How Rodgers seemingly warmed to Smith’s offense forward of Jets recreation
Lengthy earlier than
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers handed for 244 yards and 4 touchdowns in Pittsburgh’s 34-32 win at the New York Jets, his former workforce, on Sunday afternoon, analysts and reporters prompt that Rodgers wasn’t a very good match for a unit led by offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
Rodgers had grown accustomed to primarily being the CEO of offenses whereas with the Inexperienced Bay Packers and the Jets. Nonetheless, ESPN’s Invoice Barnwell identified on Monday that Sunday’s recreation held at MetLife Stadium provided indicators that Rodgers embraced Smith’s system this summer time.
How Aaron Rodgers was completely different within the Pittsburgh Steelers offense towards the New York Jets
“Rodgers wasn’t all the time keen on play-action and wished to maintain his eyes downfield always in Inexperienced Bay and New York,” Barnwell wrote. “However on Sunday, he went 8-of-10 off play-action for 71 yards and three touchdowns, with Smith maintaining him within the shotgun for many of his dropbacks and aligning the run recreation accordingly. 13 of the 19 designed runs for Pittsburgh’s operating backs got here out of the shotgun, a shift for a workforce that ran two-thirds of its carries from below heart final season.”
Again in June, Albert Breer of Sports activities Illustrated talked about that Rodgers beforehand “had ex-Smith staffmates” Matt LaFleur and Todd Downing as play-callers throughout his profession. LaFleur was Rodgers’ head coach with the Packers from 2019 by the 2022 season, whereas Downing served as Rodgers’ play-caller with the Jets throughout the 2024 marketing campaign.
Early into coaching camp, Smith insisted that Rodgers was “the proper match for what we wish to do with how we package deal issues” on offense. In line with ESPN stats, Rodgers ended the weekend ranked 14th within the league amongst 30 certified gamers from Week 1 with a 62.7 adjusted QBR. That stated, solely Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens had a greater passer score (144.4) than Rodgers (136.7) forward of “Monday Evening Soccer.” Moreover, Rodgers was seventh within the NFL with a 73.3 p.c completion share.
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“Rodgers did not even try a single throw 20 or extra yards downfield (although he had a number of come very shut),” Barnwell added. “Nonetheless, Rodgers was correct and he did not flip the soccer over, and that is often sufficient for the Steelers to tug out victories.”
There understandably stay considerations concerning how Rodgers’ physique will maintain up by the season on the age of 41. If nothing else, he confirmed on Sunday that he can nonetheless be a better-than-average starter towards what is meant to be a stable protection.
Pittsburgh subsequent hosts the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 14. Seattle suffered a 17-13 house loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon.
