According to TE Pat Freiermuth, the Steelers offense being together right now is very important; as of now, Aaron Rodgers is not a part of that since he isn\u2019t under contract. If he were, though, and were at OTAs, you know everybody would be talking about how much that meant.<\/p>\n
Because Rodgers isn\u2019t there, there isn\u2019t much Freiermuth and his Steelers teammates can say. When asked about the uncertainty of the quarterback position<\/a>, he said, \u201cI just take it day by day. It is what it is. Just trying to put my head down and be a leader for this offense\u201d. Whether unintentional or not, invoking the leadership aspect when talking about the quarterbacks is significant, too.<\/p>\n At the start of OTAs, the Steelers seemed to have near-perfect attendance from their offense. Freiermuth made it a point to show up, because it\u2019s a time of the year he values. Asked about the significance of having the offense together and working during OTAs, his views were unambiguous.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very important\u201d to have the offense together, he said, via video from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/a>. \u201cBeing able to spend time together, talk about the base stuff of the offense so when we hit training camp, we can talk about further fundamentals and details. It\u2019s very important to be here and work with the guys and get familiar with them, just get on the same page\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Steelers beat writers didn\u2019t ask Pat Freiermuth directly about Aaron Rodgers, nor did he answer directly about Aaron Rodgers. But if it\u2019s important for the offense to be together right now, and if Rodgers is eventually going to be the quarterback, then it\u2019s important that he isn\u2019t here.<\/p>\n While they aren\u2019t installing a new offense, Arthur Smith is doing different things than last year. It\u2019s still relatively new for the Steelers, and for Freiermuth, and surely they\u2019ll be doing some different things. Smith said last year he had to compromise<\/a> with his vision for the offense, but they are closer now.<\/p>\n Asked about how much of the playbook the Steelers are getting into now, Freiermuth said, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna install our base stuff and things that we want to try to see how it looks against our defense\u201d. He added, \u201cIt\u2019s fun to be here and talk ball with not a lot of pressure on us and try some new things and see if it works. It\u2019s always a fun time to be back here with the guys\u201d.<\/p>\n Unless or until Aaron Rodgers signs, he isn\u2019t one of the guys for Freiermuth and the Steelers. But I\u2019m sure players have opinions about why he isn\u2019t. And if he becomes one of the guys at a later date, how will his voluntary time missed affect things? Will they view him differently because he chose not to be there, displaying a lack of commitment and seriousness? It\u2019s not just about showing up, it\u2019s also about how you show up<\/a>.<\/p>\n The bottom line is Aaron Rodgers is not signing a contract while Pat Freiermuth and the Steelers are doing work. Yes, it\u2019s voluntary, and maybe he doesn\u2019t like doing it. But he isn\u2019t even around, in the building, studying the plays, talking to guys. Mason Rudolph confirmed that he isn\u2019t in contact with Rodgers, and I\u2019m sure that applies throughout the locker room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to TE Pat Freiermuth, the Steelers offense being together right now is very important; as of now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,7,6,9073,520,57,2360,426,23526,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-85268","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-nfl","11":"tag-pat-freiermuth","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-steelers-otas","17":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114585521732989333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85268","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=85268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}