ll talk a little bit about that. We’ve got some games going on tonight you want to bet on uh that you want to get uh your bets in. We’re going to talk to you about how to do that with FanDo a little bit later. Also, we’re brought to you by uh Archie’s on Carson Street. Archie is home of the Paul’s Ice Grilled Cheese and also it is uh home of 80 cent wings Monday through Thursday. So, get down to Archie and enjoy great time, great atmosphere, great family atmosphere. And of course, when you get there, say hello to Archie for me. Tell him I sent you. Um, one subject that has come up with the Steelers that I wanted to delve into was a little bit about the fact, and we, you know, we’ve known this for four weeks watching it, right? And that is that they really haven’t gone down the field that much. They haven’t thrown it deep that much. And I think that when it’s one of those things where there are some people who believe, well, you know, maybe Aaron Rogers is not able to throw it that far anymore. Maybe that’s just something he can’t do. Um, it’s just going to be, you know, this is what they’re going to do. They’re going to throw it short. They’re going to, you know, throw uh these little touch passes because that’s what he can do. But as far as throwing it down the field, he can’t do it anymore. And eventually teams are going to figure this out. They’re going to move up and they’re going to take away all the underneath stuff. And then what’s going to happen? Aaron Rogers spoke on this and basically said, “Not so fast.” He said basically, it’s been about the way that defenses have played them. and he said it’s easy playing against cover two. Playing cover two, there’s not going to be a ton of big shots down the field until we get them in one high. It’s going to be precision passing short of the sticks. Uh and basically what he’s saying is, you know, opposing defenses regularly have lined up against the the Steelers in cover two. And so therefore with the two safeties back at the back end and five, you know, five underneath cover and shorter routes, you’ve got to be prec, you know, precise with where you throw it. And at the end of the day, um Aaron Rogers is basically saying if we’re going to try and throw it deep against cover two, it’s probably going to lead to turnovers. And so he basically says, I not going to force throws that are there just to, you know, because if they’re not there, they’re not there. And so he’s basically saying there’s not going to be a lot of shots open down the boundary, so we’re just going to try and be efficient. And I think one of the things that you need to realize about a guy like Aaron Rodgers and why he has sort of in four weeks given us a master class as to how to play quarterback is that he doesn’t force things that aren’t there. Number one, he’s very accurate. you know, he’s looking to see where he could throw the ball to get it to his, you know, uh, his receivers in position where they can make a play after they catch it. He’s trying to find the holes in defenses. He’s not afraid to throw the ball away and he’s not just going to force stuff to force stuff. I think that is smart and I think that that is also part of what makes the elite quarterbacks elite. Now, that being said, at some point he’s probably going to have to do a better job of getting the ball down the field. He’s going to have to throw it down the field a little bit. I think if you get too conservative with it, you know, it’s it’s just one of those things where you become easier to defend. clearly he wants to throw the ball down the field and I think that is, you know, something that he made very clear. It’s not that it’s not that, you know, we’re going to be able to um it’s not that we’re going to be able to not throw the ball down the field. We’re just not going to if it’s not there. And I think that’s where if you look at it, he is in a position right now where he is trying to basically maximize the Steelers ability to move the ball down the field. I I I actually, you know, think that there’s a couple things that work well at work as well. Number one, and this goes with, you know, some of the personnel packages that they’ve used where they’ve used Darnell Washington and they’ve actually used an extra tackle and, you know, they’ve tried to be bigger and more physical. Um, you know, if you run the ball efficiently, I think it does two things for the Steelers. The first thing it does, it protects Aaron Rodgers. And I, you know, understand these guys aren’t fragile little China dolls and, you know, at some point you you you can’t always protect them. But when you got a guy that’s 41, 42, whatever he is, you know, the first couple of weeks