The Pittsburgh Steelers Just Got HUGE NEWS On Aaron Rodgers’ Wrist Injury + More From Week 11’s Win

The Pittsburgh Steelers Just Got HUGE NEWS On Aaron Rodgers’ Wrist Injury + More From Week 11’s Win

Welcome in to Steelers Talk. I’m your host, Jax Sperry. Today we got a big injury update for Aaron Rodgers just now from Adam Shfter and Tom Pelosero that I want to share with you guys as well as some of my other notes after I’ve had a chance now to watch this uh week 11 win for the Steelers over the Cincinnati Bengals over again. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. We had another awesome watch party today, guys. Thank you so much for all the super chat donations. Thank you guys so much uh for coming and hanging out with us here today. Make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven’t already cuz we’re going to get you guys not only this video here tonight, but we’ll also have another video come out tomorrow morning and another one after that in the in the evening. Um, and of course, we’ll go live on Tuesday and Thursday getting ready for this big- time matchup versus the Chicago Bears coming up next Sunday in the Windy City. So, make sure you click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. Now, let’s get right into the update here from Adam Shfter, Tom Pelosero, and others, which is that uh the Steelers fear that Aaron Rogers has a quote unquote slight break in his wrist uh that he suffered today at the end of the first half uh in the in today’s game versus the Cincinnati Bengals. And uh now, Tom Pelosero does say in his report that the injury is not expected to be quote unquote long-term. Uh, it is worth noting that the break is in Rogers’s non-throwing hand. So, that obviously is going to speed up recovery time. If this was to Rogers’s throwing hand, guys, it it would be a pretty significant uh recovery time before he would be ready to throw. Um, so the fact that this happened to his other wrist, not his throwing wrist, uh, you know, it pretty much allows Rogers a chance to come back and play this year. But, uh, he was seen in a brace after the game. And according to a report, Rogers actually tried to get the Steelers training staff to allow him to go back in the game today, but he was obviously shut down after X-rays showed that he had a fracture uh in his wrist. Now, tomorrow he’s going to be undergoing more tests. He’s going to be getting evaluated. Um, you know, obviously do all those things to kind of determine the severity of the injury and how long he is going to have to be out. Uh, like I said, he was seen in a brace after the game and it looked pretty bulky. So, it’s going to be interesting to see, you know, how long it takes before he can go down to maybe a slightly less bulky wrist. And when he comes back, like, is he going to be able to take snaps from under center? Like, is he going to have to go heavy shotgun? And I just don’t know if that’s the style of offense the Pittsburgh Steelers want to run. Like, I would almost rather put Mason Rudolph out there uh to, you know, allow this offense to be able to operate under center. I mean, we’ve seen guys like Ryan Tanahill, kind of like a Mason Rudolph style of quarterback, play very efficiently and play play very well in the in this Arthur Smith style of offense. I mean, we saw Mason play very well today. 12 of 16. Had a couple of missed throws, you know, he underthrew a couple, but like he played pretty well today, man. Like, he really did. He distributed the ball well. He was reading the defenses well. Um, you know, he was standing and delivering in the pocket. Like, you know, Mason Rudolph is more than functional in this Steelers offense. And you know, if Rogers can’t take snaps from under center and would have to go like all shotgun, I I honestly think, you know, I would rather go with Mason Rudolph as the starting quarterback until Rogers’s wrist heals enough where he can take snaps from under center from Zack Frasier, who is kind of known for for snapping it pretty darn hard. So, it’s going to be interesting to see over the next few weeks because, you know, um if this is a pretty slight injury and, you know, he can wear a brace and play on it, it’s going to be interesting to see if he can play as early as next week. I know he wants to play in Chicago next week. That is a game that he has had circled on his calendar for a long time. Not as much as like the Green Bay game or the Jet game, but he loves playing in Chicago. And, you know, this might be his last opportunity to play in the Windy City before he retires. So, it’d be a big bummer if he wasn’t able to play there. Um, but you know, if that’s the case, I have a lot of confidence in Mason Rudolph to be able to execute the offense at a good enough level. I have a lot of confidence in the Steelers