{"id":76633,"date":"2025-05-25T00:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T00:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/76633\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T00:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T00:12:11","slug":"he-might-be-too-good-kimes-sees-double-sided-aspect-to-steelers-adding-aaron-rodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/76633\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He Might Be Too Good:’ Kimes Sees ‘Double-Sided Aspect’ To Steelers Adding Aaron Rodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start of summer, and the Pittsburgh Steelers still don\u2019t know who their starting quarterback will be for the 2025 season. While plenty of signs point towards<\/a> QB Aaron Rodgers signing with the Steelers, he still has not. Rodgers is no longer an MVP-caliber player, but he would still be an upgrade over QB Mason Rudolph. That\u2019s why ESPN\u2019s Mina Kimes believes signing Rodgers could create a \u201cdouble-sided aspect\u201d for Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cAaron Rodgers was not a top quarterback by any metric last year,\u201d said Kimes on SportCenter<\/a>. \u201cHe was 32nd in air yards per attempt, 26th in QBR, and the list goes on. We are obviously seeing the decline in play. But I would also argue there is a double-sided aspect to this for Pittsburgh. Yes, he\u2019s not as good as he was. But, he also might be too good, which is to say he might guide them to a mediocre finish that could make it harder for them to get their quarterback of the future next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compared to other teams, the Steelers aren\u2019t Super Bowl contenders. They lack elite talent at skill positions, and their defense consistently collapses against elite quarterbacks late in the season. Most importantly, the Steelers don\u2019t have an elite quarterback themselves. Signing Rodgers won\u2019t change those facts.<\/p>\n

However, Aaron Rodgers would make them competitive and watchable. With him, the Steelers could sneak into the playoffs as a seven-seed or at least stay in the playoff hunt late into the season. Without Rodgers, it is hard to see Pittsburgh competing for a playoff spot. Yes, Rudolph (and Devlin Hodges) helped push for a playoff berth in 2019 (barely missing out), but that Steelers defense was much better than it is this season.<\/p>\n

Though Rodgers might worsen Pittsburgh\u2019s draft position, the impact will be minimal because of their accumulated draft capital. The Steelers are projected to have 12 draft picks next season, including seven in the top 150<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even with Rudolph it would be crazy to expect the Steelers to finish with a top-five draft pick. That hasn\u2019t happened since 1970. With Rudolph, at best, they\u2019d land a draft pick in the 5-10 range. More likely, though, they would draft in the early teens. With Aaron Rodgers, the Steelers would probably draft in the late teens or early 20s. That\u2019s not a massive difference, especially considering the draft capital Pittsburgh has if they want to trade up.<\/p>\n

Given the draft issue is overblown, signing Rodgers makes sense. While players will say they have faith in Rudolph<\/a>, they must publicly say that. Pittsburgh\u2019s stars are aging and want as many chances to win as possible. Rodgers likely won\u2019t bring a Super Bowl to the Steel City, but players can squint and convince themselves of that possibility. They won\u2019t be able to do that with Rudolph.<\/p>\n

Signing Aaron Rodgers isn\u2019t a \u201cdouble-sided aspect.\u201d The Steelers are loaded with draft capital for the 2026 NFL Draft, so a slight drop in draft position won\u2019t matter much. More importantly, signing Rodgers may placate Pittsburgh\u2019s veteran stars who are hungry for playoff success. Starting Mason Rudolph won\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start of summer, and the Pittsburgh Steelers still don\u2019t know who their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,7,14144,6,520,57,2360,4231,426,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-76633","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-mina-kimes","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-sportscenter","16":"tag-steelers","17":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114565581739520945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76633","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=76633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}