Rich Eisen Breaks Down the Steelers’ Chances to Be Legit Contenders This Season

Listen, I gotta be honest with everybody here. Usually are. Thank you for saying that. Although I take offense at the word usually. You have a solid reputation. I appreciate it. Okay. Listen. Usually, listen, listen, listen. For the most part, I like being u nuanced. I like being uh occasionally snarky. Okay. You know, I can get out there. No, but more than anything else, do I like being right do I like being right and went? No, listen. I deserve this victory lap that I’m about to take. I deserve it. Sorry, Nipy. You know I deserve it because when the world the free football world was going nuts about TJ Watt’s contract and how the Steelers and TJ Watt aren’t on the same page and it got out there that they’re not on the same page and that led to a bunch of shows like this one or hold on a minute a bunch of shows that compete with this one, you know, or in the same mosh pit out of other time slots. Television, they don’t have to be on the radio. We’re we’re in a deep end of a pool here in sports talk and entertainment and pop culture talk. We’re in a deep end of the pool. We’re we we love being there. But I bring it up because there were some spots that were like, where are the best places for TJ Watt to wind up? He’s going to get traded. How is this really going to work? And I was saying the entire time, he’s going nowhere. He’s going nowhere. They’re going to pay him the average annual salary that he’s going to want and he’s going to be a Steeler and that’s going to be the end of it. And what happened when I was out of the chair? I was, you know, happily out of the chair cuz you guys were handling things so expertly. Almost wanted to call in or phone in or zoom in or whatever the hell just to say what I’m saying now. I’m like, you know what, Rich? You’ll be just as accurate in saying the golden words on Monday. You don’t have to say it. You don’t have to zoom in on Friday. You don’t have to do that. Stay by your phone, man. I may need you. The words are, “I told you so. I told you so.” He’s going nowhere. He’s going nowhere. and forget about the end of this deal. If he’s already having diminishing returns and they’re going to they’re going to lament it when he’s 33 34 and he’s maybe dragging their cap down. They’ll figure something out. Or maybe he’ll be a stupendous 33 34y old pass rusher for the Steelers. It does not matter one bit right now when you commit to Aaron Rodgers at his advanced age for basically one shot at making the playoffs and ending their long playoff drought for a win and getting deep into the playoffs and giving the Steelers a a a Super Bowl worthy team that doesn’t fall apart when November hits or begin to fall apart. part when December hits just to limp into the playoffs and get one and done. If you say Rogers is the guy who’s going to help us get past that, you do not play monetary footsie with TJ Watt. You just don’t. you pay them and you get them in and you do it so when training camp hits all everybody’s gonna do is just get better. And you know what? The number of people I heard in Green Bay when we were waiting on Rogers to finally decide what he’s going to do and he didn’t do that before the draft and he didn’t do it in May and kept everybody waiting till June for the inevitable. I thought if he wanted to continue playing football that he would show up for the Steelers. Okay, I get it. Everybody was saying he’s just this, he’s that, he’s not in he’s not in he’s not all in as a a person and a Steeler and all that sort of stuff. You don’t want his drama and all that sort of stuff. Cam Hayward was on this program last week when Seth Rollins was in this chair. And Cam, if you recall, we had our phone with Cam when he came on this program after he was on his own podcast saying stuff like, “Hey, if you don’t want to be a Steeler, didn’t you stay the hell at home?” I know that’s verbatim. I know that cuz he he was like, “Wait a minute. I wasn’t being critical of Rogers.” And I’m like, “Oh, really? No, you weren’t, huh? We’re having fun.” But you could hear he was being he was he was irritated. Yeah. Okay. He’s irritated because he’s at the, you know, he’s towards the end of his career, too, now. playing at an extremely high level. You can only imagine what it would take for for him to continue to work on his body to make sure he can play all 17, right? So, he wanted Rogers in. The whole idea is that Rogers is going to come in and he’s going to put his feet up and everybody else is going to have to cater to his whims or he wants on a team or all that sort of stuff because of what we saw at the end of his tenure in Green Bay when we saw with him with the Jets. Well, this was an interesting exchange that caught my ear when Seth and Cam had the conversation about Rogers and what Rogers has been like in his first blush moments as a Steeler. You guys landed your quarterback. I think the last time we talked, you had you had nobody throwing the ball. You had no one under center. I was I think I might have made a remark or two about that. And now you got uh you got all AR. So, and and he he said it’s his final season. It sounds like sounds like it. You know, if all things go the way we want, you know, we might have to beg him to come back for more. But, uh, we got the text in a couple days before he signed and then he text me and was like, “Hey, can I come out to your golf event and then come out? I would host a a family barbecue for, you know, players and their families.” And he was like, “Hey, can I just attend?” And I was like, “Hell yeah.” Um, and we just got to chopping it up and it it just felt like he was bought in and you know, it worked out for the best. Like I I I I know sometimes we live in a a a society where we want things now. Um, but you know, patience has a way of, you know, paying off and u to now see he’s a Pittsburgh Steeler and just walk him walking through the locker room asking questions how we do things. um he’s bought in and you know that’s all I can ask for you know our quarterback um and as a teammate you know I’m excited to go to work with him obviously he’s not going to ask towards the end of his Green Bay tenure or at any point in his Green Bay tenure um once he took the reigns there years and years ago how we do things here they do things the way he did them. I mean that was famous in the piece that came out I believe in Bleacher Report that he was you know going rogue on some McCarthy ideas right in game during the week and then you know the hand signal stuff the hand signals the way that I do it kids keep up. Yeah. Then he goes to the Jets. Nobody nobody was telling him the way they did things there because guess what? They were saying, “Hey Aaron, how do you do things? We kind of need you to tell us how you do things in Pittsburgh.” He’s asking how they do things. Totally different. I heard that. I’m like, “Okay, guys.” And he might sit there and hear a conversation like this and go, “Well, that’s the way I am.” Okay. From the outside world, there are some who believe he is not. That’s not his default. His default is not to defer. It’s to infer that you think something ill of him. And so it appears he’s when I heard that I’m like, “Okay, this can work out. Just get healthy. Be healthy and see what happens with that run game. Will the run game be able to hold up? Right. And who’s going to catch the ball from him? And on top of it, can he stay healthy? And the Steelers schedule is off the charts. One mustsee game after another. It’s what? And the fact that he was going to come to the Steelers, everybody thought it this no question the NFL schedule makers did. That’s why they put him against the Jets in week one. And then DK Metaf’s former team is the one that comes in to kick off their home schedule visiting New England. He for two of his first three games are against his old mates in the AFC East and then his fourth game in Ireland is the beginning of his farewell tour to his old division that he dominated for over a decade plus. And then my god, in division games, twice with Miles Garrett coming for him. Twice against Cincinnati. That Green Bay game on a Sunday night, week eight. Holy crap. Over and over. Buffalo on the list. Come on. AFC North most compelling division in football, period. Going into 2025. Catch the Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from 12 to 3:00 p.m.

