Roethlisberger, Steelers hold Packers QB Aaron Rodgers in highest regard

They have been in the NFL a combined 35 seasons, their respective one-team tenures concurrently spanning four presidential administrations. With more than 300 combined wins and three Super Bowl rings, each has served as the face of a football-crazed town for a generation.

Somehow, though, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger have faced each other just once during a regular-season game. Sunday at Lambeau Field will be the second — and, likely, final — regular-season meeting matching teams quarterbacked by the pair of future Hall of Fame shoo-ins.

“It’s … an honor to share a stadium with one of the greatest and a guy that I admire — and a lot of people admire — that has just done it at such a high level for a long time,” Roethlisberger said this week in advance of Sunday’s 4:25 p.m. game between his Pittsburgh Steelers and Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers. “It’s pretty cool to watch his mastery of the game.”

Ben on Aaron Rodgers pic.twitter.com/NsrrzR9Mev

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) September 29, 2021

Rodgers is one of only seven men Roethlisberger trails on the NFL career touchdown passes list. He has 418, and Roethlisberger’s next will be his 400th.

But Roethlisberger is among just nine quarterbacks who have more career passing yards than Rodgers (Big Ben is seventh with 61,149, a little more than 10,000 more than Rodgers).

The 37-year-old Rodgers is coming off his third NFL MVP award and his second time leading the league in TD passes. Drafted in 2005 — a year after Roethlisberger — Rodgers is the only quarterback to beat him in a Super Bowl. Rodgers had 309 passing yards and three touchdowns in Green Bay’s 31-25 win in Super Bowl XLV at the end of the 2010 season.

But other than a shootout in December 2009 at Heinz Field (the Steelers earned a wild 37-36 win on a Roethlisberger “walk-off” touchdown pass), that Super Bowl is the lone on-field link Roethlisberger has to Rodgers.

That doesn’t mean he hasn’t observed from afar with respect.

Asked what he admired about Rodgers, Roethlisberger said, “Pretty much everything. The way that he just sees the game. If it’s there, he’ll take it. If it’s not, he’ll still take it and make it work because of his arm strength, because of his accuracy.

“He just has total command of the game, and it’s appreciated at the quarterback position to watch.”

Roethlisberger isn’t the only veteran Steelers player who speaks in reverential tones about Rodgers. Cornerback Joe Haden said Rodgers is his “favorite quarterback ever in the NFL.”

“His arm talent is unbelievable,” Haden said. “The way he can throw the ball, the way he can move. When I say arm talent, it’s throwing when receivers aren’t open, and putting it in places where it’s like throwing darts.

“He’s a very, very, very special quarterback.”

Rodgers has appeared to be at his peak during primetime victories the past two weeks, completing 75% of his passes for 516 yards six touchdowns and no interceptions in wins against Detroit and San Francisco.

That followed a tumultuous offseason in which Rodgers wasn’t shy about expressing his dissatisfaction with the Packers front office that almost — and still might this offseason — led to a divorce from the only organization he has known.

A Week 1 shellacking against the New Orleans Saints in which Rodgers had a 36.8 passer rating and threw two interceptions during a 38-3 loss compounded the uneasiness in the land of the cheeseheads.

Similar to how the Steelers’ season-opening win at Buffalo seems eons ago after they struggled in their next two outings, Rodgers, by all indications, has put the Saints debacle behind them.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin pointed out how that was an aberration: The Packers had three turnovers against New Orleans but have none since and led the NFL in fewest giveaways last season (11 in 16 games). They were second in fewest turnovers in 2019 and ‘18, as well.

“Aaron Rodgers and the Packers don’t turn the ball over,” Tomlin said. “This guy operates with great fluidity. He takes care of the ball. He makes good and quick decisions and has for an extremely long time.”

Rodgers is the NFL’s all-time leader in career interception percentage (1.4%).

“That’s the reason Aaron’s been around for so long: He doesn’t make the same mistake twice,” Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler said. “He reads defenses very well. He knows how to play them a little bit in terms of what’s going to be the snap count and stuff like that. A veteran guy like that is very tough to play against.”

The Steelers haven’t had that challenge for more than a decade. Rodgers did not play in 2013 and ‘17 games against the Steelers because of broken collarbones. But he certainly was formidable in earning the Super Bowl XLV MVP.

Steelers defensive captain Cameron Heyward had just finished his college career then and was in attendance as a fan.

Heyward said it would take a full “team effort” to beat Rodgers.

“You know he’s a Hall of Fame quarterback, and he’s playing at a high level,” Heyward said. “It’s going to take not just the defense, but it’s going to take the offense going out and getting seven points every time, special teams putting him in long yardage and creating splash off of that.

“And then we have to make the plays we’re supposed to on defense: sacks, turnovers. They don’t have a lot of turnovers, but you’ve got to make sure you take advantage of those opportunities against him.”

Hey, Steelers Nation, get the latest news about the Pittsburgh Steelers here.