Rodgers and McCarthy are Not the Right Fit for The Steelers
/Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers are giving it another year. It is so hilarious to me that this is happening. This is going to explode so loudly in their faces. I feel really bad for Steelers fans, and that is a hard feeling for me to get to with this team.
I've never been a Steelers fan. I always kind of rooted against them. I loved when they had Lamar Woodley, but I could separate my fandom for him from their team. But now they are dipping back into the Aaron Rodgers mess and, with Mike Tomlin out as head coach, this is going to be a mitigated disaster.
Mike Tomlin was one of the best coaches the NFL has ever seen. He squeezed every inch of talent he could out of his rosters. He won a Super Bowl, but what is almost as impressive as achieving the highest honor in football, he never had a record below .500. Every year that he coached in the NFL, a long spanning career, he always had a winning record. That is pretty cool. But he is out and the Steelers had the wise decision, I'm being sarcastic, to go out and hire Mike McCarthy.
Look, McCarthy has a Super Bowl ring as well, but he doesn't even come close to the career Tomlin had, and will have again soon, as a head coach in the NFL. I was up close and personal to the whole Mike McCarthy experience. In fact, I was incredibly close to the McCarthy and Rodgers experience. I'm a Packers fan. I have been ever since I was a kid. And when these two got together it was wildly inconsistent and frustrating. The Packers teams that McCarthy helmed and Rodgers QB ed were very, very talented. They won the NFC North a ton. They were always in the playoffs. They could run and pass the ball. The defense was competent, and got really good when they acquired Charles Woodson. But they only won one ring. They would bow out of the playoffs way too early every season, and it would be due to some odd or weird coaching error. McCarthy is awful with clock management. He seems to only focus on offense. He was, at one time, considered a QB guru, but I never really saw that. He was prickly with the media and the fans and he just really got under my skin. When the Packers moved on from him it was such a great day. I have my own issues with LaFleur right now, but he is so much more innovative and fun as a head coach than McCarthy ever was during his tenure.
Rodgers was, and still is, just a jerk during his time with the Packers. He won an MVP and a ring, but he also was a liar and self obsessed. He still is for that matter. He thinks he is better than everyone. He is a curmudgeon, and not a fun one. He was hard to root for and I was stoked when he left. And these aren't some new feelings I have about him. You can ask my father and RD, I was bummed about him the moment the Packers drafted him. I have never, ever been an Aaron Rodgers fan. So, with both of them gone from Green Bay, and with LaFleur and Jordan Love taking their places, who have flaws of their own, it has been so much better to be a Packers fan. It helps that they're still relevant too.
Now the Steelers are going to have to deal with all of their nonsense. The whole offseason back and forth between the two of them should have been all the Steelers needed to move on. With Tomlin out maybe it was time for the Steelers to fully rebuild. They could have taken a QB higher in the draft this year, but they decided to draft another QB that needs a ton of work. But the Steelers gave in. They gave Rodgers all the time he wanted and all the money he asked for. They let him hold them hostage. And, if his last stint as head coach was any indication of what's to come, the NFL has passed Mike McCarthy by. He is not prepared or ready for modern NFL offenses. He still thinks he can win with a 42 year old QB. He is going to let Rodgers run the show, and that is going to blow up in his face. Rodgers is too volatile and too old. McCarthy is too stubborn and doesn't have a backup plan at QB. The NFL is better when the Steelers are relevant, but as long as they have these two egomaniacs at the highest levels in the organization they are not going to be very good. The defense needs to reload as well. They have dudes to replace. They don't really have a solid run game. The receiving corps is going to grow to despise Rodgers very soon.
I think this may be the worst move of the whole offseason in the NFL. I look at this signing as being worse than the Rams taking Ty Simpson 13th overall in the most recent draft. This was an odd decision, but maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Mike McCarthy is trying to stay relevant and keep the Steelers in the playoff conversation, but the game has passed him. And Rodgers is too egotistical to realize that his prime was over over a decade ago. This is a poor move that is going to end not very well for the Steelers.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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