Many Green Bay Packers fans have October 26 circled on the calendar. It’s the first and likely final opportunity for Aaron Rodgers to face his former franchise before closing his Hall of Fame career.
But, of course, that’s assuming all goes right in Pittsburgh with the 41-year-old quarterback plugged into a team with a plethora of new faces and a mountain of question marks. It should be an exciting game no matter what, prison-stripe uniforms and all.
But even if the Steelers are doing what they seemingly always do, skirting by with a barely above .500 record, a non-zero percent of Packers fans want to see Rodgers playing to the best of his abilities in a loss to his former team on that Sunday night in Pittsburgh.
Recent reports out of Steelers training camp indicate that that could be too tall an ask out of Pittsburgh’s offense. A unit that has been anemic for years has reportedly been stonewalled from displaying strides toward improvements through camp, according to The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo.
Aaron Rodgers might not be enough to fix Pittsburgh’s offensive mess
DeFabo’s Monday report suggests that Pittsburgh’s problems aren’t all Rodgers’ fault, but they all point to why he won’t be successful in his last hurrah in Western PA. DeFabo honed in on four key aspects of the offense holding Rodgers and company back: a poor run game, an inexperienced offensive line, a void at WR2, and an out-of-sync vertical attack.
These are all things that were known about the Steelers’ offense heading into the season. The offensive line has 14 years of combined playing experience, and nine belong to one player, left guard Isaac Seumalo. The left tackle, Broderick Jones, has been in the league for two years, but has spent them on the right side. The right tackle, Troy Fautanu, missed his entire rookie season.
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Speaking of missing rookie seasons, Roman Wilson, a third-round receiver last year, missed his. He’s battling with fellow speedy receiver Calvin Austin III for the right to be called the No. 2 receiver. Austin has just 53 catches in nine starts in his short career.
It’s no wonder things don’t look great in Pittsburgh. The New York Jets showed in two years that you can’t just add Rodgers and a bunch of big names to the roster and get 2020 Tom Brady-Tampa Bay results. Even if it isn’t all Rodgers’ fault, it’s clear the Steelers are going to experience some growing pains with him heading up their offense in 2025.
Still, the overall feeling in Pittsburgh is that the training camp struggles for the offense have just as much to do with how talented the defense is. The secondary additions of Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay, while aged, are still impressive on paper, especially paired with rising star Joey Porter Jr. Regardless, it’s not exactly surprising for a team with a great defense to wonder if its offense is bad or if the defense is just that good.
That said, Packers fans have seen this song and dance from Rodgers before in his previous stop in New York. It’s not as bad as it looks, until it is. Maybe the six games Pittsburgh plays before they host Green Bay will be enough to get Rodgers and his offense into gear ahead of the historic matchup.
