NFL: Aaron Rodgers impresses on Pittsburgh Steelers debut but can he reach Super Bowl?
Rodgers has always demanded a lot from his team-mates and called out one of his receivers during a post-match news conference last season.
Perhaps Sunday’s game showed that the veteran has mellowed – and that he is able to compensate for his limited movement following his season-ending injury in 2023.
“He’s able to get the ball out so fast and be so accurate, and he’s making changes at the line of scrimmage,” said Schecter.
“The way his brain works, he’s like having a coach on the football field.
“He has really developed so much, not just from a quarterback perspective, but in terms of how he’s managing his team-mates,” she added.
“There’s a great example in the game when DK Metcalf, a star receiver, drops the football. Perhaps in the past, Rodgers wouldn’t have gone back to him, but the next play he gets the football in his hands. That’s the new version of Aaron Rodgers that we’re so excited to see.”
Rodgers, whose solitary Super Bowl win came against Pittsburgh in 2011, turns 42 in December, but Tom Brady won his last Super Bowl aged 43 and retired at 45.
The Steelers have not won a play-off game since 2017 but Mike Tomlin is used to grinding out results as, since becoming their head coach in 2007, he is yet to have a losing season.
“I don’t think age is the issue [for Rodgers],” said Schecter. “I mean, look at Tom Brady and what he was able to do. I think he’s changed the narrative around what age you can be in order to play this amazing sport, especially at quarterback.
“And because of [Rodgers’] football IQ, there’s no defence that he has not seen or come up against in all of his years, so it’s really up to him.”
What could be Rodgers’ farewell tour continues at home to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.
Pittsburgh play the Minnesota Vikings in Dublin on 28 September and have two of the NFL’s best quarterbacks in their division – the AFC North – so Rodgers could play two games against both Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati).
He is set to face last season’s MVP, Josh Allen (Buffalo), and has a reunion with Green Bay scheduled for 26 October in Pittsburgh.
Schecter said: “Does he want to continue to play after this? Or is this a season where he thinks, I’m with a team who are perennial winners, they always make it to the play-offs. They’ve just been missing that little spice, and maybe Aaron Rodgers can be that little extra bit that pushes them all the way to bring home a Lombardi Trophy.”