The Pittsburgh Steelers made the playoffs last season with Russell Wilson under center, but the team moved on to a new quarterback this offseason. That QB is Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers is one of the best NFL QBs of all time, but he is past his prime. It will be interesting to see how he performs after a rough season with the New York Jets, and it will also be interesting to see how his relationship is with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

Last season, there were some issues with Arthur Smith and Russell Wilson. Smith reportedly wasn't happy with Wilson changing plays at the line of scrimmage, and people are wondering if he will give Aaron Rodgers more freedom.

“This is a hot-button issue in Pittsburgh, with numerous readers asking some variation of this same question,” Steelers insider Mike DeFabo wrote. “From what I understand, there was some friction between Wilson and Smith by the end of the 2024 season. Some of that centered on how frequently the QB wanted to make adjustments at the line of scrimmage. It’s not that Smith was completely opposed to Wilson making changes or told him he wasn’t allowed to do so, but there were times the OC wanted the QB to run the play as called.”

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Mike DeFabo expects Smith to give Rodgers some more leeway. Rodgers obviously has a ton of experience and knowledge of the game, and the Steelers want him to be as comfortable as possible.

“I think Smith has enough respect for Rodgers that he’ll afford the four-time MVP a bit more freedom, especially with hand signals to make route adjustments without changing the entire play,” DeFabo added. “In my opinion, if the Steelers believe in Rodgers at this stage of his career, their best bet is that the veteran can use his brain and his experience to work around any physical limitations. They’ll need to give Rodgers plenty of autonomy within the offense for him to take full advantage of these attributes.”

It's going to be exciting to see how the Aaron Rodgers experiment works out in Pittsburgh. It didn't work for the Jets, but things might be different this time around.