{"id":25816,"date":"2025-05-05T14:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/25816\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T14:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:01:09","slug":"jon-gruden-skeptical-of-steelers-qb-plan-i-dont-know-what-pittsburghs-doing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/25816\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Gruden Skeptical Of Steelers’ QB Plan: ‘I Don’t Know What Pittsburgh’s Doing’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though Jon Gruden spent quality time with Ohio State QB Will Howard<\/a>, selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers late in the draft, that move alone probably isn\u2019t selling him on the Steelers\u2019 2025 plan. In a post-draft interview with Pardon My Take, Gruden questioned the Steelers\u2019 draft moves and seemingly all-in plan on Aaron Rodgers being their short-term QB solution.<\/p>\n

Gruden made the comments after Night 1 of the draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got one quarterback on the roster,\u201d Gruden told co-hosts Dan \u201cBig Cat\u201d Katz and Eric \u201cPFT Commenter\u201d<\/a> Sollenberger. \u201cI don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing. Maybe Aaron Rodgers, like he\u2019s going to solve all your problems. It sounds great. But two years ago, he was out for the year. And last year, I think he had his hands on the ball inside the two-minute drill five times with a chance to win and didn\u2019t get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fairness, this was\u00a0before\u00a0the Steelers\u2019 selected Howard and Gruden also didn\u2019t account for Skylar Thompson being on the roster with his \u201cone quarterback\u201d reference. Still, neither presence should change minds on the Steelers\u2019 2025 outlook, one that carries plenty of uncertainty over who will be the team\u2019s starting QB.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh remains steadfast in its belief that Rodgers will sign and lead the team to its first playoff win since 2016. But Gruden\u2019s comments only got more skeptical.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not in camp right now,\u201d he said. \u201cYou gotta learn the offense, you gotta build some camaraderie with your team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers played hurt through much of his lone full season with the Jets and put up middling numbers. His 90.5 QB rating was the worst of his career while his touchdown and interception percentages were well below career averages. New York won just five games in Rodgers\u2019 17 starts, the fewest he\u2019s ever posted in a season.<\/p>\n

As Gruden noted, Rodgers had chances to lead the Jets to last-second victories. But he and the offense came up short in Week 4 against the Denver Broncos, Week 5 against the Minnesota Vikings, Week 6 against the Buffalo Bills (the infamous Mike Williams \u201cred line\u201d game<\/a>), and Week 13 against the Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what Pittsburgh\u2019s doing at quarterback,\u201d Gruden noted. \u201cI was kinda shocked they didn\u2019t take a quarterback at No. 21.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Gruden was perhaps less shocked after realizing just how far Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders would fall, slipping not just out of the first round but lasting until the 144th pick of the draft. But even knowing that and accounting for the Howard selection, Gruden doesn\u2019t sound convinced Rodgers will lead the Steelers to where they want to go. That is, assuming, he signs with the team in the first place.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though Jon Gruden spent quality time with Ohio State QB Will Howard, selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,7,3925,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-25816","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-jon-gruden","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114455595243882981","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25816","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=25816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}