Aaron Rodgers will not play for the Pittsburgh Steelers against his old team, the Green Bay Packers, in Thursday night’s preseason game. That much isn’t surprising. Rodgers is 42 years old and already has extensive experience with head coach Mike McCarthy’s offensive scheme from the duo’s time together in Green Bay.
What could a future Hall of Fame quarterback who has been around professional football for over two decades really gain from a few exhibition snaps in mid-August? The answer is probably nothing!
Rodgers evidently agrees with this sentiment.
Per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rodgers doesn’t see any advantages to playing preseason football that translate to “real football,” so to speak. He’s also not going to say no to playing, to be clear, but it’s not a must for the long-time veteran quarterback. Honestly? I get it.
“It’s preseason,” Rodgers said. “It’s not real football. So if I do, great. If not, great.”
“It’s preseason,” Rodgers said. “It’s not real football. So if I do, great. If not, great.”
Rodgers took this idea a step further and even noted that what you can learn from the preseason is also very different from what it used to be. His assessment? Until guys start playing in real games with live reps, there’s not much to glean from this time of year anymore:
“Preseason’s a lot different. Teams don’t run anything anymore. They just really don’t,” Rodgers continued. “Even joint practices. The first year we were doing them, it was fun because you got to play a team that wasn’t going to play how they played in the preseason. They were going to show you a lot of different things they were working on. It was like a real day at camp.
But as that got on, it just stopped being like that. It just turned into fights, and nobody showed anything. I think those are a waste of a day. I think preseason football is good to see guys with the pads on, under the lights, how they react to the nerves. But it’s not real regular season football.”
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“Preseason’s a lot different. Teams don’t run anything anymore. They just really don’t,” Rodgers continued. “Even joint practices. The first year we were doing them, it was fun because you got to play a team that wasn’t going to play how they played in the preseason. They were going to show you a lot of different things they were working on. It was like a real day at camp.
But as that got on, it just stopped being like that. It just turned into fights, and nobody showed anything. I think those are a waste of a day. I think preseason football is good to see guys with the pads on, under the lights, how they react to the nerves. But it’s not real regular season football.”
To be fair, I’m sure Rodgers would feel differently if he was a young quarterback trying to make a name for himself. But that’s no longer the case. We may see him at some point this August, but don’t count on making any grand conclusions about his play if we do.
Expect to see lots of Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, and rookie signal-caller Drew Allar against Green Bay. Allar is particularly intriguing, given that he is a third-round draft pick, suggesting the Steelers have some investment in his overall development as a potential quarterback of the future.
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