Few players stand to benefit more from the Aaron Rodgers signing than Pittsburgh Steelers receiver DK Metcalf.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have taken a curious path to an offense that is fairly similar to last year’s unit. In 2024, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields were below-average passers, but enough to win with. Aaron Rodgers, on the wrong side of 40 and coming off an unimpressive season, doesn’t project to be significantly better.
Both 2024 and 2025 will feature one above-average starter on the perimeter. Receiver George Pickens played well, meshing with Wilson’s strengths as a passer. For a few weeks, he and the newly acquired DK Metcalf looked to be one of the best pairings in the NFL. After the 2025 NFL Draft, Pittsburgh shipped Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys, weakening the receiving corps for a 2026 third-round pick.
The offense may have similar limitations to the 2024 campaign, but there’s every chance that Rodgers and Metcalf are improvements upon Wilson and Metcalf. Whether that’s enough to win a playoff game for the first time since 2016 is yet to be seen, but this team should be better in 2025.
After minicamp, Metcalf revealed his first impressions of the Steelers’ quarterback.
“Just how cerebral he is and how he views the game,” Metcalf said, via Penn Live’s Nick Farabaugh. “I like the way he views the game from a receiver’s standpoint, but also from a quarterback’s standpoint. I think I can gain a lot of knowledge just from being around him because he’s seen a lot of football. Just trying to soak up as much information as I can.”
For all of the reasons fans were hesitant about Rodgers, his acumen wasn’t one of them. His ability to see the field from everyone’s perspective allows him to give his teammates an edge and put them in better positions to succeed, both with his passes and his practice reps.
Needless to say, Metcalf stands to benefit from the upgrade Rodgers provides over Mason Rudolph. On the other hand, he’ll be served a healthy amount of double teams now that Pickens is in Dallas.
“I would’ve loved to play with George Pickens,” Metcalf said. “Being here, just to see how he was as a teammate, just to see what I could learn from him. It was a decision the team made and it was out of my hands.”
Much of the Steelers’ future feels like a precipice. One year of Rodgers. Another year of an aging core. Metcalf, who signed a four-year extension, should outlast that turbulence, acting as support for this quarterback and the next one, whoever it may be.
