The fall guy doesn't seem fair.
The Pittsburgh Steelers decided to go all in on Aaron Rodgers this year. After what was a more dramatic than anticipated offseason edition of “will he or won’t he sign” with Rogers, Pittsburgh has selected him as their guy.
Now we need to see some actual returns on investment.
While the hope is that Rodgers will lead this team to another solid season and maybe even a playoff win, there is little guarantee of that. He is coming off a 5-12 season with the Jets and is no longer physically at the top of his game.
Despite these obvious issues, fans still seem extremely high on Rodgers this year with the Steelers. That means if he ends up disappointing, someone will have to have the finger pointed at them.
Insert Arthur Smith.
Fair or not, it seems as though the Steelers have the perfect fall guy if things go sideways with the veteran passer. If this season goes south, Smith could even get the axe in the offseason.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have their scapegoat in Arthur Smith
While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Arthur Smith signing as offensive coordinator, his style has proven successful when the team is built properly. Go back to Tennessee, and you saw an offense built around the running game with a complementary passing game to supplement.
Diving deeper, and specifically at quarterback, Smith wants a mobile enough guy who can check through reads and take what the defense gives him. Ryan Tannehill was just that and enjoyed a career resurgence while working with Smith.
While Rodgers is in a different league than Tannehill, he is also much older. The spry Rodgers that can roll out, evade defenders, and still launch the deep ball isn’t here anymore. This isn’t the end of the world for Rodgers, but it could still cause problems.
We saw a lot of running from Steelers quarterbacks last year. While some of that was designed with Justin Fields, even Russell Wilson needed to move around more than you would like. I’m not sure Rodgers can do that anymore.
He also likes to pepper his preferred targets with passes, while Smith likes to spread the ball around. No, Rodgers isn’t a horrible fit, but he certainly isn’t an ideal one.
Pittsburgh handpicked Smith to get this offense back into a good spot. To this point, they have failed to actually build a competent offense for him. Fans will be quick to turn on him if things go sideways, even though I feel like it isn’t his fault.
While I don’t think it is fair, if the Steelers and Rodgers experiment fails, Smith will take the brunt of the blame. We will just have to hope that he can run a capable ship with an aging veteran at the helm.
