Steelers Now
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin Tomlin revealed in an interview with the team’s website on Saturday that Aaron Rodgers might not play at all this preseason. Asked about coaches that don’t play their quarterbacks in the preseason, Tomlin said, “you might be looking at one.”
“This guy has been doing this for 21 years,” Tomlin said. “His cumulative snap total and what’s required for him to be ready is different than others. And so if I’m not adaptable and open to adjustments relative to the needs of our guys, then I’m not doing my job. And so you might be looking at one of those coaches in 2025.”
Former NFL quarterback Chris Simms thinks it would be a massive mistake to not give the 41-year-old quarterback any reps in the preseason.
“Hey, you want to be cautious, I get that. I think they’re making a mistake there, in my opinion,” Simms said on PFT Live. “And I know, who the hell am I to tell Mike Tomlin or Aaron Rodgers what to do. Why do we want them cobwebs out, and get used to things when it counts the most, Week 1? When you’re (playing) the New York Jets and Aaron Glenn and that stadium is going crazy and that defense is super talented and they can’t wait to show Aaron Rodgers what they’re about. The fans can’t wait to show him what they’re all about. That’s when we want to go through, ‘Oh hey, let me feel it out today and let’s get a feel for the offense?'”
Simms mentioned that Tom Brady played in the preseason in 2021, at the age of 44, when coming off a Super Bowl title.
“Even the great ones sometimes need to get out there,” Simms said. “And we’ve talked about Rodgers. He’s been one of the more jittery quarterbacks in all of football over the last two or three years. To me, it’s the experience. You always here quarterbacks (say), ‘Hey let me get hit once,’ blah blah blah, ‘it makes me feel better.'”
Rodgers doesn’t see a lot of value in preseason games in general.
“With all due respect (then I can say whatever I want), preseason football is not necessarily real football, because the defenses just don’t do a lot,” he said. “The offenses don’t ether. So you go out there with a very limited playbook against a defense that’s playing one-high zone, one-high man, two-high zone. There’s not much pressure. Oftentimes, there’s communication between the coaches about ‘hey, we’re not going to pressure this week,’ or maybe you’ll see a little pressure.”
The one area that Rodgers did say can be beneficial from a preseason standpoint is just operating the offense with a play clock, stadium radios, crowd noise, a full officiating crew and the like.
“It’s really about the operation,” he said. “If you can actually gain something from the preseason, it’s that you have 40 seconds. We have a clock out here, but it’s not always...
