By acquiring four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers this offseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers redesigned their quarterback room. The future Hall of Famer will be the Steelers’ quarterback for the 2025 campaign after they have cycled through five different starting quarterbacks in the previous three years: Mitchell Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, Russell Wilson, and Justin Fields.
The Steelers are still early in training camp, and Rodgers didn’t sign and start practicing with Pittsburgh until June, but his influence on the squad is already evident. This is especially true for the defense, which is growing used to the difficulties of practicing every day against one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
Regarding practicing against Rodgers, Pittsburgh linebacker T.J. Watt stated on The Pat McAfee Show: “Frustrating because he talks a lot of smack,”
“He really does. A lot of the no-look passes are things that we’re getting used to. I like to bat down a lot of passes at the line of scrimmage, he’s able to manipulate the defense good, so that’s been very frustrating. Hopefully one day we get the better of him.”
“Aaron Rodgers talks a lot of smack 😂😂
It’s been very frustrating going against him”@_TJWatt #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/OhH1hFKqhv
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 30, 2025
The defensive tackle for the Steelers Regarding Rodgers, Cam Heyward added: “His cadence is deadly,” “The thing he does best is he knows how to abuse the play clock. It’s ridiculous, but it’s gonna make us better.”
In turn, Rodgers has faced challenges from the Pittsburgh defense, which most recently raised concerns about an interception he made during his first practice of training camp.
Regarding playing defense, Rodgers stated, as reported by ESPN’s Brooke Pryor: “It’s not a bad thing to get beat up a little bit,”
“… Sometimes you can learn more from the failures in training camp than getting after him every single day.”
