Aaron Rodgers will wait at least another week before he plays in his first game as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Rodgers is among the Steelers veterans who won’t see the field when the Steelers face the Jaguars in Saturday night’s preseason opener, according to coach Mike Tomlin.
Along with Rodgers, wideout DK Metcalf, tight end Jonnu Smith, guard Isaac Seumalo, running back Jaylen Warren, cornerbacks Darius Slay, Joey Porter Jr. and Jalen Ramsey, safety DeShon Elliott, linebackers Nick Herbig, T.J. Watt, Patrick Queen, defensive tackle Cam Heyward and kicker Chris Boswell also won’t play.
While he’s open to playing in the preseason, Rodgers apparently doesn’t see much value in it. The 41-year-old quarterback essentially said as much when he was asked Wednesday about the possibility of playing in any of Pittsburgh’s upcoming preseason games.
“I’m totally on board,” Rodgers said, per 93.7 The Fan. “If [Tomlin] wants me to play, I’ll play. If not, then I won’t. … Preseason football is not necessarily real football, because defenses don’t really do a lot.”
Rodgers is right. While there are some clear benefits to preseason football (like going against someone other than your teammates), there isn’t a lot that can be gained if you’re a player of Rodgers’ caliber. As Rodgers stated, offenses aren’t facing defenses that are game planning against them, and vice versa.
Really, the preseason at this point is used more to determine position battles as coaches try to get their rosters down to 53 players. It’s not especially significant for established players, but it is important for bubble players and backups who may not get a lot of live reps when the regular season starts.
Conversely, Rodgers said that Pittsburgh’s upcoming joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be much more beneficial because defenses tend to run their full menu of plays in joint practices as opposed to a preseason game, when game plans are usually more vanilla.
What should make Pittsburgh’s joint practice with Tampa Bay even more beneficial is the fact Rodgers and Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith will be matching wits with Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles, one of the NFL’s most gifted defensive minds. It should certainly be a good test for a Steelers’ offense that has been facing what Metcalf recently said is the “best defense I’ve ever seen” on a daily basis.
“Our defense, obviously we added a lot of pieces to it,” Rodgers said. “Always early in camp, with the pads going, the defense seems to have the edge, and then second week, it starts to turn a little bit. So I feel like we’ve been playing better.”