Is Aaron Rodgers (actually) Washed?

Is Aaron Rodgers (actually) Washed?

Aaron Rodgers joining the Steelers on just a one-year contract at 41 years old is the story of the 2025 NFL offseason. On one side of the coin, the Steelers just added one of the five best quarterbacks of all time to a contending roster with solid surrounding talents, a great coach and organization. But on the other side, you could say Rogers hasn’t been good in three years. His final season with the Packers, torn Achilles, and last year with the Jets. So today we’ll dive into really the only thing that matters. Is he washed or can he still perform at a high level in his last season ever? Last year the Jets finished 5 and 12. His stats appeared better than they felt, but to me Rogers and the Jets failure was primarily due to the dysfunction of New York’s organization and culture rather than Rogers struggling play. I did a video last season criticizing the Jets for not running an actual offense, an actual scheme, but more of a collection of plays. This offense did not feel at all cohesive in any way. It felt like Rogers took over, was just trying to get Garrett Wilson and Devonte Adams in one-on-one ISO matchups every single down, which works on five or 10 plays a game. But in the NFL, you win due to your advanced strategy and scheme. You have to set up a defense to consistently create successful plays and a high functioning offense. Rogers, if allowed, is going to run his plays, his style of offense, which is go balls one-on-one over and over. Hello, DK Metaf. A lot of quick game where you can diagnose the defense before the snap and get the ball out quickly. And then a lot of screens where he has what I call the Devonte screen where it’s, oh, the defense is off at the line. were either audibling or trying to run the Devonte screen. The Rogers offense is high efficiency, low risk, explosive plays are coming from perfectly thrown fades or ripping off big-time yak on screens. But if the quarterback is dictating the offense, at the end of the day, you will be bad. You can’t win on just go’s quick game and screens, which is why Matt Laflur had to blend in elements of his own offense to add to the Rogers offense. and Aaron had a career renaissance winning back-to-back MVPs at age 37 and 38. But with Nathaniel Hackett and tow in New York, Rogers knew he could control him instead of respect him. Rogers just did what he wanted and the results were at best disappointing. Their offense became extremely predictable. As I said, Rogers lives on fades. And against one high man coverage, you want the slot fade every time because you have just the one high safety who can’t get over the top to help. The receiver has more space cuz he’s in the slot. The cornerback is typically more worried about a quick slant beating him over the middle cuz that could turn into six. So there’s usually a ton of room for Devonte to work here. But you can see Garrett Williams playing way off at the snap. He also has help inside. So he knows that if he thinks what’s coming, the slot fade happens. He can just bust ass deep. And there’s no room for the legendary Rogers Devonte deep fade connection. Rogers knew what plays he wanted to run. He thinks the game at arguably the highest level any quarterback ever has. But because of the dysfunction of the Jets organization, there was a lack of coordination on the offense. So way too often, Rogers wasn’t on the same page as receivers, even Devonte. And that’s because the coaching staff failed this offense. Yes, Rogers picks the plays, but there are rules on each play that Hackett and his staff need to install. If this guy’s inside, you go here. If he’s outside, then you go here. The Jets were one of the least coordinated offenses in the league. Against cover zero, Rogers knows he’s going to get a free rusher since the Cardinals are blitzing more than the Jets have in protection. They’re sacrificing having a deep safety, so it’s just one-on-one man coverage. And cover zero is a perfect situation to analyze how on the same page an offense is. It doesn’t really have much to do with the quality of the quarterback’s arm or the receivers’s route running or even the protection. It’s all about if your offense can execute a choreographed dance. But instead of hinging outside away from the defender like Rogers expects Devonte to, Devonte sits down and you can see how frustrated Garrett Wilson is. This was the wrong adjustment or altogether the wrong play. The Cardinals ran cover zero four times on the day and the Jets had consistent issues getting on the same page to where they could execute against it. This is a play I broke down last time where it’s cover zero so Rogers has to get rid of it quick where the Jets are running a mirrored concept in hos FJ which has two seams and two curls. But watch how Tyler Conklin runs his curl just a little further than Bree Hall does. So that detail is missing. And because of the blitz, Rogers expects Conklin to hinge a bit outside as well. Since each cornerback plays inside leverage and cover zero since there are no deep safeties or rat linebackers over the middle, the defense wants to protect the inside to force a longer throw outside. So Rogers knows the quarterback will be ready to jump anything quick since he knows the ball has to come out quick against a free runner, which is why Rogers expects Conklin to hinge outside, which doesn’t happen. When defenses find your weakness, they’re just going to keep running the same stuff over and over, attacking the same problem area. And as I said, the Cardinals kept dialing up cover zero. The problem here is that smart quarterbacks like Rogers bring in extra protection against this type of blitz. And I’m a fan of when defenses add the guy covering the protection man onto the rush. But since the Cardinals