Rich Eisen breaks down the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season outlook with Aaron Rodgers in the fold and TJ Watt signed to a contract extension.

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20 comments

  1. People outside the Steelers organization and fandom don't realize that the Steelers always try to keep their greats in one uniform. Troy Polamalu, Jack Lambert, Big Ben, Terry Bradshaw, Hines Ward, Casey Hampton, etc. All these dudes rocked the black and yellow their whole career. There was absolutely no way the Steelers were going to trade TJ Watt.

  4. I would like for one pundit or fan to tell me what was 1 game Mike T out coached anyone? Ever Since Dick retired Tomlin and his defensive play calling has lost every playoff game. We lost to Tim Tebow and couldn't get to the super bowl with the Killer B's. And you think signing the geriatric ward of the NFL is going to get us to the SB? The standard is the standard. don't have a losing season that is it.

  6. Wait… are we really pretending a 40-year-old Rodgers with injury baggage is the savior of the Steelers?! This smells like another ‘Super Bowl or bust’ delusion waiting to implode. Prove me wrong.

  8. One clear advantage with Rodgers is defenses will no longer be able to just cover outside and deep. Cause he's definitely gonna be throwing over the middle. Haven't had a QB in Pittsburgh do that with any regularity since Ben !

  9. Can’t wait for this team to falter so we can stop hyping them up, basically the East Coast cowboys at this point.
    Seeing aaron finish off his career with mediocre performances will be a great payoff to the terrible person he has become

  11. Rich ur the only one in ur buissness 2 say that great job Steelers fans knew he was going no where watt is a steeler till the end!!😅😅

  14. Unpopular opinion but id rather them start slow maybe drop 2-3 games and hash out the miscommunications early than be 7-2 and the wheels fall off the ladder end of the season.

  16. “Do the Steelers have a chance to be legitimate contenders this season?” Uhhh, Yes! They’ve been legitimate contenders for years. They just can’t seem to find that One Piece. Honestly, the QB has been that piece since Ben retired. Not sure Rodgers is “that piece”, but they’re Still contenders. The simple fact they haven’t had a losing season in 20 years makes it Obvious.

  19. The Steelers offensive line must be playing well by the end of the season. The Steelers need to be on a winning streak at the end of the season with 3-4 games in a row when and if they make the playoffs. Rodgers can still be good but he can only carry a team so far by himself at his age. The running game has to be dominant to take time off the clock and rest the defense .

  20. I’m still waiting for Watt to win his first playoff game ever. Pretty basic ask from the highest paid defensive player ever now. Tomlin is a stale coach. He needs to go The Steelers will win 9 games and maybe sneak into the playoffs and get their buts kicked 45-10 in first round of playoffs by the Bills, Ravens or Chiefs. Not sure why Eisen loves Tomlin. He hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016. And that was only cause the bengals had the most epic collapse at the end of that game to had the Steelers the win.

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