Jason Smith and Mike Harmon aren't too high on the Steelers after the confirmed Aaron Rodgers signing. The division is still far too strong for Rodgers at this point in his career to truly make a difference for the Steelers.
Jason Smith:
"Rodgers is a Tim Tebow story, where the impact overall of Aaron Rodgers, what we talk about and his impact on the NFL off the field, meaning what is talked about and discussed is gonna be greater than his impact on the field. Because that was always the thing with Tebow. Once he got the the NFL, the impact of Tebow, what we talked about the off the field, how popular he was, that was way different from what he actually did on the field. We talk way too much much, we were not nearly proportional to what his impact on the field was right? Tim Tebow was a celebrity. That's gonna be the first thing. The talk about Aaron Rodgers is going to end up much more of an impact than what we see on the field. Because I will tell you exactly how this season's gonna go. I mentioned Tim Tebow.
His season's gonna go like Russell Wilson. Okay, he's gonna finally find a way to get it again. Being away from the team, gonna familiarize himself with the players. Whole new system. That is not really Aaron Rodgers friendly right? That's the one thing we know. That is not a great fit right? The Arthur Smith system, this is not a great fit. He does not do what Aaron Rodgers does well. Mike Tomlin is not the best head coach to bring in a gunslinger like Aaron Rodgers,who's gonna spray the ball over the field. So it's going to be a very rough fit. Will he have his moments? Yes, Rodgers will have his moments. He will because he's still Aaron Rodgers and they'll be once in a while where you see that gleam and go, man that's the first ballot Hall of Famer."
Mike Harmon:
"In the post Ben Roethlisberger era of bringing guys in and going, well, maybe there's an opportunity and maybe this will be the guy. Second chances or some of the rookies that they've drafted. None of it's played out. They're over under total sat at eight and half while the Rodgers signing was already baked in. So anybody that was expecting suddenly there to be big movement. No, the assumption was he was showing in. The only thing that would have happened is it would have gone down if it didn't arrive. And even by then, what was it going to go down a game? The Steelers are a middling team. And maybe he overachieves and outperforms expectations.
You're in a division that's difficult. Cleveland has a good roster, just questions at QB, Cincinnati and Baltimore, while we assume they're better than Cincinnati, I think the expectation is they don't give away a couple of games early in the season like they have in years past. So for Rodgers, you got better as the season went on and you can decide how much you want to buy into top 10, this top 10, that quarterbacking and just slinging it. How much is empty calories and stats?"