Aaron Rodgers may be 42, but the Steelers are about to spend the next five games with a quarterback edge they won’t see very often.
That’s the reality heading into Pittsburgh’s bye-week stretch. Rodgers still brings the kind of line-of-scrimmage command that can tilt a game, even with the limitations that come with a veteran quarterback working behind an offensive line that hasn’t fully found its rhythm. The Steelers won’t usually have the better quarterback this season - not in a division that includes Joe Burrow, whom they’ve already beaten, and Lamar Jackson - but this run looks favorable on paper.
Over the next five games, Pittsburgh will face four quarterbacks where the matchup leans its way: Deshaun Watson twice, Daniel Jones at home, Jalon Daniels, and Tyler Shough in Paris.
The first of those swings comes against Watson and the Browns, and that matchup has already had its share of noise. Watson was booed by Cleveland fans in the preseason and went through a rollercoaster path to get here, including Browns owner Jimmy Haslam previously calling the trade a “big swing and a miss.”
Cleveland looked lost in a 34-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, then steadied itself with back-to-back wins and is now tied with the big three in the AFC North. Watson has also started to settle in. Over his last two games, he is 40-for-60 for 388 yards, four touchdowns and no turnovers.
The rest of the upcoming list gives Pittsburgh a similar kind of edge. Daniel Jones is back after a season-ending Achilles injury last December and got healthy enough to be ready for Week 1, but his start has been rough. He has three touchdown passes against five turnovers, including three interceptions and two lost fumbles, along with a 66.3 completion percentage and an 80.8 quarterback rating.
Tampa Bay is another spot where the Steelers should like the matchup, especially with Baker Mayfield expected to miss at least the next three weeks because of a thumb injury. That means Jalon Daniels, an undrafted rookie out of Kansas, is set to start for the Buccaneers moving forward. Daniels replaced Mayfield on the final drive against Minnesota and went 0-for-3 with an interception on the last play.
Shough may be the toughest name in the group. The 2025 second-round pick has been productive for the Saints, with nine total touchdowns and an average of 305.7 passing yards per game. He has also added 67 rushing yards through three games.
Rodgers hasn’t lit up the box score in the early going - he owns a 58.4 completion percentage and has thrown four touchdowns in three games - but the Steelers have gotten more out of him than the raw numbers suggest. He has protected the ball, throwing only two interceptions, and one of his best outings in black and gold came in the 30-27 win over the Bengals. In that game, Rodgers threw for 292 yards and three touchdowns for Mike McCarthy and Rodgers’ 100th career win together.
The schedule stiffens after the bye. Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Bo Nix, Trevor Lawrence and Lamar Jackson twice are all waiting down the road, a stretch that could flip the script fast. For now, though, Pittsburgh has a clear chance to cash in before the tougher part of the 2026 schedule arrives.
Anyone in this next group could still catch fire and change the picture. But right now, the Steelers look set up nicely with Rodgers under center for the next five games.
In Other News...
Steelers Finally Moved On From Joey Porter Jr For A Reason
Joey Porter Jr. is officially on the move, and the Steelers turned the page by dealing the cornerback to the Cowboys for a 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-rounder. For Pittsburgh, it was a striking end to a run that never really got back on track once Porter was sidelined in 2026, when a back injury and conditioning issues kept him out of game action all season.
Dallas is taking a measured approach with the former Steeler, and there is no immediate plan to extend his contract before seeing how he performs in a new setting. For Pittsburgh, the trade brings back future draft capital and closes the book on a player whose recent absence had become as much a part of the story as his talent. [Read more 🡒]
Browns Coach Just Added Fuel To Steelers' Latest AFC North Grudge Match
Todd Monken has been around the AFC North long enough to know how quickly a passing comment can sharpen a rivalry, and his latest one did exactly that. The Browns head coach, who has seen the Steelers from both Cleveland and Baltimore, took a shot at Pittsburghs veteran defensive core by suggesting it might be time for players like T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward to retire, a remark that lands with extra weight given how many bruising games those names have already created in this division.
For the Steelers, it is the kind of chatter that usually gets remembered long after the pregame noise fades. Watt and Heyward have been central figures in Pittsburghs identity for years, and Monkens familiarity with them only adds another layer to what is already set up as another hard-edged meeting between the Browns and Steelers, with the usual AFC North tension waiting for the first hit to bring it to the surface. [Read more 🡒]
LeVeon Bell Just Turned A Steelers Move Into A Bigger Debate
The Steelers decision to move on from Joey Porter Jr. has already sparked plenty of discussion, but the conversation widened quickly once LeVeon Bell weighed in on social media. Pittsburgh sent the cornerback to Dallas for future draft picks after a contract dispute and a back injury kept him from playing this season, a transaction that would have been debated on its own even before Bell added his criticism.
Bells comments pushed the story beyond football and into a much more familiar kind of scrutiny around the franchise. He alleged unequal treatment of black and white players, a charge that lands differently in light of the Steelers recent extensions for Cam Heyward, Jalen Ramsey and DK Metcalf, and it leaves the team facing a broader question about how this latest move is being interpreted around the league. [Read more 🡒]