When the Pittsburgh Steelers brought back Aaron Rodgers, it seemed like his final year would be the right one, with hopes that Pittsburgh had a chance to win a Super Bowl.
Instead, the Steelers look about average at the moment, sitting at 1-1 after a disappointing 20-3 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday in Week 2.
Honestly, the Patriots didn’t even do a whole lot, throwing for just 191 yards and scoring seven or fewer points in each quarter.
It wasn’t as though the Steelers were completely outmatched on the defensive side of things, but the offense’s inability to get anything going was very concerning. Aaron Rodgers finished with just 187 yards on 39 attempts, completing 23 passes. He didn’t throw a touchdown and had one interception.
The run game wasn’t much better, as Jaylen Warren rushed for 43 yards on 11 carries, and Rico Dowdle finished with 22 yards on 27 carries.
Regardless, some still believe the situation with Joey Porter Jr. is the biggest problem with this team, adding that Rodgers’ age suggests the Steelers are all-in to win right now, so not paying their star cornerback somewhat contradicts that.
“Running off your best cornerback is in direct contradiction to keeping a 42-year-old quarterback for the purpose of winning now. If Mike Tomlin was still coaching, Porter would have been given what he wants two weeks ago.
“But McCarthy isn’t involved at that level of decision-making like Tomlin was… If Porter gets traded, which seems the best bet, the secondary and defense will be so damaged that every failure on that side of the ball will be visited upon that move,” Mark Madden wrote.
I don’t disagree with what Madden is trying to say in the sense that if the Steelers brought back Rodgers, we all knew they were trying to win. When that happened, it felt like Pittsburgh was going all-in to try to win at a high level.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case, and the Steelers are now seeing the downside of not doing that. It’ll be interesting to see how that changes, but it doesn’t feel like Porter will be with the team much longer.
