As far as the general public knows, the Pittsburgh Steelers are still waiting on QB Aaron Rodgers. But we\u2019re almost halfway through May. The mandatory minicamp is next month, and we\u2019re not that far from the start of training camp. At what point should fans be concerned about Rodgers signing too late in the process?<\/p>\n
Well, former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger may not have a defined deadline, but he\u2019s got his reasons for thinking Rodgers should sign sooner rather than later. There\u2019s being in a completely different offensive system. And then there\u2019s the playing with a completely unfamiliar cast of players around him. Basically, Roethlisberger thinks Rodgers should be with the team as early as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy thing is, Aaron\u2019s played in a West Coast system, like forever,\u201d said Roethlisberger on Tuesday\u2019s episode of Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger<\/a>. \u201cAnd this is not a West Coast, from what I\u2019ve been told, it\u2019s not a West Coast system. That\u2019s verbiage\u2026 He\u2019s an incredibly smart, smart man. So, do I think he could pick it up? Absolutely. But there\u2019s also something to be said about being on the field with guys at practice, to see how guys run routes, to do things, to communicate, to let them hear your voice in the huddle, to hear your cadence, to hear your audibles, all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n The first part, learning the terminology of offensive coordinator Arthur Smith\u2019s scheme, is probably easier to handle. Aaron Rodgers can study a playbook and learn the language Smith uses. But it\u2019s one thing to study the textbook. It\u2019s another thing entirely to take what you\u2019ve learned from a textbook and apply it in the real world while 250+ pound defensive players are chasing you around the field.<\/p>\n And even if you know the language, you\u2019ve got to learn how to speak it and communicate with others. That\u2019s what Roethlisberger is concerned about. If Rodgers misses a significant portion of the offseason, how long will it take him and the rest of the offense to get on the same page? Every wide receiver has their own way of running a route. No two receivers will run a slant the exact same way, so Rodgers needs to know how players like DK Metcalf operate.<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s why Rodgers had the throwing session with Metcalf this offseason<\/a>. But that still leaves receivers like Calvin Austin III and Roman Wilson on the outside looking in. And then there are the tight ends, Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington.<\/p>\n Roethlisberger also mentions that the players need to hear the quarterback\u2019s cadence. That\u2019s going to be incredibly important for the offensive line. You don\u2019t want a litany of false start penalties because the linemen are guessing when Rodgers wants the ball snapped.<\/p>\n Then there is the relationship with the coaches. If Aaron Rodgers signs with the Steelers, he won\u2019t have his favorite coaches and his offensive system coming into Pittsburgh. He\u2019ll have to adapt to Arthur Smith, and Smith will have to adapt to Rodgers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe coach and you need to get on the same page, so that when coach is calling plays, he knows what you like and don\u2019t like,\u201d Roethlisberger said. \u201cAnd then when you\u2019re changing things, he understands why you\u2019re changing it and what you\u2019re changing it to.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless of who you believe, there was definitely a disconnect between Arthur Smith and former Steelers QB Russell Wilson last season. And that likely played a big part in why the Steelers failed to score more than 17 points in any of their last five games. Roethlisberger said he was told that Smith wouldn\u2019t let Wilson call plays when the Steelers were running a two-minute drill<\/a>.<\/p>\n Maybe it was a personality clash. Or maybe it was that Smith wasn\u2019t comfortable with Wilson having a good grasp on the offense because of the sheer amount of time he missed due to injury during training camp and the early part of the season.<\/p>\n If it\u2019s the latter, Aaron Rodgers needs to get into Pittsburgh as soon as possible so that he and Arthur Smith can develop a positive relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As far as the general public knows, the Pittsburgh Steelers are still waiting on QB Aaron Rodgers. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,16712,6595,7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-48630","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-ben-roethlisberg","10":"tag-footbahlin-with-ben-roethlisberger","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","16":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114504535031938356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48630","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=48630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}