don’t do that, the Jets do have enough in protection. It’s seven for seven now, so a hat on a hat. But Morgan Moses gets confused and blocks Conklin’s guy. It’s possible he didn’t even hear Rogers or see Conklin coming in for the protection. So Breeze Hall blocks who he’s supposed to block if Conklin’s not there, which leaves Buddha Baker wide open to take Rogers from behind. Now that I’ve showed you how most of the Jets offensive struggles came down to the Jets dysfunction, not Rogers, I’ll isolate him as best I can, and say that I believe he played pretty well. His arm is still just as strong. He lost a little bit of accuracy. He’d missed just one or two more throws per game that he typically used to hit, but overall, I am confident that he will be good in Pittsburgh. I really like this play where he sees it’s one high safety and knows he has this scissors concept which is more of a two high safety beater. Typically it beats two high cuz the safety and cornerback follow the post and the corner comes open. But against just one high the corner just runs into the cornerback. The post the safety. So Rogers knowing that starts his progression with Devonte who gets pressed to the line. This moves Darnell Savage off his spot from the middle of the field just a little. So Rogers sneaks one by him up the seam for a touchdown. Then later in the game, you can see the Jags trying to disguise that same one high coverage. But at the snap, they drop into Tampa two zone two high coverage with a middle linebacker running up the pole. But Rogers can still rip absolute seeds anywhere on the field and connects on a bomb straight down the field. These are promising Rogers plays. I think he’s still got it. I think he’s not washed. But as I said, Jets or no Jets, he’s still going to run his style of offense. He doesn’t like throwing over the middle. I know, I know. We just saw those two plays, but he never throws to the intermediate middle area, and that’s actually a huge part of Arthur Smith’s offense. Rogers has never liked it cuz that’s where the most passes are intercepted. A safety or linebacker could pop into the window out of nowhere at any moment. But it’s also the part of the field where there’s the most yak potential, where QB rating is the highest. If you’ve ever watched non- elite quarterbacks play in Kyle Shanahan system, you’ll see the ball consistently flying through the middle intermediate part of the field. Even if Rogers wanted to hold the ball longer to get it to the middle, the Jets offensive line was literally not NFL quality. Another reason why last season wasn’t as much Rogers fault. The line had old veterans filling key spots, coordination issues where guys were mixed up on their assignments, or even schematic issues where the coaches put their guys in unfair situations. Here, the Jets are using a fiveman scat protection, which you usually don’t see against six-man mugged fronts, which is when there are two linebackers sitting in each a gap. That’s because first, if everybody comes, you have a free runner six on five. And second, you usually have a running back helping on one of the two linebackers to make sure you don’t have a free runner up the middle. Or if you slid everybody to one side to take care of the middle, you don’t have a running back on a big defensive end. Well, the Jets don’t have a running back helping at all. Their plan is to slide three to the right, three for three, but then have John Simpson and backup right tackle Max Mitchell sit inside to protect the A gap, but then also shift outside for the other two coming. So, you’re saying to Mitchell, okay, if all three come, you take Ed Oliver and Rogers has a free runner. But if just two come, you have to be prepared for all three to come. Also, block AJ Eanessa if all three don’t. It’s an impossible situation for any left tackle, let alone a backup right tackle. And once again, the Jets were just not a very coordinated offense. That’s why the entire discussion around Rogers has gotten muddled. And unless you’re grinding the film like we did today, it’s really hard to know how good or how bad he was last season. I think he’s stepping into a much more stable organization with a much better coach, a better O line. He doesn’t have somebody as good as Garrett Wilson or doesn’t have an old buddy like Devonte, but the Steelers at least have enough around him where the offense could be good. It is so difficult to tell how good a quarterback is when they’re with a bad franchise. And that’s why we’ve seen bad franchises tank promising young rookies time and time again. I’m not saying Rogers is the same Rogers of old, but we got to see what a still very good quarterback looks like in a very bad situation. You can’t excel if your offensive line doesn’t stand a chance or if your receivers aren’t on the same page as you, it’s as simple as that. But now that Rogers is with a real organization with an actually coordinated offense, I’m not saying the Steelers are going to win the Super Bowl, but I believe we’re going to see a much better Aaron Rodgers in the last dance of his career. [Music]

Aaron Rodgers is heading into his final season in the NFL, and many are wondering from last year: is he washed? Rodgers and the New York Jets struggled in 2024 finishing just 5-12, and now the 41 year old takes over in Pittsburgh to see if he still has something left in the tank. The real question is: does he? This week’s episode uses the coaches all 22 game film to analyze if Aaron Rodgers is washed, or if he will excel with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2025.

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Music:
🔷 Intro: Cyril Nikitin “Epic Movie Trailer Main”
🔷 Yondo Beats “Morning Sun”
🔷 Outro: OneTone Beats “Deception”

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