defense right now. Um, you know, they have put together three pretty darn good performances. I like their quarterback setup, especially on the outside. Speaking of that, uh, I I I want to say, man, I I really regret not giving James Pierre a game ball. Those are one of those things where, you know, I’m putting together a game balls list at the end of the game and just something slips my mind. Uh, but he certainly uh earned a game ball this week. So, if I can put, you know, a final game ball there, if you’ve already watched our instant reaction video, uh, didn’t give Pierre a game ball, but he certainly deserved it today. And the Joey Porter Jr., I think, has played pretty darn well in coverage. He’s had a couple penalties this year, but in general, he has been shutting guys down in man coverage, which is really good to see. That Brandon Eckles, even though he dealt with some injuries, played pretty decently in the slot today. And uh you know, I thought the safety tandem and Jaylen Ramsey, Kyle Duggar, uh played pretty darn well. Now, back to the quarterback discussion here. Um you know, with three legitimate playoff contenders coming up next on the docket, okay, for the Steelers, they got the Bears, uh who once again won today. Then you got the Bills at home the following week, and then you get the Ravens on the road. Okay, if Mason Rudolph is tasked with playing in uh two or even three of those ball games and the Steelers, you know, play very well on offense, if the offense finds a groove and if the Steelers win those ball games, I think it’s going to be tough to take him out. I really do because, you know, even though, you know, if Rogers is good to go next week, I don’t think Mason necessarily showed enough today to be like, “Okay, Mason’s our guy moving forward.” Um, but if he puts together like another two or three more good performances in this offense has found it finds a groove that frankly they haven’t been able to find under Rogers over the last month. Um, I think especially for beating playoff caliber teams, man, you got to stick with the hot hand until the hot hand cools down at least. So, um, you know, this is an awesome opportunity for Mason Rudolph who, you know, is kind of Ryan Tanahill like. Now, he’s not quite as athletic as Tanahill was. Tanahill could actually run with the football a little bit. Um, but both guys very proficient under center. Both guys can throw the ball down the field. Kind of similar throwing motions as well. Um, you know, I certainly think Mason Rudolph can kind of thrive in this Arthur Smith offense if I’m being completely honest with you. Um, I don’t think he’s necessarily like a top 20 or top 25 quarterback in the world. I think he’s more like maybe top 35 or top 30, maybe top 40, but I think this is the style of offense that he can operate pretty efficiently. And frankly, Rogers has really struggled over really the last month, ever since he really lit it up against Cincinnati on Thursday night. He has really not played fantastically. Um, and the offense hasn’t played very well in general. So, um, I’m looking forward to seeing what Mason is going to be able to do potentially in the next couple weeks. But, if Rogers is good to go next week, I’ll be excited to see what Rogers can do in Chicago. I know that’s a game that he really wants to play in and he’ll be highly motivated in. And um I know he probably wants to bounce back after kind of two definitely down weeks for him and um I’m sure that he wants to get back out there and and not give Mason Rudolph a shot to to win this job down the stretch. Um but right now I don’t think there’s necessarily a controversy, but you know, give it another two or three weeks of Mason Rudolph playing well against good teams that are probably going to be making the playoffs and this team getting on a hot streak and you know it gets a lot harder and you know the discussion definitely picks up. So, uh, keep your eye on that. U, but I will say even with Mason Rudolph in there. Um, just some points on the game itself today and some of my thoughts on the Steelers to kind of finish up today’s video. Um, the Steelers offense still very much relies on yards after the catch. I mean, the Steelers right now, I think, have an NFL record uh in terms of percentage of their passing yardage coming after the catch. I mean, going into today’s game, I think it was over 68%. And then I think today at least over 80 85% of their yardage today in the passing game was after the catch. Okay. And um you know, that’s going to bring up the total for the season, maybe up to even like 70, which is just absolutely nuts to have 70% of your pass yardage come after the catch. I mean, that’s all underneath stuff. That’s Darnell Washington running people over. That’s Jaylen Warren making people miss. That’s Kenny Gainball