Conor Orr and Albert Breer break down how effective Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins can be, and how much wear and tear aging quarterbacks can handle over a full season.
We've had a couple drips and drabs of some stuff, Albert, that's been coming out over the last few days, um, and one was that Art Rooney , too, I call him AR2, um, the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, uh, said that they expect to know whether Aaron Rodgers will come back or not before the draft.
And he said it to reporters in uh Arizona this week that he said I still expect that. So to me this seems like we've got the cordiality out of the way and it's like, OK, you know, like you've went on McAfee and said that there was no contract offer we said we'd like to know before the draft.I mean, and so I think that this is, this is how I read it, that it's like, hey Aaron, you got about checks watch 3 or 4 more weeks to play around and do whatever you wanna do, and then we, we gotta get going here.So, like, I think last year. There's a reason why the Steelers were sort of unbothered the whole time, and it's because Aaron was communicating .I would assume, I don't know for a fact, but I would assume he's talking to Mike McCarthy because there's a relationship there. And I just think the Steelers in action, I mean, their depth chart is the same now as it was last May when they were waiting, which is Mason Rudolph and Will Howard, right?You know, I , I don't think they're gonna go into the season with the depth chart looking like that. I also , I'd be surprised if they took a quarterback in the first round, just based on the makeup of the quarterback class.And because they went through that with Aaron last year, I think there's a level of trust, and there's a level of communication. Now, I, I will say like there was no absolutely 100% I'm coming until June last year, but They had an idea, and they were talking the whole time and that line of communication staying open allowed the Steelers, informed the Steelers on who they were building an offense for. And so, I think one thing that makes the Steelers comfortable, can make the Steelers comfortable now too, is to me, there's another starting quarterback out there who's sitting waiting for the sort of opportunity you can present to him, and that's Kirk Cousins, right. So I do think like if you're Pittsburgh, you look at it, you say, OK , like, Aaron, if he comes back, that's great. Um, and that's what we're hoping for, but we have another option here too, who can, you know, at least be an effective bridge for us to 2027 and help us win with the team we have right now.Um, but we at least have that backup plan, which didn't exist last year , by the way. So, they just seem to me, based on their actions and their words, like, not overly affected by all of this.It's We've talked about this a few times, Connor, like, for so long, he was out there saying, like he wanted to be known as more than a football player, right? Like, and his actions with the ayahuasca and a lot of different stuff, all the political stuff, like , like, was kind of, you know, this athlete who wanted to be seen as something as as as as more than an athlete, right?Enjoy being a football player again. I just want to be a, I like, like I want to embrace being a football player again, and I think he tried to do it that last year with the Jets, it was obviously difficult, if not impossible, with everything that happened that last year, but that last year there, but I think he found it last year with Pittsburgh, which gives him some incentive to give it one more go with them. I think too it's like you give someone space to do that like, you know, it's like you can think that you want something and Rogers certainly explored that space and then you can be like, oh wow, football is actually just really fun and I like the. Dependability of it and the schedule of it, and they're like the, you know, um, I like the, the camaraderie, the dudes, yeah, the competitiveness, and so, and I, and I think that that makes a lot of sense, you know, um, and I mean like look for for some of these guys too, it's like, it's a big commitment, you know, like, and it's not just. I mean, look, like there's been a lot of talk about, you know, Tom Brady, could he do it afterward, after that flag game, and like a lot of people are saying, well, Philip Rivers can do it. And what Phillip did was pretty remarkable, but like, let's not, let's not confuse what Philip Rivers did with playing a full season at that age, you know what I mean?Like, so, what Philip Rivers did was remarkable for sure, to be able to step in the way that he did after 5 years away and play the position at an effective level. That is not the same thing as Like after training camp and like two months of the regular season, pulling yourself out of bed on a Tuesday when you're in your 40s, after you got sacked 5 times in week 9, you know what I mean?And so, it's like that whole thing with Brady, what I said to people, I was like, I, do I think Brady could go and do it for a game?You know what I mean? Like, like you, you just And I think that's part of the equation for Aaron too, where it's like, we're not talking about like just waking up and playing 17 games, we're talking about everything that goes into getting your body ready to do that, going through a full training camp, um, the recovery , that's just the full commitment it takes to, to be a professional football player, which is like, I, it's, you have to clear a much higher bar when it comes to that. At that age than you do when you're like 24 and your body recovers naturally totally as like me and you feel when we are like feel like when we are like we feel all of that when we walk up the stairs. Um, boy, do you, don't, can't you just picture like Kirk Cousins though sitting there with a, with a Roy Rogers, just like really hoping that Aaron Rodgers decides to back out so he can, uh, real quick, because I mean, you know, how much of a separation do you see between those two?Like the Falcons did go on a winning streak with Kirk last year.I, I don't, I, I think you'll win with Kirk Cousins.It's not a 5 game difference between Rodgers and Kirk Cousins, you know. No , and I think they both like, look, like part of it for the Steelers too is kind of like that whole, um. You know, the quarterback for what they have right now, which is like an older team, and they, and, and they really doubled down on like, I, you know, this would would seem to be the natural point to, like, hey, let's go do the Steelers thing and get a young coach and, and tear it down to the studs and, and, and, and lean in on the draft, and instead of doing that, they went and got Like they, they held on to all, like, obviously TJ Watt and Jalen Ramsey, they bring back Cam Hayward, they signed Jamel Dean, they signed, uh, they, they trade for Michael Pittman, they signed Rico Dowdell, who I believe is in his 7th year now. Like, it's just, they've like gone even further in on what they already had, and they're an older team now, and so, um, You know, I mean, part of that, part of that, and maximizing a team like that is having an experienced quarterback who can kind of unlock , at least on the offensive side of the ball, unlock all the know-how of all the guys that are within that offense, you know, so, um, I do think like, I mean, I've heard people say, say , uh, say Will Howard. I just, I don't see that as a team that is built to go with a young quarterback right now, you know, no, no.
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