Aaron Rodgers is officially on the Pittsburgh Steelers' OTA roster and has already gotten to work on the field with his teammates after agreeing to a one-year deal with the team. But in the months leading up to his decision to return, there was much debate on which direction this franchise should go.
While Rodgers helped lead the Steelers to a 10-7 record last season and a playoff berth, his showing against the Houston Texans in the Wild Card round was disastrous. Many assumed this would be enough for Pittsburgh to look elsewhere in 2026. It was not.
Now, the Steelers could regret not listening to the advice of one NFL analyst.
In April, ESPN's Benjamin Solak expressed just how bad Rodgers truly was last season with a video on X, and why the Steelers can't buy into Rodgers for another season in 2026.
"Out of 38 quarterbacks last year, Rodgers was 33rd in drop-back success rate. That means, down-to-down, the Steelers were not consistently creating positive plays on offense. A big part of the reason is because they didn't push the football. Rodgers was 37th in terms of the percent of his throws that went at least 10 yards down the field. He led the league in throws behind the line of scrimmage..."
"In his old age, he's 42-years old, he has become scared of pushing the football down the field and holding onto the football. He doesn't scramble anymore, either. There's no more creation left in his game. In an NFL that increasingly values explosives, this is untenable. You cannot build a passing offense around Rodgers that wins in modern ways..."
The Pittsburgh Steelers could regret signing Aaron Rodgers for the 2026 season
Solak hit the nail on the head when evaluating Rodgers' performance last season. While some fans would argue that his lack of explosive plays was due to the absence of a true No. 2 wide receiver and that Rodgers was at the mercy of Arthur Smith's play-calling, the film told a different story.
Rodgers was timid and risk-averse. He took care of the football (just seven interceptions in 16 starts), but it came at the expense of lacking explosive plays and putting points on the board. That's not a good trade-off. This is what the film suggested as well.
The advanced stats that Solak mentioned only begin to scratch the surface of Rodgers' lack of efficiency last season.
In addition to finishing 33rd in drop-back success rate and 37th in throws behind 10 air yards, Rodgers also ranked 35th in success rate, 42nd in average depth of target, 43rd in longest time to throw, 31st in yards per attempt, 41st in intended air yards per attempt, 42nd in completed air yards per attempt, 29th in bad throw percentage, 27th in on target throw percentage, and 23rd in both EPA and QBR.
Yet this is the quarterback the Steelers were banking on returning all offseason.
Even if Rodgers sees a slight improvement in his age-43 season with Mike McCarthy calling the plays, we can't expect the 22-year veteran to suddenly play as he did in his youth. His lack of play-extension ability is a major issue at this stage of his career, and he hasn't had a good season (by NFL standards) since 2021.
This could prove to be a big mistake... but many fans already knew that.
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