LATROBE, Pa. \u2014 Aaron Rodgers learned last season that he can\u2019t outrun the clock. He\u2019s slower in his 40s than he used to be. His arm strength isn\u2019t there as consistently as it once was, either. It\u2019s his mind, though, that really keeps him going at age 42, in his 22nd \u2014 and, as he vowed, his last \u2014 NFL season. It\u2019s why his new (and old) coach, Mike McCarthy, is convinced they can make one more run at Super Bowl glory together. And it\u2019s the quirky Rodgers\u2019 best chance to out-maneuver the passage of time. “His mind\u2019s incredibly sharp,” McCarthy, the Steelers coach, told me before practice on Sunday at St. Vincent College. “But I\u2019ll be honest with you, his ball play in this camp has been top-notch. Obviously, I\u2019ve coached a lot of football with him, but his ability to place the football \u2026 I\u2019m not saying he lost any velocity on the ball, but if he has, it\u2019s definitely made up for with his anticipation. “So he\u2019s getting the ball where it needs to be, on time. He\u2019s having a hell of a camp.” McCarthy would know. This may be his first season coaching his hometown Steelers, but he spent 13 wildly successful seasons as Rodgers\u2019 head coach in Green Bay. They went to the playoffs eight times, won a Super Bowl together, and he helped Rodgers develop into one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game. The late-career reunion between the 62-year-old coach and his former prot\u00e9g\u00e9 has been “super cool,” McCarthy told me. But it\u2019s a lot more than just a trip down memory lane. He still sees Rodgers as a quarterback who can help him win. “It\u2019s super cool, just to be able to be part of his final chapter. It\u2019s awesome,” McCarthy told me. “But I think he definitely fits the culture here. So yes, I think it\u2019s a great story. “But I think we just want to win. Let\u2019s go win and do the things that we need to do to win. And he\u2019s such a competitor. I love the time, once we cross the white lines, when we get to just go out there and compete. And he is one of the greatest to ever play the game.” Notice, he didn\u2019t say “was” \u2014 a purposeful choice of words. Rodgers, by his own standards, was just OK last season, completing 65.7% of his passes for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions. His age was showing, even as he dragged the Steelers to 10 wins and the AFC North title. He looked like a good quarterback overall, but not one capable of doing any of the magical things he used to do. But his mind, his processing skills and ability to see what others can\u2019t in a defense, give him and the Steelers an enormous advantage. And that\u2019s where the magic really happens, McCarthy said. “His mind is off the charts,” McCarthy told me. “His anticipation and ability to throw people open, his instincts \u2026 and he also matches it with his release, the way he\u2019s able to get the ball out of his hands so quickly and throw through the open window where (defenders) are running through. That\u2019s the way you have to play and win in this league, because people are always covered. It\u2019s the job of the quarterback to throw them open.” Even in practice, it\u2019s clear that Rodgers still does that better than anyone. He has the patience to let a play develop, the wisdom to see what is about to happen, and the skills to put the ball in the only place it can go. And after almost every rep on Sunday, he was talking to his coaches, receivers and linemen, explaining to them exactly what he saw. Whether it all translates into wins, a playoff berth, or even one last run at a Super Bowl, probably depends on Rodgers\u2019 42-year-old body, and whether he can keep it from breaking down. But don\u2019t bet against that, even at his age, since he\u2019s played near-full seasons in seven of the past eight years. And if he can do it one more time, then maybe \u2014 just maybe \u2014 his mind is what will matter most, and he and McCarthy have enough left for one more magical run. The Steelers’ defense was middling last season (17th in scoring), but they did have a surprisingly potent pass rush. It was “surprising” because they got 48 sacks (sixth in the NFL) despite a down year from T.J. Watt, their longtime star. He had only seven sacks \u2014 just his third season not reaching double-digits (and his worst total in a full season). It\u2019s safe to say Pittsburgh expected more when it signed him to a three-year, $123 million extension last July. So he really needs to show that his two-year statistical decline isn\u2019t irreversible even though he\u2019ll be 32 in October. Last season, his sack total was still the third-highest on the team. Imagine how potent the pass rush could be if Watt \u2014 who had 19 sacks in 2023 and 11.5 in 2024 \u2014 gets anywhere near his old form. The Steelers need that from the eight-time Pro Bowler. They know their quarterback will need as much support as he can get. Backing him with an aggressive, disruptive defense, preferably led by Watt, might be the best thing they could do to help Rodgers out. “I wouldn\u2019t do this if I didn\u2019t think I could win a Super Bowl. Once you lift that trophy up, there\u2019s nothing else in this business.” \u2014 Steelers coach Mike McCarthy told me Everything Is Riding On Aaron Rodgers\u2019 42-Year-Old Arm There\u2019s a lot to like about this team that McCarthy inherited from Mike Tomlin. It\u2019s the core of a team that won 10 games last season, after all. And they should get a boost from McCarthy. Nothing against Tomlin. He had a phenomenal record in Pittsburgh over the past 19 years. But it\u2019s possible that what he was preaching probably got a little stale. To get that new-coach boost, McCarthy will need T.J. Watt to bounce back, so the defense can be a little bit more like it’s used to being in the Steel City. And the addition of Dowdle, who McCarthy developed into an RB1 in Dallas, could give Pittsburgh the running game it was missing last year. But winning all comes down to the same thing it came down to last year. The Steelers have an old quarterback, who\u2019s not quite what he used to be. And they need a lot from Rodgers at age 42. He\u2019s still good and smart and capable of some big plays. But he\u2019s not the one-man show that he was a decade ago, or the error-free maestro he was five years ago when he won back-to-back MVPs. He\u2019s no longer even a top 10 quarterback in the NFL. Last year, he was good enough to lead this team to the playoffs. But this year, the division could be much tougher if Lamar Jackson stays healthy in Baltimore and Joe Burrow is around for a whole season in Cincinnati. Getting to 10 wins again could be quite the challenge for Pittsburgh. Eight seems like a more realistic goal. And finishing better than third in the division could be pretty tough, too. First of all, Cleveland rocks. I don\u2019t care what people say about it, it\u2019s always been an underrated city. OK, not always, but it certainly has become one. And I\u2019m sure Berea, Ohio \u2014 home of the Browns \u2014 rocks, too. If only it had a football team to match. I\u2019m sure new Browns coach Todd Monken thinks there\u2019s something positive about the team he\u2019s assembling on the shores of Lake Erie, and I\u2019ll travel three hours through the hills of Western Pennsylvania and the Ohio valley to find out \u2014 apparently through a horrendous rain storm that is about to hit. (By the time I get there, by the way, I\u2019ll have driven almost 1,400 miles on this trip. I think I\u2019ve passed 1,400 Sheetz gas stations along the way, too. Not nearly as many Flying J\u2019s, though, so it\u2019s probably good that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam sold all those.) Anyway, back to Haslam\u2019s Browns: Myles Garrett is gone. There\u2019s still no viable quarterback in place. It\u2019s hard to have faith in either Shedeur Sanders or what\u2019s left of Deshaun Watson. But people have underestimated and overlooked Cleveland the city, so maybe we\u2019re all doing it to the Browns, too? I doubt it. But I\u2019m certainly on the lookout for positives. I\u2019m just not expecting to see many at practice on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LATROBE, Pa. \u2014 Aaron Rodgers learned last season that he can\u2019t outrun the clock. He\u2019s slower in his 40s than he used to be. His arm strength isn\u2019t there as consistently as it once was, either. It\u2019s his mind, though, that really keeps him going at age 42, in his 22nd \u2014 and, as he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}