DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: The Rodgers ceiling

DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: The Rodgers ceiling

[Music] It’s easy to talk about what went right for Aaron Rogers in week one. To me, it’s that much more exciting to talk about what went wrong for him. Good morning to you. I am Dan Kavatovich of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Steelers presented by FanDuel. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you’re into hockey and/or baseball, I also offer daily shots of Penguins and Pirates in the same place that you found this. If you missed out on Rogers’s stats against the other Jets over the weekend, cumulative stats, 22 of 30 for 244 yards, four touchdowns, no picks, four official sacks for 26 yards and losses, a 136.7 QB rating. And so what could I possibly focus on that would have gone wrong aside from the sacks, which I think we all would agree had a lot less to do with Rogers than they did with Brick Jones. Well, let me put it this way. When the game was over, DK Medav said to me, “This is just the beginning.” And the implication therein is that not everything went right. Even though they got their 34 offensive points. Even though they came up big with 17 of those in the fourth quarter. Even though Metcaf had four catches, Calvin Austin had four catches. Ben Scoranic with a touchdown. Pat Frymouth threw some big catches. John Smith with a big touchdown play. and Rogers himself of course being accurate except for one brief flurry in the second half that you might recall where things were kind of misfiring for him. Otherwise, everything was where it needed to be. The decisions were what they needed to be and the intangibles. I know people aren’t wild about hearing too much about intangibles because it can come across as kind of hokey, but the way he carried himself, things went wrong for this football team. And you could just see from his body language, from his arm motions, his presence at the line of scrimmage where this team was finding its own cool and calm. So, what could in fact be an upgrade over what we just saw? Well, plenty. I’m not going to invest yet another episode in poor Brick. He spoke yesterday after practice on the southside about recognizing that he didn’t play well, things that he has to do to get better. Rogers commendably tried to take some of that heat off him by saying that he ran into a couple sacks, which actually could be argued, and that he really likes Broad and that he respects him and all that stuff that a quarterback has to say about the guy protecting his derriè, or at least being assigned to protect his derriè. But here’s the thing. Rogers had this day despite the line having that day. And when those guys did do their jobs, which they did occasionally, he was unbelievable. 20 of 25 for 196 yards and three of his four touchdowns. Going to read that to you again. 20 out of 25 with a clean pocket for 196 yards and three touchdowns. That, my friends, isn’t exactly straying from character. Rogers is, as we speak, the all-time leader in quarterback rating with a clean pocket. He’s ahead of Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, everybody who’s ever played the position when he’s allowed to just perform without being threatened. I’m not about to suggest that that’s going to happen Sunday against the Seahawks because that would require a really dramatic reversal from broad in particular, but it’s certainly hope for a lot more in the near-term future. Throw another one at you. Because Rogers has always been so effective at play action, how much do you think it would help him to have a running game, a real one? Now, that involves the line of course as well, but he might also be better off if Jaylen Warren starts getting more snaps than Kenny Gainwell did. Jaylen carried 11 times for 37 yards in New Jersey. That was a 3.4 average. That’s not exciting, but it was better than what Gainwell did. Seven carries, 19 yards for a 2.7 average. Bottom line, they ended up with only 53 yards on the ground. That’s not at all what they had in mind entering the place. And he Rogers can not only make more out of play action, but he can use these guys as targets. And when I say these guys, again, I mean one guy, I mean Warren. When another element, Metaf himself could be one. He was targeted seven times. If it seemed like that faded as the game wore on, that’s not an accident. players in the Steelers room were talking to me a lot about how quickly the Jets coaches decided that they just weren’t going to let Metaf or they were at least going to try to not let Metaf beat them after those couple of early scary big time runs after the catch that he had. But they also talked about it in an upbeat tone because it freed up space for everybody else. Once you start seeing this, I’m hesitant to call it rhythm. That’s the term I was about to use. Rhythm involves the running game and everything, so I’m not going there. But the even distribution of the football to different parts of the field and of course to different receivers. Rogers would connect with seven different receivers, including the running backs and everybody on his 30 attempts. But yet, there’s another. Nobody was speaking about this too loudly in New Jersey, but Mike Tomlin, surprisingly to me, brought it up in his Tuesday press conference after getting home that the Steelers felt like they couldn’t sufficiently stretch the field the way they’d hoped. Rogers and the receivers had a tentative plan that they were going to take some shots. They were going to go deep. And what ended up happening instead was that Rogers would finish the day with one of the shortest average attempts anywhere in the NFL over the full weekend. Why? Well, as Tomlin pretty bluntly explained, they didn’t think there’d be time. They didn’t think Rogers would be able to wait for that receiver to run that full route. What happens if that opens up? My goodness. Just in case anybody ever tells you that offensive linemen aren’t important, when we come back, J1Q. [Music] This segment of Daily Shot is brought to you by our good friends at Mike’s Beer Bar. They’re located on Federal Street, directly across from PNC Park. Mike has more than 500 beers on tap, including from more than 