making some big things happen. And um you know DK Metaf’s getting doubled and Rowan Wilson and Calvin Austin aren’t getting open enough at least not for these uh for these quarterbacks to trust them enough. And you know that they’re going to have to if they want to be anything come playoff time in my opinion guys they can’t they that’s not sustainable. They have to start throwing the ball more down the field. And um you know I certainly think having that ground and pound run game under center play action can certainly open some things up. Um, but right now, I mean, on the season, if 70% of your yardage is coming uh after the catch, I mean, that would be an NFL record. Like, that would that I don’t think any other NFL team this year is above 60 and the Steelers are uh either at 70 or maybe even above 70 after today’s game. So, um that’s something that this team, whether it’s with Aaron Rogers at quarterback, Mason Rudolph, hell, even Will Howard, like they they got to find some solution, all right, to get people off of DK Metaf. And I really think that the answer to that question, guys, is it’s going to come down to Roland Wilson and Calvin Austin. Uh maybe Marquez Valdez Scantling gets in the mix. But really, I think if you’re going to open things up for DK, if you’re going to open things up for other people, um and you want to kind of rely less on the yards after the catch, then you know, Roman and Calvin are going to have one of those two or both are going to have to step up in a pretty major way down the stretch. And we saw a little flash from Roman today, but Roman got more snaps than Calvin did today. and still only had one catch. So certainly not enough from Roman even though he did have that big third down and very long conversion. That was a really good flash, but we need to see more than that. If you’re going to be a legit number two receiver and get number two receiver snaps, you’re going to have to provide more than just one catch in a ball game. So, um hopefully this was maybe a sign of things to come and maybe hopefully we can see it more consistently from Roman in the weeks to come. Um but, you know, we’re just going to have to see. Also, I want to uh point out here that the Ravens did win today. Um, you know, Shadur Sanders went four of 16, had to come in for the injured Dylan Gabriel. He was Shadur Sanders was absolutely terrible. I mean, I can’t believe people actually wanted people in this fan base were adamant that they wanted this team to draft him in the first round this year. I mean, um, yeah, that was that would have been a disaster. So, um, you know, Browns had a chance. They were leading for a lot of that ball game. Ravens didn’t look particularly good today. They certainly look beatable. U, I’ll say that. So, um, the Ravens currently sit at five and five. They’ve won four straight games. They they are still just one game behind the Steelers. So, the Steelers got to keep it going next week in Chicago, who is a very beatable team. I mean, the Steelers should absolutely win that football game next week in my opinion. Um, and the Ravens have the New York Jets. So, this will be a big week coming up for uh the AFC North and the the race to win this division. Uh, but then just some final notes here to kind of wrap up today’s show. I really think and I said this a lot on the post on the uh watch party today with the way Darnell Washington and Pat Footh play the game man like Darnell like Pat only had one catch today but he took it for 19 yards had an awesome run after catch then Darnell had multiple of them today you know I think he was second on the team in receiving he was stellar today John Smith had two targets for zero catches and doesn’t block had a face mask penalty John Smith cannot be a starter on this team anymore more. I know he’s Arthur Smith’s guy for whatever reason, but Arthur Smith likes guys that block. Why does he like John U Smith as much as he likes him? I just don’t get it. Um, especially with how good Pat and Darnell have been for this team this year. And, you know, those two guys can be game changers for this team. Not to mention the jumbo personnel looks that they run here in Pittsburgh. So, um, I think moving forward, John Smith has to be delegated to tight end three, tight end four duties. I mean, I would I would even consider playing him less than Spencer Anderson at at jumbo tight end. Uh just because he doesn’t provide all that much to you. He doesn’t provide, you know, really a lot of yak ability. He doesn’t provide route running. Uh doesn’t provide, you know, good hands to win contested catch situations. He doesn’t block. Like, there’s just nothing that John Smith provides for the Steelers offense. So, Arthur Smith has to wake up to that fact and they got to get him off the field. and I know they paid them