{"id":249727,"date":"2025-07-31T04:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/249727\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T04:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:16:09","slug":"mike-tomlin-youre-damn-right-it-feels-different-having-aaron-rodgers-on-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/249727\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Tomlin: ‘You’re Damn Right’ It Feels Different Having Aaron Rodgers On Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers added a future Hall of Famer at quarterback this offseason in Aaron Rodgers. It was a surprising move, with the Steelers unable to retain Justin Fields and not interested in re-signing Russell Wilson. They pivoted to Rodgers, who\u2019s coming off some of the worst years of his career. Rodgers\u2019 stint with the New York Jets was ugly, and that\u2019s led some people to wonder if he can still<\/a> play at a high level. However, Mike Tomlin doesn\u2019t share that sentiment, as evidenced when he was asked if the team feels different with Rodgers on it this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re damn right it does,\u201d Tomlin said Wednesday on The Pat McAfee Show.<\/a> \u201cFeels pretty good, too. Just the possibilities. To have a guy like that, in your huddle, in your locker room, a part of your group, it certainly gives us all great confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Rodgers is 41 years old, it makes sense that Tomlin feels like he\u2019s different. Quarterback has been a major issue for the Steelers over the past few years. Ben Roethlisberger gave Pittsburgh almost 20 years of high-level play, but he retired after the 2021 season. Since then, the Steelers have struggled to find consistent play under center.<\/p>\n

They drafted Kenny Pickett to be Roethlisberger\u2019s successor, but that didn\u2019t pan out. After two underwhelming seasons, Pickett was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. Then, they signed Wilson and traded for Fields. While both of them played decent at times last season, they still struggled mightily in some areas.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s led the Steelers to Rodgers. He\u2019s got the potential to be their best quarterback since Roethlisberger. While he isn\u2019t as good as he once was, he didn\u2019t look totally washed-up last year. Specifically, Rodgers played much better down the stretch in 2024.<\/p>\n

He was likely still trying to bounce back from tearing his Achilles in 2023. That\u2019s one of the worst injuries a player can suffer. Perhaps Rodgers will continue to look better this season, another year removed from his Achilles tear.<\/p>\n

Tomlin sounds confident that can happen.<\/a> Even if he doesn\u2019t return to his prime form, Rodgers\u2019 veteran presence should be a boost for the Steelers. He\u2019s seen almost everything a quarterback can in the NFL. Tomlin is excited, and we\u2019ll see if Rodgers proves him right this year.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers added a future Hall of Famer at quarterback this offseason in Aaron Rodgers. It was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,7,1255,6,520,57,2360,426,7991,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-249727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-mike-tomlin","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-the-pat-mcafee-show","17":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114945916292205304","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}