OTAs are underway at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ South Side complex.
On the offensive side of the ball, they don’t matter. Little can be accomplished.
The first-string quarterback isn’t there. The backup quarterbacks are getting the reps.
Top wideout DK Metcalf didn’t bother attending the first day. Perhaps because the QB expected to throw to Metcalf come Week 1 was also absent.
We don’t even know if the X’s and O’s will hold up. There’s a report that Aaron Rodgers wants to call his own plays. If so, will Rodgers be using offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s playbook? Or does Rodgers have different ideas?
Maybe Rodgers won’t have to learn a new playbook. Maybe everybody else will. Smith, too.
Minicamp is up next. It begins June 10 and lasts three days.
If Rodgers can’t spare three days, he doesn’t really want to play football and should be told to get lost.
I’ve sat on my couch and eaten Fritos for three straight days. It’s an inconsequential period of time.
It’s frustrating to still be talking and writing about this. But the Steelers’ quarterback conundrum has long since reached critical mass. Now it’s just stupid.
Former Steelers offensive lineman Trai Essex had an insightful post on X. To paraphrase, the Steelers had two legit NFL quarterbacks who wanted to stay. The Steelers declined.
The Steelers didn’t address quarterback in the draft, not properly. They waited till the sixth round to draft Ohio State’s Will Howard, who has quickly become the people’s choice. (Ben Roethlisberger’s, too.)
Now the Steelers are waiting forever for Rodgers to decide. (As Essex cleverly put it, the Steelers are being “Favre’d.” Without the alleged sexual harassment and embezzlement.)
If Rodgers chooses to not play, the Steelers might look to get Kirk Cousins from Atlanta. Rodgers is 41. Cousins is 36. It would be a veritable youth movement.
Is Rodgers having second thoughts?
As Fox’s Colin Cowherd pointed out, Rodgers and the Steelers aren’t a good fit.
The Steelers have one legit weapon. Metcalf is the lone ranger.
It looks like Calvin Austin III is the No. 2 wideout. Which means the Steelers don’t really have one. Again.
The offensive line still hasn’t coalesced despite being assembled via lots of high-end draft capital. That line needs to be great because Rodgers can’t move.
The playbook is boring and prehistoric. The Steelers’ offensive approach is boring and prehistoric.
OTAs aren’t really an issue. OTAs don’t matter much in the first place. Nobody ever made a team at OTAs or carved out a more significant role.
OTAs are busy work. A way for the coaches to assemble players, make sure they’re in shape and focused, putting football first, staying under the team’s thumb.
Nothing gets achieved, especially when your first-string quarterback isn’t there.
But for the Steelers, this year’s OTAs are a sign of the times.
Rudolph was QB1 on Tuesday. Austin was WR1 on Tuesday.
Cam Heyward on Rodgers’ absence: “Who says you can’t be better if you aren’t here? To each his own.”
What a cuck. Heyward is scared of Rodgers. The entire organization is.
Waiting this long for Rodgers has shredded the Steelers’ credibility and dignity. Terry Bradshaw certainly thinks so.
“That’s a joke,” Bradshaw said. “That guy needs to stay in California. Go somewhere and chew on bark.”
Bradshaw might be a crotchety old man at this point. But he’s got four Super Bowl rings. Bradshaw practically invented how to be a Steeler.
Bradshaw knows that this ain’t it.
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