Three weeks from today, the football world will be reacting to quarterback Aaron Rodgers’s debut with the Steelers. In a game at MetLife Stadium against his most recent former team, the Jets.
On Saturday night, Steelers owner Art Rooney II has offered a general reaction to the presence of the future first-ballot Hall of Famer on the team.
“Aaron’s come in and he’s been everything you could ask for in terms of working with his teammates, working with younger guys, working with the offense,” Rooney said during the broadcast of the team’s Week 2 preseason game, via Alex Kozora of SteelersDepot.com. “So, I like what I’ve seen so far from Aaron, for sure.”
Fans haven’t seen anything from Rodgers, in games. He didn’t want to play in the preseason, and coach Mike Tomlin has complied. That only adds a little extra pressure to Week 1, when he’ll be trying both to validate his new team’s belief in him. While sticking it to his old team for deciding not to keep him around.
It really is one of the most compelling storylines for the opening weekend of the season — even if it will be caught in the cluster of eight early-afternoon games.
And while the Steelers (along with every other team) will still have 16 games to play after the opener, their slate includes two games against the Ravens and Bengals each, along with showdowns with the Lions, Vikings, and Packers. They also play the Bills.
If you haven’t heard, they’ve never had a losing season under Tomlin. The real question is whether they can capture one of the seven playoff spots in a top-heavy AFC — and whether they can win a postseason game for the first time since the 2016 season.
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