What should we expect from Aaron Rodgers-led Steelers offense? Predicting how Pittsburgh’s attack will operate

Last month, we finally learned that the long -term union between Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers occurred. Rodgers sign A one -year contract, $ 13.6 million, to play what he Affirmations are his last seasonFor Pittsburgh.

This means that it is no longer theoretical, so it is time to speculate on what things could really look like when the steelers take the ground. We know who will be involved in the procedure, and we also have a decent idea of ​​what things will be structurally like thanks to what we know both in the history of Rodgers and that of the offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

But what will the marriage of all these things look like when they come together, no one knows yet. So let’s move on through all the directors involved and try to make informed assumptions about how it will work.

Offensive coordinator: Arthur Smith

Smith has a fairly extensive history of call games. He was the attacking coordinator for two years with Tennessee Titans (especially after taking care of the role of the Green Bay Matt Lafleur packers), a game coach for three years with the Falcons of Atlanta, then the Steelers offensive coordinator last year.

• We know that his teams tend to be heavy. His Falcons ranked fifth in the NFL in the race rate entitled during his three seasons there, according to Tri Media, while the Titans ranked second during his two seasons while OC and the Steelers checked fourth place last year.
• We know Smith loves Use a ton of before or SNAP movement: He used it on 51.5% of his team’s offensive games during his three years as coordinator and 57.3% of games during his three years as chief coach.
• We know he likes – no, love – Multiple final sets. Falcons used two or more tight ends on 48% of their games during Smith’s mandate, while its Titan and Steelers teams used several tight ends on 42% of their shots.

We also know that little of that does not correspond to what Rodgers offenses generally resembled during his career.

• Rodgers generally worked Passing offenses (59%called success rate), which was true both under Lafleur (57.5%) and last year in New York (63.2%).
• We know that Rodgers do not like when its teams use the movement in the snap Because he wants to be able to read a defined defense, although he has dealt with legitimate use in motion both under Lafleur (48.8%) and last year with jets (44.3%).
• We also know that Rodgers offenses Has not counted much on multiple end setsWith packers and jets that only using them 23% of the time, although this has checked up to 30% under Lafleur.

But we have also seen what it looks like when Rodgers connects with a game player with this offense style – or at least, what it can look like, in a good and bad way.

As mentioned, Smith took care of the game tasks in Tennessee after Lafleur’s departure to become the head coach of Green Bay. Smith was previously the tight end of the Titans, spending the 2018 season to work under Lafleur, and their offenses bring at least a few similarities with each other. And for a few years, drop Rodgers into Lafleur’s offensive worked as a gangbusters, up to two NFL MVP seasons and many victories. But Nathaniel Hackett worked for several years under Lafleur in Green Bay, and we saw what it looked like last year in New York. It was not pretty.

There is a fairly wide disparity in the way in which this type of union can go, and a large part depends on the question of knowing if Rodgers really wants to play inside the structure of the offense – which he only wants to do, and when he does not do so, he does very little secret and actively seeks to break things, which can imply the whole operation.

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Looking at the history of Rodgers teams in Green Bay, they often had a duo of thunder and lighting in the rear field. They had guys like Aaron Jones and Ryan Grant and James Starks, but also guys like Eddie Lacy and Jamaal Williams and Aj Dillon.

Looking at this year’s steelers, they could have something of a similar configuration, with Jaylen Warren in the role of Jones-Esque and the choice of third round Kaleb Johnson playing the role of Williams / Dillon. Warren is smaller, more and more offbeat and large in the game of passes. Johnson is a bigger back (225 pounds) which is more a runner of blocking diagram with a cut.

It should be noted that Smith also showed a preference for the biggest backs, thought that part of this was just that he had Derrick Henry in Tennessee, Tyler Allgeier (and Bijan Robinson) in Atlanta and then Najee Harris last year in Pittsburgh.

However, there should be an important role available for Johnson, if only because during his three years in Pittsburgh, several employees of offensive coaches saw Warren on Harris on the basis of Harris and have always shown a reluctance to give him the share of the Lion of Labor, probably at least part of its size. Meanwhile, Warren should be a precious asset in the game of passes, because Rodgers has shown a propensity to use his back as under the points of sale on recordings and swing passes – and we know that it can be effective when given work on the ground.

The large body of Pittsburgh receptors leaves a lot to be desired, which will make things extremely interesting since what the Rodgers are generally interested in passing Pass offenses.

Metcalf is a good player in the body of a real n ° 1 x receiver, but he does not earn objectives in this way (he was only targeted on 21.8% of his career routes, via Tri Media, who complies with Tee Higgins, as an example). It is not as effective as these guys either (1.90 yards in road career, which is just shy from the 2.00 reference which characterizes a receiver n ° 1 and is equal with another n ° 2 to Devonta Smith).

He also does not always play in his size, which could make an interesting adjustment with Rodgers, who likes to pull the ball in restricted spaces and trust his receiver to descend it. The way they register on things like the rear shoulders, the options of options (Metcalf has had several communication errors with Geno Smith in the past two years) and Go Balls should be very interesting to look at. He will not be at the level of Davante Adams or even Jordy Nelson, in all likelihood, but if he can get something like 75% of the path, the Steelers would probably be very happy.

But Metcalf is also the least of Pittsburgh’s concerns. The rest of the reception body is quite dark. Woods has been washed for a few years now. Wilson was injured and only played five shots as a recruit. Austin has 53 catches for 728 yards in two seasons of the NFL, during which he ran only 53% of the possible routes and cited only 14.6% of the time he was released in play, generating an anemic race of 1.21 rod per route.

Can Austin fulfill a role as a randall cobb-esque slot machine? Perhaps in the best absolute case, but it is definitely a high projection and which is unlikely to function as well for Pittsburgh. The best bet for a secondary reception option is probably Wilson has a second year break after just playing as a recruit.

As mentioned above, Smith likes to play several tight ends. This is probably the real path to obtain more reception production that the Steelers cannot reasonably get out of their widths.

Smith is a longtime favorite from Smith he had in Tennessee and Atlanta. He and Freiermuth probably constitute a couple somewhat similar to Smith and Kyle Pitts with the Falcons, while Washington can play the role of end of terrality which has often fallen on the Marcés Lewis in the Packers of Rodgers and the guys like Mycole Pruitt and Lee Smith for the Smith teams in Tenness.

The Steelers will really need Smith and Freiermuth to work well as options on both passes and above all stretch the field vertically in the seams, thought it will be interesting to see the frequency that Smith really plays them together rather than one of them with Washington or Heyward, given how much he likes to have a blocker on the ground.

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Realisticly, this is probably the most important part of the team. The offensive line of the jets was … not good last season, and that had a dramatic effect on the game of rodgers. To get the most out of him, he must be ready to put himself in his pocket and let the games develop rather than cutting things with an immediate throw below or a deep performative ball launched before the receiver has a chance to go down and beat his man on the road. (He designed for himself the fifth lowest pressure rate of the NFL last season, despite playing behind a bad offensive line, simply by getting rid of the ball before the games had a chance to develop.)

Packers often had fantastic offensive lines throughout Rodgers’ career, and that helped him reach the heights that his talent probably assured that he was going to reach. At its age and in its decreased capacity, however, it must be much better protected than last year, especially because it is no longer mobile enough not to move away from the pressure or really create a lot outside the structure. This group must play at an extremely high level.