he was taking a lot of hits, probably a lot of hits that you didn’t want to see him take, to be honest. And I think that’s a problem. I do. I think that’s a problem. You want him to be healthy. You want him to be in a place where he’s healthy. And that’s where you got to protect him as much as you can protect him. Period. So that’s the first thing protecting Aaron Rogers to make sure he’s healthy at the end of the year. You know that he that he hasn’t taken too many hits. And at his age, take too many hits, it can become a problem. you want to make sure he’s healthy. The second thing is if you run the ball, guess what’s going to happen? Teams are going to have to bring their safeties up. Teams are going to have to try and load the box or do whatever they have to do. And guess what? That’s going to open up the vertical passing game. So, you know, to me, I think you I I I think some people are looking at it as, well, this is, you know, sort of a real elementary uh kind of offense they’re running. And in some ways it has been, but I have seen progressions. And I think that’s important. You get a little better and a little bit tougher every single weekend uh to defend period. And that’s where it is when it comes to what the Steelers are trying to do. And that’s to me one of the biggest things this week when you’re you’re playing against a guy like Miles Garrett. You got to basically be aware that, you know, he’s probably going to have a a few opportunities to hit your quarterback. And Aaron Rogers talked about, hey, I got to get the ball out quick. I can’t take hits from this guy. And the other part of it is he’s disruptor. He’s very disruptive. Period. And since he’s very disruptive, he can force turnovers. I mean, he’s that good. So, I I’m just trying to, you know, look at it from that standpoint. I’m telling you, I think he is a guy who probably understands football better than anybody. And as a result of that, you know, I don’t believe for a second that he’s just trying to play it safe to play it safe. I think there’s a method to their madness. And I think there’s a method to what they’re trying to do. And I think they’re going to build on it and build on it and build on it and build on it. And I think you’ll start to see them take some shots down the field when the opportunity is there. That’s the biggest thing. Now, again, they’ve played with some personnel packages where they’ve had essentially seven linemen on the field. Uh and and part of that is I think because they are trying to make sure they can run the ball because if they can run the ball and dictate when they throw it now all of a sudden you can take those shots down the field. You can play action pass and take shots down the field. I mean I think the Browns defense is pretty good. Their offense stinks but I think their their defense is pretty good. So, you know, it could be a little bit of a grind at some point in this game just because I think what the Browns do well is going to challenge the Steelers. But I do believe this, the Browns like to bring a lot of pressure. The Browns like to basically try and, you know, stop the run and get after the quarterback and they’re willing to take some chances on the back end. when they do that, that’s when you have to take advantage of being able to throw the ball down the field. And so, you know, I I don’t think that the theory that, you know, they’re not throwing it down the field because, you know, Aaron Rogers can’t make those throws anymore. I don’t think that’s true at all. As I said before, I think they have two missions in this early part of the season. One, obviously, is to get the offense going. Two, I think is also an important thing, and that is get the running game going. And three, and this is probably something that some of you think is secondary, but shouldn’t be, they’ve got to protect Aaron Rogers and make sure he’s still upright. Make sure that he is still upright at the end of the year because that’s where it comes down to in in my mind at least, that’s what it comes down to. be upright at the end of the at the end of it all. So now, you know, we go from there. Um, you look at basically what the Steelers have done to try and uh, you know, to try and unleash their offense. They haven’t done a ton yet, but they’re going to. I don’t believe that we’ve se, you know, that we’re seeing what the offense is. I don’t believe it. And I think that’s where, you know, it comes to, you know, what are you going to do basically? How are you going to do it? And what are you going to do? And one of it is you got to run the ball. Two, you’ve got to make sure that you can protect Aaron Rogers so that he can throw the ball and