The plain hope with Aaron Rodgers is that he may help the Pittsburgh Steelers offense take the following step. However maybe he can present an identical enhance to a protection that has excessive hopes of being the league’s easiest.
“The nice on good work is an apparent factor,” Mike Tomlin mentioned of Rodgers versus the protection by way of Movin’ the Chains on SiriusXM NFL Radio with Pat Kirwan and Jim Miller. “However there’s so many delicate advantages that you just actually don’t speak or take into consideration the way in which he’s difficult them pre-snap. There’s snap readiness, like his capability to work cadence and alter tempo. Generally he’s first-sounding them not giving them a chance to speak. Generally he’s hard-counting them, double-counting them, triple-counting them.
“His capability to work the road of scrimmage by cadence and modifications of tempo is actually good coaching for protection.”
Serving to the move rushers and defensive linemen put together for various arm angles and a fast launch is one factor, however stressing communication for the whole protection is difficult to simulate with no quarterback like Rodgers. He’s recognized for his cadence and his capability to catch defenses off guard in the midst of substitutions.
It’s the identical factor that led to his viral second the place Tomlin beat him to the punch with a timeout as he rushed to drive a penalty on the Steelers protection.
It’s no secret that the protection has lacked correct communication for the previous few years. And it’s no huge shock that the protection has skilled huge turnover with a revolving door of inside linebackers and safeties over that very same span. They’ve a number of the similar challenges to beat this yr with Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay, Juan Thornhill, Brandin Echols, Malik Harrison and Chuck Clark all new to the workforce.
On the constructive facet, they’ve Patrick Queen returning to put on the inexperienced dot once more. And Payton Wilson may very well be an every-down participant to assist the down-to-down continuity.
Rodgers will put that group by the wringer in observe to arrange for any and all game-like situations the protection will see in the course of the season. If they will get themselves organized whereas Rodgers is deliberately making life tough for them, they need to be as much as the duty in opposition to anyone.
