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Future first-ballot Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers decided to return for one final season seemingly because of the opportunity to reunite with head coach Mike McCarthy. However, recent comments offer one reason to be concerned about what that could mean for the Pittsburgh Steelers offense this fall.
Speaking to Chris Adamski of TribLive.com ahead of his final NFL training camp, Rodgers said that the offense McCarthy is implementing for the Steelers this coming season has a lot of “stuff that we used to run” in Green Bay but just with different names.
“”I spent 13 years in (McCarthy’s offense). He’s changed some stuff when he was in Dallas. … It’s stuff that we used to run, but he’s just called it something different now.”
Pittsburgh Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers on Mike McCarthy’s offense in 2026 (H/T NFL.com)
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On the surface, that might not sound like a bad thing. During their time together with the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers posted a 103.5 passer rating with a 64.9 percent completion rate, a 6.2 percent touchdown rate, and averaged 269.7 passing yards per game as the starter. He also won NFL MVP twice during that span, and the Packers posted a 100-57-1 regular-season record with him under center.
However, opponents started catching up to McCarthy’s system, and there was a noticeable fall-off for the offense. From 2014-16, Rodgers had a 102.8 passer rating with a 32-16 record, and the Packers’ offense ranked third in EPA per Play (0.088) and sixth in Success Rate (45 percent) during that span, per RBSDM.com.
Now compare that to McCarthy’s final two seasons in Green Bay and what led to him being fired 12 games into the 2018 season. During that two-season stretch, Rodgers’ passer rating fell to 97.5 with a 10-12-1 record as the starter. In addition, the Packers’ offense fell to 12th in EPA per Play (0.016) and eighth in Success Rate (45.6 percent).
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Rodgers, still in his 30s at the time, followed that up with consecutive NFL MVP honors from 2020-21 under head coach Matt LaFleur. Six years later, he’s coming off an age-41 campaign where he had a modest 94.8 passer rating.
Now, McCarthy and Rodgers are back together with a playbook that the NFL has more than a decade of experience with that will be executed on the field by a 42-year-old quarterback.
There’s another issue we see. At a time when many of the best NFL offenses incorporate a lot of pre-snap motion, Pittsburgh could go in the opposite direction. The Steelers ranked 17th in motion percentage last year (52.1 percent) under play-caller Arthur Smith. With McCarthy holding the play sheet, there’s a chance Pittsburgh will use pre-snap motion less in 2026, and that could be another hurdle this team has to overcome each week.
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