everything else. Period. I think that’s where we’re at with it. And I think that’s where you have to really think about it from that standpoint. It’s really difficult. Um if you can’t build on what you’re doing. So yeah, I get it. I understand why people think, oh well, this is, you know, uh this is a um elementary offense and all that stuff. I’d be very careful to say that because I think that what they’re doing is setting it up so that it can be a very multiaceted offense that teams have to worry about. Um, and that’s, you know, that’s the key, I think, with the Steelers right now. You look at uh tonight, you’ve got football tonight and of course Thursday night football. If you can find the game, of course, it’s the Eagles and the Giants. Eagles are minus 7 and a half. It’s in New York. Overund’s 40 and a half to me. Uh if you and and and the thing about it is go to your FanDuel app. Make sure that you download the FanDuel app if you don’t already have it. And you can bet every sing every way you want to bet. You can bet. Go to the FanDuel app, bet on the game, you can bet player props, you can bet on, you know, the teams. You can bet on uh uh the overunder. You can parlay it with, you know, maybe an NFL a college football game tonight. Um you can parlay it with maybe one of the baseball games tonight, you know, and you go from there. But you can do so many different things when it comes to your FanDuel app in terms of betting that there’s no reason if you want to bet, there’s no reason not to download it, not to figure out where you’re betting and what you’re betting and making sure um that you you do it on your FanDuel app. Uh so go to FanDuel.com. Obviously, in baseball, last night we had the end of the Yankees. And we now have the Phillies against the Dodgers. Phillies need to win to keep that series going. Cubs against the Brewers. The uh Brew Cubs need to win to keep that series going. And then I think tomorrow night we’ll have Seattle against the Tigers. You can bet on baseball as well. Every single way you want to bet, you can bet on baseball. And so to me, there’s no reason not to go to your FanDole app. In fact, uh I’m looking at it here. Um tonight, you’ve got the Brewers and the Cubs. Milwaukeee’s up 2-1 and the Dodgers are up uh 2-1. And the Dodgers have a familiar ma name on the mound, and that would be Tyler Glass. Now, remember him? Um, just another spectacular example of just how bad the Pirates have been at developing eyes, keeping them around because Tyler Glasnoff, if you remember, was involved in one of the worst trades you’ll ever see. Uh, yesterday we had Jame Tyion playing. Uh, he w he’s he was against Quinn Perster. Quinn Pster didn’t do so well in the in the game. Didn’t even make it through the first inning. Uh that’s the Quinn Pster we we know and love. But the fact that he was in the rotation for the playoffs tells you everything you need to know about, you know, what they think of him and what he’s been for them this year. Uh either way, you can bet on baseball, you can bet on football. Uh this weekend there’s a slate of games uh that are kind of interesting. Obviously, the Broncos against the Jets. I don’t know that that’s really that big of a deal except for the Jets stink. And the Broncos are coming off a pretty big win against Philadelphia, but they need to validate it by beating a bad team. If they do, then I think they become a serious threat uh in terms of a wild card. The Colts to me have been maybe the most impressive team in football, but again, um you know, they play a bad team at home, the Cardinals, and they’ve need to they need to figure out how to win that game. Uh the Chargers are reeling a little bit. They they’re beat up. Their offensive line isn’t beat up. They play a bad team and they have a chance to get back in in in into the middle of it. The Patriots are the toast of the town because they beat the Bills, but guess what? They play a bad team and the Saints. So, all of these teams have a chance to validate themselves, including the Steelers who play the Browns, a bad team. Uh, that’s what’s interesting about this weekend. Jags, you know, the Jaguars are coming off a huge win against Kansas City. Let’s see if they can do it again. They’re at home against Seattle. I don’t know that Seattle’s great, but I also know that Seattle’s pretty good. They’re decent. Uh so that’ll be a a real difficult game for them. The Ravens, I mean, their backs are against the wall. They have to win. They absolutely have to win. Raiders, uh you know, Titans, who cares? The Bengals have Joe Flacco going against Green Bay. If the Bengals, you know, uh they probably can afford to lose one or two more, but they’re