During his Monday press conference, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur downplayed the storyline of playing Aaron Rodgers on Sunday night at Acrisure Stadium.
“We’re playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, who happen to have Aaron Rodgers. It’s as simple as that. That is for you guys to talk about,” LaFleur said. “Granted, I mean we’ve got a lot of respect and love for Aaron. I mean, what he’s done here. He is a Hall of Famer. And I know our past together, we had a lot of great moments. But this game is not about that”
LaFleur added, “I don’t even know if many of these guys played with him. There’s a few guys but I think that’s just — it’s for you guys.”
In the offseason, LaFleur also weighed in on going up against his former quarterback.
“It’ll be a great challenge for us. I’m sure he’ll be telling everybody all our signals, so we’ll probably have to be playing that mind game a little bit,” LaFleur said, via Ryan Wood of USA Today.
LaFleur coached Rodgers in Green Bay from 2019-2022. Rodgers won NFL MVP in back-to-back years in 2020-2021.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love looks forward to facing his mentor and former teammate.
“I was excited for A-Rod,” Love said in an interview with Jason Wilde of ESPN Milwaukee this offseason when asked about Rodgers signing with the Steelers. “I don’t feel like I was too surprised. There were a lot of rumors going on the whole offseason about him going to the Steelers. I was excited for him that he was going to keep playing. It’s going to be fun, it’s going to be awesome. I’m excited for it. I can’t wait to be on different sides meeting up and I know we’ll talk pregame and things like that and hopefully we can exchange jerseys after.”
Sunday night’s game will have an endless amount of storylines with Rodgers playing Green Bay for the first time since departing after the 2022 season.
Rodgers can become one of five quarterbacks in NFL history to beat all 32 teams with a win over the Packers on Sunday night.
With a win over the Packers, Rodgers will join Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees on the all-time list of QBs to beat all 32 NFL teams.
Rodgers finished 23 of 34 for 249 yards and four touchdowns in Thursday night’s loss to the Bengals, but the two turnovers loomed large in the back-and-forth game. It’s the second time this year that Rodgers has tossed four touchdowns.
Rodgers has thrown for 200-plus yards in five of six games, with 249 being the most.
Through six games, Rogers has completed 118 of 172 pass attempts (68.6%) for 1,270 yards with 14 touchdowns, five interceptions, and a passer rating of 105.0. Rodgers is tied for fourth-most in touchdown passes this year so far.
The Packers are coming off a 27-23 win over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 7. All-Pro edge rusher...