50 local breweries. Stop in and say hello. Tell Mike we sent you. Mike’s beer bar. Football season’s finally here. Time to check out the latest odds, futures, and win totals on the FanDuel sports book. Think the Steelers are headed to the Super Bowl? Lock in your bets today. Whatever your game, FanDuel Sportsbook delivers the latest lines, futures, and specials so you can join in on all the action. Hey guys, if you’re planning to see a Steelers game, use the Game Time app to get your tickets. You can snag new ticket deals before anyone if you set it into your app alerts. The app is easy to use. No surprise fees at checkout. You can see your seat view before buying. And you’re getting legit tickets delivered on time. If you’re not much of a planner, you can get lastminute deals on tickets right up to the start of the event. Lowest price guaranteed. Or Game Time will credit you 110% of the difference. Download the Game Time app and enter the code DK Steelers into your app profile to get $20 off your first purchase. [Music] Today’s J1Q comes from Art Miller who says, “DK, for a defensive player to acquire the green dot, what’s the exact qualifications that a coach or coordinator is seeking? Is it leadership skills, adaptility of their role on the field, general intelligence? And also, if a player doesn’t necessarily deliver, how often do the green dots get transferred to another player on the defense? I’m not saying this should happen to Patrick Queen, but getting hypothetical here would a coach consider another player such as Jaylen Ramsay taking the role over. I I get where you’re going here, Art, in large part because there’s been so much open public discussion from the players, the coaches, and everybody about failure to communicate. But I wouldn’t confuse that with a the Green Dot role or b Queen’s performance. And by that I mean his actual football performance. Beginning with the green dot, all there is to understand is that this is the defensive player who has the radio connection to the coordinator. And all that happens in green dot land is the coordinator tells the player with the green dot what his call is. At which point, a few seconds before the snap, that communication is closed off per NFL regulations. So, what Queen does is make sure that everybody’s in line where they’re supposed to be. And if they’re not, he needs to be the one to clear that up. That’s it. He’s not making calls himself. He’s not adjusting on the fly. He just has to be more aware than anybody else of his 11 on that side of the football as to who is supposed to be doing what and if they’re in the best possible spot to do that. The reason that player is chosen is the same reason that James Frier was chosen. It’s the same reason that Ryan Shazir was chosen. It’s it’s the position. It’s your spot, your placement on the field. You’re pretty much dead center. You can see everything. Now, you can’t see behind you unless you’re looking behind you, but that’s when somebody else is supposed to be able to hear what it is that gets called and then do their own checks. in parenthesis here. That’s where a lot of the communication stuff fell apart in 2024. End parenthesis. And amusingly enough, the one player that you suggested, Art, that you might like to see getting a shot at the green dot would be the worst possible choice based on the circumstances that I’ve laid out here. And that’s that Jaylen Ramsay played every position other than nose tackle. And I’m not sure I would have minded seeing him at the nose given how Keanu Benton played. But Jaylen was all over creation and he was moving before the snap. He was disguising himself. He was bouncing from receiver to receiver, from side to side, from nickel to the wide outs to safety. He told us afterward it was the first time in his life he’d ever played five defensive positions in the same game. Life. But you know what, Art? As long as you brought up Queen, I don’t want to sound like his agent or his lawyer. But speaking only for myself, and everybody’s entitled to their opinion, I’ll respect yours on any football matter. Neither of us has to necessarily be right or wrong. But I was put off, me, by a lot of the public reaction to Queen’s showing on Sunday. I still get the sense, and forgive me for this in advance, that a lot of this fan base is judging inside linebackers by the standards of Oh, here comes some more names. Hardy Nickerson, Lawrence Timmons, the old school guys who were in the middle of the field and really not much of anywhere else and had runners kind of funneled to them at which point they would be responsible, in fact more responsible than anybody else for simply executing the tackle. Everything about the defense was planned that way. Well, the sport has changed. Where we once were completely floored by Shayir and his stature and his style, it turns out the Steelers were just way ahead of the curve because they all look like that now. And no, they aren’t the elite tacklers that Nickerson and Timmons were. But in Queens case in particular, he had a rough start last year and he missed some tackles on the run. And I feel like to an extent some fans have just never ever ever forgiven him for that. Even though he finished well finished isn’t the right word cuz nobody on this defense finished well, but he got stronger as a season went along and he got more comfortable with all of that green dot stuff and he made plays and he made the Pro Bowl and he made the NFL’s offseason top 100. That’s all I like. I said, I don’t care. You can accuse me of whatever as it relates to Queen. I don’t worry about that sort of thing. I’m sharing my own stance on this. I think he’s been a terrific acquisition for the Steelers. I think they’re lucky to have him and I think over time that’s going to become the consensus around here. I appreciate the question, Art. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Steelers. Email me at dkdpittsburghports.com [Music] to get a massive discount on the premium version of the DK Pittsburgh Sports app. By the time you get that done, it’ll be 400 p.m. Eastern and we’ll be ready for a double shot of Steelers. Hoping you can join us then. [Music]

Let’s get real about Aaron Rodgers’ 2025 ceiling.

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