Aaron Rodgers Media Availability (Oct. 8) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Aaron Rodgers Media Availability (Oct. 8) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Aaron, you got you talked about um how this is one of the best tight end rooms you’ve ever been part of or you’ve been around. You’ve the league trends around have seen a lot more tight end usage. What makes the tight end so valuable and why do you think the league is starting to use tight ends a little bit more? Because defenses are playing nickel personnel to 12. That’s the main the main reason. So if you want to do that, then you got to run the football effectively and that opens up some of the passing game. And when you play against Schwarz’s defense in the past, what were the hallmarks of it? What were the techs for? I mean, as I go back to some of the stuff we did way back in the day, it’s different defenses, you know, it’s he’s been to some different places. He’s been a consultant different places. Um, I’ve really enjoyed going against uh Jim over the years. Uh, enjoyed our side conversations as well. Um, would love to have a Guinness with him at some point when we’re both done. Uh, he told me a couple years ago he was going to be done. Uh, but he keeps coming back. He’s a hell of a coach. But, uh, but no, it’s it’s, uh, how many ways they can get eight guys in the box and still play coverage is kind of a staple of a of a Jim Schwarz defense. Does the experience help you? What does the experience with him help you? I mean, that’s all I got at this point. I’m 21 years in. Are you seeing that type of defense with Cleveland? What type? with the box just trying to be physical that long. Well, it’s an eight-man presentation, but they play too high out of it. That’s that’s the thing. And in years past, they played uh not too high differently. They have a lot of different uh defenses from the same looks. It’s a defense that works really well together uh on the back end as far as disguises. Um but yeah, they were doing that differently, you know, 11, 12, 13 years ago. Um, but just like uh how you stick in this league, you got to evolve and coach has evolved. What kind of energy have you seen from this locker room and practice this week and trying to maybe continue the momentum that you guys had before? Well, there’s no momentum carried over. It’s just you practicing like a good team or not. Uh, good teams practice a certain way. There’s a certain tempo, a certain focus and uh, you know, I felt that from the first day I got here for mini camp. do two backtoback divisional matches. What have you heard about just the AFC North rivalries in this league? I was asking uh PQu about it the other day because he’s been on both sides uh you know with Baltimore and now with us. Um, you know, in in my own time in the in the North and the NFC, you know, I think uh there was always a great rivalry with Chicago. Um, Minnesota, the states kind of don’t like each other, so there was more blood between bad blood between the fans and, uh, and Detroit, there wasn’t the same type of energy. we wanted to beat him, but there wasn’t like the hatred that that Wisconsin people had for Minnesota or just the old school, you know, 100-year rivalry with big Chicago and little Green Bay. Um, it seems like with with this that that kind of the rivalry is with the Browns and the hatred goes, you know, both ways between Steelers Bengals and Steelers Ravens. you guys about the Conor Hayward play. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I don’t care. I you know I I was watching him a few times. I had to give him a little coaching point on taking the snap. Uh he took coaching well and he did a nice job. So you said there’s no hatred with crowds. Uh not according to PQ, but he’s the one guy I’ve really talked to about it. And why why is your passing game been so effective? And did you expect you guys would use it so much this so far this season? What teams are we playing cover two? So we playing cover two. There’s not going to be a ton of a ton of big shots down the field. Until we get them in one high, you know, it’s going to be precision passing and and short of the six. How much more aware are you when you play a guy like Garrett? And what could a quarterback do to help out his offensive line? Get the ball out for sure, but uh you know, Miles is a Hall of Famer. you might not be in yet, but that’s where he’s going. He’s one of the few players in the league that uh over my 21 years that you game plan for. And you watch the film, every team has a plan. Uh there’s been a few guys over the years, not many, but there’s been a few guys over the years like that. Now, we have one as well. When we played the Steelers last year, our plan was to get four hands on TJ Watt every single play and not let him dominate the game. his brother was the same way when we played JJ. Interior guys, you know, it’s sometimes a little harder like the Aaron Donalds of the world and JJ, but Miles is a special talent has been since his first year in the league and uh he’s a game record. You guys know Joe’s question about precision short pass. Would you like to hit a few more big plays or when you’re punching for them, how do you walk that line between not forcing it and taking what the defense is? Well, if you’re playing cover two, there’s not going to be a lot of shots uh open down the down the boundaries. So, we’re just trying to be efficient. Guys, two more. You guys used an extra lineman a fair amount the last game. Um, where did you see some of the benefits in terms of bringing in Spencer? That’s a question for uh for our coordinator, but I love Spence in the huddle. Uh would love to throw him a touchdown pass. He’s got pretty good hands. Aaron, it looked like you switched helmets after the buy. What bottle did you go to? How’s that that switch going? I’m just trying out different things, but I’ll probably go back to my original

Aaron Rodgers spoke to the media on Wednesday, October 8 ahead of the Steelers Week 6 game against the Browns

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