NFL insider reveals where Steelers offense stands amid concerns about Aaron Rodgers 'rust'

by: Nick Schultz 44 minutes ago NickSchultz_7

Ahead of his first season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the sense is Aaron Rodgers won’t play in the preseason, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported. However, the veteran quarterback is working to ease concerns about possible “rust.”

Since Rodgers signed with the Steelers so late in the free agency process, he was not part of the offseason program. In the time since, though, Fowler said he is making sure to maximize practice work to make sure he stays up to speed.

Rodgers is not expected to play this week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he might also miss next week’s game against the Carolina Panthers. Mike Tomlin’s goal is to make sure Rodgers is available for the full season, which is why working with D.K. Metcalf and other weapons is so important.

“The plan is to rest him at least in preseason game action,” Fowler said Saturday on SportsCenter . “He is not playing this weekend. Next week against Carolina, he might sit, as well. Mike Tomlin could simply err on the side of caution here. He wants to preserve Rodgers for a 17-game season. He’s got a quarterback in his 40s, he knows he has to do that to some extent. But there are some questions about how much work Rodgers needs because he wasn’t around for the offseason program. You couple that with no preseason game action, he’s going into the season relatively rusty.

“But luckily for Rodgers, from what I’ve been told, he has really tried to be involved in all the practice action, not taking a lot of rest days. He’s been getting a lot of reps with D.K. Metcalf, those two tight ends that you’re going to see a lot of in this offense – Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith . So they feel like the offense is in a good place despite some of the inactivity on game day.”

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