Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers at training camp on Aug. 1, 2026. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers sit down together in the upstairs of the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex every Thursday night, going through the play call list, highlighting what looked good, considering what didn’t and establishing the initial 15 plays the Pittsburgh Steelers will run in their upcoming game.
Especially after a loss to the New England Patriots last Sunday in which the attack was held out of the end zone, the meetings can be pretty open. Or, as Rodgers put it after Wednesday’s practice, “Very candid. Yeah, very candid.”
When Rodgers said after the 20-3 defeat in Foxborough that he needed to a better job of letting McCarthy know what might work and what won’t, it wasn’t in any sort of backhanded manner. Having previously worked together for 13 years in Green Bay, the pair doesn’t have to sugarcoat anything.
“I think, clearly, the conversations are longer in some areas, and then obviously shorter in most,” McCarthy said before Thursday’s practice. “And I mean longer just because it’s been a minute since we’ve worked together. He’s had experience in other schemes, other concepts, and it’s important for us to continue to (consider) not only just the specific concept, but the variations of the concept. And at the end of the day, we wanna make sure it fits our perimeter players — and I’m talking particularly in the passing game.
“But at the end of the day, it’s about playing to his reps and to his experiences, because that’s frankly something I’ve always done as far as how you build an offensive system.”
Mentioned In This Article:Aaron Rodgers Mike McCarthy Pittsburgh Steelers Steelers