they’re to the point where they need to start winning. Uh it’s just one of those weekends where you’ve got a lot of bad teams playing a lot of good teams. Got two Monday night games. You got, you know, uh the Lions and the Chiefs is an interesting Sunday night game. The Chiefs are suddenly in a place where they have to win. Uh the NFL to me this year is going to be week to week lots of surprises. That’s what it looks like to me. I don’t know who’s good and who’s not good from week to week, but with all the injuries that are going on right now, uh the standings are what they are right now could change completely, you know, next week or the week after. Uh it’s just I think a year where there’s a lot of parody, you know, just when we think a certain team is like really good and going to run away with things, all of a sudden they fall apart. Uh the Steelers to me, however, have a really good road this week against, you know, the Browns here. They’re playing Dylan Gabriel. I think it’s amazing. Someone tweeted this and I think it’s absolutely amazing. We talked yesterday about just how stupid the Browns are, but here’s the most amazing thing about the Browns right now. Currently, they are paying eight quarterbacks. I just don’t know how you’re able to accomplish that. Now, of course, Deshawn Watson’s 35.9 million. They’re paying Jameus Winston still 2.2 million. Dylan Gabriel’s making 1.1 million. Joe Flacco, they got to pay another million. Shader Sanders basically a million. And then they got Zappy. Dorian Thompson Robinson is still going to make some money. and Kenny Picket. They actually still owe 8,0002. I’m not sure. As I said yesterday, there’s a more bumbling, idiotic organization than the Browns. Not one. I mean, I don’t know how you do that. But here’s the other thing that’s starting to get silly. Um, okay. Here’s the other thing is starting to get silly. Okay. and that is this criticism this criticism of the Browns because they haven’t made or declared Shadura Sanders the backup and instead they might go with Bailey Zappy is absolutely stupid. Okay, stupid. I it’s just the you’ve got a guy, okay, in Bailey Zappy who has started and won and played in multiple NFL games. You entered the week thinking you had a veteran backup in Joe Flacco and they traded him out from underneath you. So now you’re going to go this season with, you know, with respect to uh you’re going to go into this season, I’m sorry, you’re going to go into this week with two rookies. That doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense to me if you don’t if you have an option where you don’t necessarily need a rookie, honestly. And to me, the Browns aren’t going to come to Pittsburgh with a rookie starter and then have to go, well, you know what? If he gets hurt, the other rookie, we’re going to put him in. I don’t think that’s what they want to do. I think it’s a tough spot to put a rookie in, honestly. So, I feel like when we talk about this stuff, okay, I feel like this, it’s really important for them, the Browns, I mean, to have a guy who has a little bit of experience in case Dylan Gabriel falls apart, in case he gets hurt. That’s what I’m going to tell you. And I think that when you look at it from that standpoint, somebody please explain to me why it’s this big outrage that Sidor Sanders is not going to be the backup against the Steelers this week. If he is, if he is, then that’s fine. But it seems to me like Kevin Stfansky would like to have a little bit of experience. And again, Belly Zappy isn’t great, but he’s played multiple NFL games, right? He’s started multiple NFL games. He’s been in the league, what is this, year four for him. He’s won some games as a starter. And it makes perfect sense. Here’s the other thing, and I know a lot of this happened under Dick Leau’s watch, but have you ever happened to see what the Steelers record against rookie quarterbacks is under Mike Tomlin? It’s kind of ridiculous to be honest. It’s kind of kind of ridiculous. Um, he doesn’t lose. He he really doesn’t lose to rookies, but Bailey Zappy’s played in 15 games. He’s four and five as a starter. He’s not great, but he’s a guy at least has been there and knows kind of what to do, period. And I think that’s where this whole thing with Sugar Sanders is silly. People are so angry about it, it doesn’t even make sense, honestly. You know what I’m saying? That’s just the way it is. And I feel like that’s important. Like when all of these discussions about Shader Sanders go on, most of them are are done with narratives and not reality. Reality is if I was Kevin Stfansky and I lost my only veteran quarterback out of the room and I had a chance to get another