a lot of money so they want to use them but at the end of the day the best players have got to play and the players that aren’t contributing need to be sit on the bench. Um and that is unfortunately Jonnu Smith at this point. Also with Jaylen Warren having an injury today had an ankle injury. We’re going to see uh probably on Tomlin Tuesday what that what that is and what the extent to that is. But that could mean more opportunities here for Caleb Johnson and even though he had kind of a rookie mistake again today with the face mask penalty on a pretty darn good run on the outside. Um, you know, he’s he’s shown some good things. He really has over the last three weeks in some in very limited sample size, he has shown some really good stuff on film. Uh, as a runner, and I’m really excited to see, you know, even when Jaylen gets back, get Caleb some of that early down work and get Jaylen out there a little bit more on third downs. And, you know, Kenny Gainwell has certainly shown himself to be a more than serviceable third down back throughout this season. and he had two touchdowns today. But Caleb Johnson is probably the future at the early down running back position here in Pittsburgh and he’s starting to show some of the potential and the promise there. So, I’m looking forward to seeing him get maybe an increased workload as the season continues on. Uh, also Brick Jones, big shout out to Brick today. Uh, he battled through a groin injury all week long to get himself ready to play and then he had a foot in issue that popped up today and he played through all of it and he played pretty well today. Okay, he wasn’t perfect, but I thought he played pretty well. I’m looking forward to seeing what the film says tomorrow. But, you know, just I want to give a big shout out to the toughness of Brick Jones for sticking it out and uh you know um you know, just showing that toughness today. Then uh moving on to the defensive side of the ball. Once again, Steelers played a lot of split safety um of course with Jaylen Ramsey and Kyle Duggar. Then they brought in Chuck Clark at the end of the game. But um what that did and what was the big difference in this ball game defensively guys compared to week seven was they played a lot of single high versus uh Jamar Chase and Joe Flacco and the and the Bengals back in week seven and they played a lot of man and they got killed this week. They played a lot more zone, they played a lot more, you know, split field coverages, quarters and I’m looking forward to seeing what the scheme breakdown kind of looks like tomorrow on film. But uh they were in split safety pre- snap 29 of Flaco’s 41 drop back. So that is a majority of the time and u you know that’s that’s exactly what you want to see. I mean when you play split safety you can kind of be more ambiguous to the quarterback and could certainly tell Flaco had to hold on to the ball for longer than he’s used to in this ball game. So good job on the Steelers defense did a really really good job in this one. Um and they got after the quarterback obviously James Pierre and Joey Porter Jr. were terrific. The safety play from Ramsay and Duggar was really good again this week. Brandon Eckles, I thought, had his best game in the slot. Didn’t have as many losses as he did against Indianapolis and and and the Chargers the previous two weeks. Uh, you know, this defense honestly continues to get better and they had a hell of a performance against, you know, a Bengals offense that’s like not bad. Like they’ve put up a lot of yardage, lot of points since Joe Flacco was traded there. That was probably their worst performance, maybe outside of the Packer game, but they, you know, they really honed in today. Obviously, two defensive touchdowns. Big big shout out to Terara Austin uh and the Steelers defense for you know really figuring out here over the last month and now this defense finally has hit their stride as we really head down the home stretch of this season. And then the final thing I want to talk about today is that Jerry Dulac said today on his pregame show with whoever he does his pregame show with about Asante Samuel Jr. He said this quote they want to make sure that Asante gets back up to speed. This guy hasn’t played since week four of last year. They really liked his recovery. That’s why they signed him, but it’s still going to be a while. They just want to make sure he’s back up to practice speed and then full game speed before they use him. So, essentially, um, especially with James Pierre playing as well as he’s playing, guys, I just don’t know if it makes sense to rush Asante Samuel Jr. out there. Um, you know, he’s played pretty much exclusively on the outside his entire playing career. And now I think next week the Steelers should elevate him onto the active roster so that