Arthur Smith ‘Constructing’ Steelers Offense Around Aaron Rodgers originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The Pittsburgh Steelers finally landed a quarterback, signing veteran and future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers. The move came very late in the offseason, after most of the roster was constructed. Still, that hasn’t stopped the Pittsburgh coaching staff from working their gameplan around Rodgers.
Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith had Aaron Rodgers on his mind for a long time, and as such, has spent the entire offseason retooling his offense to fit the new guy. Although Rodgers didn’t sign until June, he met with Smith and the team back in March.
Smith spoke with Missi Matthews for the Steelers’ website, and he talked on being able to change quickly, after running offenses for three different NFL franchises and more quarterbacks than one can count.
“You learn to adapt to the change.” Smith said. “You’d love to have that consistency, but that’s not the reality sometimes.”
Smith noted that last year, the Steelers deployed two different quarterbacks: Justin Fields for the first six weeks, and Russell Wilson for the rest of the season. Researching and preparing an offense around a quarterback is nothing new to Smith, saying last year the Steelers did “the same thing we did with Aaron [Rodgers].”
“Obviously, there’s an unknown if he wasn’t gonna be here.” Smith noted. “But the way you built things, and the way I kind of mapped it out and that’s what I showed him when he got here a couple days ago, we’ve constructed to move forward with him.
“The way we wanted to evolve, anyway, really fit his skill set. So we’re excited. I’m really excited to get going on the season.”
Now that Rodgers is officially in Pittsburgh, that makes all the work Smith put in during the offseason worth it. Now, the focus shifts to implementation. According to reports, Smith and Rodgers “immediately dove” into the playbook as soon as the pen hit the paper.
Interestingly, Smith said Rodgers already fit the changes he wanted to make regardless. Earlier in the offseason, he admitted that he couldn’t do everything he would have liked to do. Now, with Rodgers, Smith feels he can fully implement his offense in a way he couldn’t with Wilson and Fields.
Don’t be concerned about a battle for control over the offense, as neither Smith nor Rodgers is.
“I’m gonna learn the offense, and Arthur and I are gonna talk a bunch this summer,” Rodgers said.
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 15, 2025, where it first appeared.