Aaron Rodgers Media Availability (Aug. 12) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Aaron Rodgers Media Availability (Aug. 12) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Aaron, you said uh you you feel like these joint practices are more beneficial to you. What do you like about them? What are you looking forward to about this? I say that. Well, for the starters, yeah, cuz we don’t play in preseason a lot of times. Yeah. Uh you know, I think the thing you’re always hopeful for is there’s not a lot of fights. We went against uh Tampa a couple years ago and they had some veteran guys and it was pretty clean practice. So hoping for another clean practice with them, but it’s good to go against a different team. I think what I said was now that I’m remembering um and you get a chance to go against uh not vanilla defenses. So hopefully uh Todd, you know, he probably won’t show everything, but we’ll do some stuff that stresses our protection and give us a chance to get some film to work on. What are some of the things you took out of the first preseason game? Well, I mean, I’m just, you know, I’m just a silent observer, I think, for the for the most part, just watching the operation. And, uh, I can’t stay silent the entire time on the headset because I got to be the voice of reason sometimes. Although, felt like the headset was pretty clean. Um, you know, there’s not a lot of freaking out on there. Not a lot of people talking when they shouldn’t be talking. So, thought the operation was good. I thought Mason and the sky played fantastic. uh played great, made good decisions, were good with football, opportunistic, and like I said, you know, it’s different in the preseason. You know, it’s it’s football like it’s not always real football, but they brought some pressures against us late in the game and Sky did a nice job of hanging in there and hitting key for a great contestant catch touchdown. So, there were a lot of lot of great things on the film. The way we started the game, thought Mason was super efficient. Uh giving Darnell a big uh big body ball there in the in the red zone was great. You know, I think uh there’s always things to work on the details. Um especially with the second units were a little bit off, but I thought overall you scored 30, you don’t turn the ball over. Uh you really only have one sack cuz Mason’s taking the other one there on that one. Combination with KJ not getting out. I thought it was a pretty clean game. Aaron, it seems like the fluidity continues to improve with the first team offense out here. What’s leading to that? Well, I think I’m playing a little bit better. Um, you know, I feel comfortable on the offense and DK and I have been uh get on the same page a little more frequently, which uh which helps. But, um, you know, we’ve had we’ve had some injuries. Obviously, Calvin’s been out for a while, so we’d love to get him back, but gives opportunities for other guys. You know, I think, uh, I think Scotty’s done a really nice job, made a lot of plays for us. I think Roman’s starting to, you know, feel confident in what he’s doing. I love the tight ends. I think you’re getting a lot of production out of those guys. Again, with Johnny out, uh, one guy I’d love to single out is, uh, is Connor. I mean, Connor does the right thing every time. He’s a really smart football player, and the smartest players are the best players. So, he’s the kind of guy you feel real confident that you can put him in there at any time and and know he’s going to be on the same page. You said that you were sometimes a voice of reason on the headset. What does that sound like? What’s an instance when you would get on there? Well, sometimes people freak out on that and start uh yelling and screaming. Um or other times people are talking that shouldn’t be talking. Um but I’m I’m more of the comic relief on there I would say at least week one uh with some with some you know timely or illtimely jokes untimely I guess. But uh yeah I’ I’ve heard some freakouts in the past. How much did you get out of these weeks in Latroe? whether it’s the, you know, reps themselves or learning guys or even learning the fan base and that kind of thing from this whole experience. Mike Mike talks about it being things that you can’t uh measure. You know, the connections that happened here yesterday. We had a home run derby here. Um, and I was out in the hot sun just shagging shortstop for the most part bragging on Christian Coun for making a bunch of errors at the hot corner. Um, it’s just those those moments that you love. And as much as uh I look forward to my bed and and uh not having to worry about bed bugs at times, uh I I’ll miss uh I’ll miss this experience just cuz it’s really special to be able to make this walk down the hill every day and uh see the fans in the crowd even when it’s you know hot day like today is pretty special and you know have the times in the calf with the guys and you know find different guys get to know have lunch with and then you know the night times over the dorms where you’re talking football talking life playing cards whatever it playing video games. I didn’t, you forgot how to play video games, but I had to remember uh just to, you know, connect with those guys. I’ll definitely miss that. Do you make it a point about how Mike was a big draw for you signing here? I’m curious what your relationships was like before signing. Were there any memorable interactions