he can’t decide to, you know, get poached somewhere like Philadelphia for example. Um, you know, we’ll see how the Eagles do tonight on Sunday Night Football uh with their with their cornerback situation, but uh you know, Asante Samuel Jr. uh obviously needs to get ramped up. This is the start of his essentially training camp and he’s going to have to, you know, expedite the process of learning the playbook and getting himself up to playing shape and getting himself ready to play. Who knows how long that process takes. Could take him, you know, a week, another week, and he’s ready to play versus Chicago, maybe as a backup or maybe even as a slot corner. We’ll see what their kind of plan is for him because listen, man, it it’s going to be tough to move James Pierre off the starting lineup just because of the way he’s playing. I mean, the amount of PBUS that this guy’s had in three weeks and really two and a half games of game game wraps has been unbelievable. Teams keep trying to pick on him and target him and he is just not letting anything happen. He’s got long arms. He’s physical. He plays with good technique. He had a really good preseason as well and really good camp. and he was just someone that consistently flashed in training camp practices and during the preseason games, which is what makes me think that this is sustainable for James Pierre, which is really exciting if you’re a Pittsburgh Steeler fan to have a guy like this that you just fall into. You know, Darius Slay, hopefully he can maybe get back next week so he can be a backup outside corner. Um, but certainly I think that I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Jared Dak may be right here that the Steelers are going to take their time with the Sante Samuel Jr. might even be another week before they consider adding him um to the game day roster. But, you know, the longer the Steelers wait to add him to, you know, the active roster, if there’s other teams out there like the Eagles that need players now, Asante might decide to go elsewhere. So, the Steelers have to kind of find that right balance and kind of come up with a plan that works for them and works for Asante. Um but certainly going to be interesting to watch over the next few weeks. All right, guys. That’s going to be it for today’s show. again, kind of the headliner for today’s show, Aaron Rogers. The fear is he has a slight break in his wrist. He’s getting more uh evaluations done tomorrow. Should have more answers as to how long he’s going to be out. Uh but with a very important slate of games coming up against playoff caliber teams for this football team. Uh if Mason Rudolph and this offense finds a groove, I think it’s going to some conversations are going to get really interesting here in the Steel City. So, uh, I I think that, you know, the interesting discussions and all that stuff for this season are just getting started here on Steelers Talk. So, click that subscribe button if you haven’t already, uh, for all the latest, uh, juicy happenings surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. And until tomorrow morning, guys, here we go, Steelers.

Steelers news and rumors: The Pittsburgh Steelers got huge news after their 34-12 win against the Cincinnati Bengals. QB Aaron Rodgers is feared to have suffered a ‘slight break’ in his non-throwing wrist. Can the Steelers manage without Aaron Rodgers? Jack Sperry breaks down this and more on today’s edition of Steelers Talk by Chat Sports.

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Gerry Dulac on Asante Samuel Jr.:
“The wanna make sure that he gets back up to speed. This guy hasn’t played since Week 4 of last year. They really liked his recovery. That’s why they signed him, but it’s still gonna be a while. They just want to make sure he’s back up to practice speed and then full game speed before they use him.”

Here’s some more Steelers YouTube segments for you to check out if you’re looking for more insight on the Black & Gold:
– Steelers News: INSTANT REACTION After 34-12 WIN vs. CIN | Ramsey Ejected, Rodgers Hurt, D Dominates! – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anrbZpFfoj0
– Steelers Rumors: TRADE Mike Tomlin To The Giants? + New Report Reveals Why George Pickens Was Traded – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTqnXmJVves
– Steelers News: Jon Gruden DOUBLES DOWN On Will Howard + Why You SHOULDN’T Panic About Aaron Rodgers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzdp20INyUs

Tom Pelissero on Aaron Rodgers:
“Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers will undergo more tests Monday on his left wrist, but the initial belief is it’s nothing long term, X-rays at the stadium showed a small fracture. They won’t know more until further scans.”

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