guy who at least has some experience to put him as my backup so that I can put him in the game. I have to because he’s seen it before and he’s done it before. You know what? I’m probably going to do that. Probably not going I’m probably not coming to Pittsburgh in what is a must-win game for the Browns if you think about it. probably not coming to Pittsburgh with two rookies as my quarterbacks. Just doesn’t make sense. So, we’ll see how that plays out. But to me, I think that’s an important part of the context of that discussion. You have to understand he wants to have a little bit of experience at that position. Period. I think it’s so important. I just do. So, um I feel like we are now, you know, at at a place where the narrative has gotten so stupid um that it hurts my head. It just does. Um anyway, it’s also now uh basically hockey season. The Penguins started the other night with a win. Um, listen, I think the most exciting thing about the Penguins is this. I just don’t know what you’re going to get day after day. When they play tonight, our home opener, who knows what could happen tonight. Who knows? That’s where we’re at. Um, they have some young guys that are fun. I think that when you look at what they were able to do, it’s the most structured or disciplined I’ve seen them play in a long, long time, but we’ve seen them do that before for stretches of games. And then they get out of line because the old guys want to play a certain way. So, it’s sort of a game-to-ame thing with them if you ask me. It really is. And I feel that’s important really. So, now you go from there and you basically say, um, let’s just see what happens and how it goes. So, here we go. Wait. Per NFL regarding, this is Jerry Dulac. Per the NFL regarding Browns quarterback situation, Bailey Zappy, player cannot be elevated from the practice squad to give a team an emergency third quarterback. The team can sign a player from its practice squad to give a team an emergency third quarterback. I don’t even know what that means. I think it’s basically saying that he can’t be elevated from the practice squad to third quarterback, which is why he’s being elevated to second quarterback. It’s just kind of ridiculous to me. Again, you got to be able to play. And if you ask me, you got to be able to you got to have a veteran guy who’s able to play. And um it just to me I I I kind of have to laugh when it all fall, you know, falls out. Um maybe Shadira Sander, maybe should Sanders is going to be a good NFL quarterback. Can we just let it all happen naturally? By the way, uh Ryan Clark, you know, put his foot in his mouth again, which is not a surprise. He’s a guy who basically is just I don’t know says crazy things for no reason at all and then when he does he usually has to or recently at least has to issue an apology. Uh it’s happened three times now in recent weeks where he’s basically shot his mouth off about something, right? Then had to figure out, okay, wow, uh maybe I need to uh back up. This latest one was that, you know, Kieran Lacy, the LSU kid, um, you know, there was some talk that, oh well, you know, cuz his lawyer put something out there that, oh well, you know, he was innocent and everything else and it wasn’t his fault and everything else, yada yada. Good. And then Ryan Clark says, “Well, he was innocent. He was innocent. And you know, Lacy, of course, shot himself basically because he knew he was in big trouble because he caused a crash and let hit and run and it caused a death. And Ryan Clark says, “Oh, well, he’s innocent.” Well, guess what? The police then re then the police released a video that said, “Um, well, here’s what happened. You be the judge.” and it’s pretty clear he was not innocent. He’s had a number of different idiotic things that he said uh in recent weeks. To me, this is the problem with hottake culture. This is the problem with all of these hottake networks right here. Guys are trying too hard to be heard and not really waiting to measure what they have to say. Ryan Clark to me is exactly that in a nutshell. Uh game’s always on in Archies. Get down to Archie. Archie’s home of 80 cent wings Monday through Thursday. Home of the Paul’s Ice Grilled Cheese Sandwich. So get down to Archie’s 80centent wings Monday through Thursday. Tell Archie I sent you. Adam and I will be on after the game Sunday. We’ll wrap it all up. But until then, uh enjoy your day, enjoy your night, and have a good day. [Music] Thank you for checking out this content from PostGazette Sports. If you watch this video on YouTube, please like the video and subscribe to our channel. For all the sports coverage the Postgazette has to offer, visit post-gazette.com. [Music]