maybe around the Super Bowl or any other previous interactions that stand out? No, not really around the Super Bowl. Uh just the one time we tried to catch him with 12 on the field and he called timeout pretty quick and I looked over him, they kind of nodded. I kind of nodded back. I’ve always respect them. I’ve talked to guys that played for the Steelers over the years, guys that we might have had after that or friends around the league and it’s just uh you know the stuff that you hear about is uh kind of the foundational stuff. Uh then you get to get to be here and see how he interacts in a meeting, how he leads it, how he’s on the practice field. Uh just his overall demeanor and confidence and swag is pretty special. Aaron, after the game in Jacksonville, I saw you walking off with TJ and Cam. How often are you talking to those guys and how much do you, you know, listen to them and get advice from them, too? Uh, all the time. I mean, I’m not trying to break up that bromance because anytime I rip on one of the two, the other one just takes us back really quick. So, uh, I really love and respect that friendship. It’s a cool one to watch. But, you know, I mean, I’m I’m older, so I gravitate to towards the old heads. And, uh, I just happen to find myself walking. You know, one of the weird things is I’m 21 years in the league. So, I’m over there. Who do I know on Jacksonville, you know, like I know Heath Farwell, the special teams coach. I played against him. I know Chad Morton, he was with us. Uh, and I’ve met Trevor a few times. I was kind of looking around going, you know, doing the Joe Biden like, uh, all right, well, I guess I don’t know anybody here, so I’m going to just walk off. And I found Cam and TJ walk next to them. You mentioned you gravitate toward the old heads, but do are you intentional about trying to stretch with different guys every day, whether it’s veterans, young guys, Dlinemen, outside linebackers. That’s one thing I’ve noticed this camp. Yeah, I mean that that is intentional. Um, you know, I’ve kind of found myself in like the fifth line over to the right anywhere from the like third to the seventh line, but uh I like to grab somebody new and and uh you know, just have a quick chat with them. uh you know so many times where I feel like the expectation is the leader got to be at the front of the line but you know sometimes to lead properly you have to serve you know and serving sometimes involves being at the back and sometimes when you’re at the back you can get a good view of what’s going on all the time get a bulk of the team but uh I don’t need to be out front the entire time when I’m here I want to I want to make connection with the guys and sometimes those guys hanging in the back are hanging in the back for a reason so those are the conversations I want to In your previous steps, were you out in front all the time? Is this something also? I’m always I’m always going around. I’m not I’m not super rigid about where I got to be. I got to be at the front of the line every time, you know, like we’re doing quarterback uh running back exchanges. And the first time I did and the quarterback, you want to take it with Jaylen every time? I said, “No.” I mean, part of that’s, you know, you get handouts to different players. The other part is I’m tired. I don’t even go back to front of the line after, you know, I just took two reps. You guys took one each, you know. But, uh, but again, I think that’s part of it. It’s just you got to get to know every man on the roster. Right now, we got 90. At some point, they’ll be 53 and 16 on the B squad. You know, you got to have a relationship with all those guys. So, you can’t just have a head nod and a, you know, wave every now and then. You get, it’s important to get to know them by name. And it makes it hard here at Pittsburgh because there’s no names in the back of jerseys. Uh, so you, you know, I’m always reintroducing myself, making sure I got somebody’s name, and you remembering somebody’s name is an important part of finding that connection. Two more. Two more. Aaron, what’s it like for you? Does everybody know? I mean, your reaction with the guys. I mean, you’re four time MVP, Hall of Famer. Do you get a are they kind of in awe for a quick second? Do you get that ever? I think in the beginning, yeah, there’s there’s some trepidation for sure, but uh you know, Mason was one of them. I had to really break him down. He was kind of [Music] He No, Mason’s been great. and he’s been one of my favorite guys from the minute I got here. But a lot of guys are are a little, you know, shy to maybe come up to you. So, you got to break the ice often with him. Uh, some of it’s just like going out and sitting next to him for lunch and they kind of go, “What the hell are you doing here? Having lunch? What are you doing here?” But I think that’s part of it. You got to find ways to break the ice with those guys. Last one. Last one. You had talked I think it was a mini camp about the helmet. You didn’t like what what you had. Yeah. I still don’t like it. Did you find No, I don’t like it. No, I’m trying to change. We’re in the process still. Looks like a damn spaceship out there. We got to change it. The face mask doesn’t fit the helmet cuz it’s an old face mask obviously just like I’m old. We’re trying to find the right helmet right

Aaron Rodgers spoke to the media on Tuesday, August 12

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