EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Aaron Rodgers declined the Mediterranean chicken and steak dinner options but grabbed a water bottle as he headed toward the buses awaiting the Pittsburgh Steelers at MetLife Stadium.
Rodgers patted one stadium staffer on the shoulder, then paused with duffel bag and backpack in tow as another stadium employee requested a photo with the four-time MVP who was beginning an NFL season 1-0 for the 12th time.
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The stadium staffer held out his phone, but neither Rodgers nor the phone’s owner appeared on screen. Rodgers tapped the device’s bottom right corner, flipping the camera to the intended selfie mode for the desired picture. Just as the four-time MVP had flipped the narrative on his late-career MetLife games with a 34-32 win Sunday over the New York Jets team that previously employed him.
“It was nice to win, especially hearing some of the catcalls out there and the boobirds,” Rodgers said after a 244-yard, four-touchdown day. “I’m not sensitive about that — I expected that, I kind of liked that. But there were probably people in the organization who didn’t think I could play anymore.
“So it was nice to remind those people that I still can.”
Rodgers reminded the Jets not only that he can still play but also how differently the football tides can turn, when a star north of 40 years old is part of an organization rather than hoisted on a pedestal above it.
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Rodgers’ return to MetLife wasn’t characterized by brashness or gloating, the quarterback instead surprisingly even-keeled walking into the visiting locker room alongside head coach Mike Tomlin and defensive lineman Cam Heyward. But Rodgers allowed himself a couple brief opportunities to acknowledge that just seven months ago, the new Jets leadership made a very intentional decision to move on from their quarterback.
He briefly cupped his ear as he walked off the field in what seemed like an acknowledgement of booing fans, and he briefly let his guard down when asked not about the Jets as a whole — about whom he’d already named off friends and advocates multiple times — but instead when asked about first-year Jets head coach Aaron Glenn.
Rodgers did not deny or dismiss a reporter’s question that referenced Glenn telling Rodgers he was not the right guy for the Jets. It was then, when asked specifically about Glenn, that Rodgers strayed from party lines like “I love beating everybody” and “I really only played 18 games here.”
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Was there a significance in beating Glenn to Rodgers?
“I was happy,” Rodgers said, “to beat everybody associated with the Jets.”
Rodgers the first but far from the last new Steeler to show up vs. Jets
From the game’s first quarter, Rodgers began his Steelers career more smoothly than he began his two-season tenure with the Jets.
Even a first-snap sack from Quinnen Williams, whom Rodgers considers a friend, offered an opportunity for Rodgers to show his team: I’ll get back up. His body did not break, as it had two years prior on his first drive, when an Achilles tear ended Rodgers’ season after just four plays.
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Instead, Rodgers rallied from the sack to find tight end Pat Freiermuth for 11 yards on third-and-10. He’d rally receiver DK Metcalf from a drop to find Metcalf the immediate next play for 23 yards on third-and-10. By the drive’s first end, Rodgers was teeing up tight end Ben Skowronek for a 22-yard touchdown.
The Steelers scored again on the same play-action call early in the fourth quarter.
“I couldn’t believe coming off that fake he was wide open,” Rodgers said of the first score. “I was throwing the ball thinking, ‘Man, Ben’s going to score the first touchdown today.’”
Rodgers hit four different teammates for touchdowns, including two tight ends, a receiver and a running back. He distributed the ball to teammates who arrived in Pittsburgh before him to quarterback play less prolific, and to fellow offseason acquisitions — a group that impacted the game’s outcome dramatically.
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The “win-now” mentality that motivated general manager Omar Khan and co. this spring and summer showed early promise. Take the first four plays of the fourth quarter, which featured a Rodgers touchdown followed by Kenny Gainwell forcing a fumble on the kick return and then Rodgers scoring another touchdown two plays later to reclaim the Steelers’ lead.
July trade acquisition Jalen Ramsey sealed the quarter, and the game, with a pass breakup denying Garrett Wilson and the Jets their final chance.
Rodgers, Gainwell and Ramsey played for the Jets, Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins last season.
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“They wanted to bring difference makers in,” said tight end Jonnu Smith, another Steelers newcomer who scored in the opener. “And along with the guys who were here last year with the team and years prior, we felt it was a good match. We all individually made some key plays today and we just got to continue to hone in on, speaking for myself, the details and keep pressing forward.
“It was a good team win.”
As Steelers look toward improvement, they say Rodgers ‘kept hope within this team’
The Steelers didn’t hire Rodgers simply to win an opener against the Jets.
A muted-by-NFL-winning-team-standards locker room hinted there was a bigger picture. Players were glad to secure the W but knew a revenge game doesn’t count toward their playoff hopes anymore than a blowout game. The franchise acted like it’d been there before and acted like it had somewhere else to go.
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Rodgers spoke of the need to clean up elements of his game, Metcalf also eager to show he could catch the ball more surely on targets. Ramsey qualified celebration of his game-sealing pass breakup in noting “I should’ve caught the pick a couple plays earlier” while the defense fairly unanimously agreed that allowing 182 rushing yards, and 394 total offensive yards, is unacceptable.
The Steelers beat the Jets despite gaining just 271 yards. Winning the turnover margin helped, but surer teams will not let victory slip as easily from their hands.
So a resolve settled over Pittsburgh’s locker room ready to get back to work. And in that resolve arose a confidence: because for the first time in four seasons, a Steelers quarterback threw four touchdown passes.
Before Sunday, the last Steelers QB to achieve the feat was Ben Roethlisberger — on Jan. 10, 2021.
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There’s reason to believe the Steelers have raised their ceiling. Confidence in Rodgers is high.
“We were never out of the fight,” Ramsey said. “[Rodgers] kept hope within this team. They kept going out there and executing in the situations and the clutch moments that we needed him to.”
That’s a hope Rodgers wanted a 2025 club to place in him.
He wondered this offseason whether his competitive juices would again fire at this level, Rodgers said Sunday. During moments on the MetLife sideline, he internally thanked his wife and friends for encouraging him to take his time and not dismiss the reasons to return.
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Rodgers sought to play again not primarily to prove the Jets wrong as much as himself that he could finish his career on a brighter note. As he exited MetLife down the loading dock’s concrete steps, Lakers cap above his black sweatsuit and MetLife staffer selfie successfully captured, Rodgers exuded that more than any pettiness or negativity.
“To have the [2023] season taken away like that and to battle back and have a rough season last year … I gave as much as I could to the team and it didn’t work out,” Rodgers said of the Jets. “I didn’t have any hard feelings about it not working out. Now, I didn’t maybe appreciate the way it went down in the end — but that’s in the past. And we’re 1-0.
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“Happy to be a Steeler and happy things went the way they did today.”
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