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The Pittsburgh Steelers are on the mend with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, officially re-signing the 21-year-old veteran Monday morning for a second season in Pittsburgh. The move also rekindles a family association with coach Mike McCarthy, marking their first reunion since 2018.
On FOX Sports’ “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd, FOX Sports analyst Geoff Schwartz joined the show to discuss Rodgers’ reunion with McCarthy. Cowherd questioned McCarthy’s support for the move, suggesting he would prefer to work with the team’s young quarterbacks.
“Believe [Mike] “McCarthy is taking a bullet publicly because he’d rather go with the kids,” Cowherd said. But he got the job and part of the deal is not to badmouth us when we bring Aaron in. [Rodgers] back.”
Schwartz pointed to previous tension between Rodgers and McCarthy in Green Bay, where their working relationship ended with McCarthy’s firing in 2018 amid reported friction. He questioned how the meeting in Pittsburgh would work given that history.
“Remember, Aaron Rodgers and McCarthy didn’t end well, like he got himself fired,” Schwartz said. “Now, are they supposed to go back to being best friends at work? They’re professionals, but again, I don’t know if you’re a Steelers fan, how you expect the season to turn out.”
Not only have the Steelers struggled to find a long-term answer at quarterback, but playoff success has also become a concern. The team has largely settled in the 8-9 win range in recent seasons, reflecting mediocrity.
Pittsburgh’s last postseason victory was in 2017, when it defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Divisional Round.
“You know exactly how this is going to go,” Schwartz said. “They haven’t won a playoff game in nine years, but you knew what the last nine was going to be like anyway, but this doesn’t seem like a hope.”
Schwartz questioned whether Pittsburgh’s commitment to staying competitive in the short term is preventing a necessary reset with an aging roster.
“I think if you asked McCarthy, ‘Hey, let’s get rid of the old guys, let’s be young this year and go strong next year,’ I think he’d rather take that,” Schwartz said. “But the pride, the organization, at some point they should have to say for a year or two that we are going to be bad.”
The Steelers never fully hit the reset button or entered into a traditional rebuild, but Schwartz has pointed to examples where that approach has worked elsewhere.
“There are probably examples of how it works,” Schwartz said. “The Patriots got Drake Maye, like it works if you do it right. It works if you do it right and Pittsburgh refuses to do it right.”
