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Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin addressed his confidence in quarterback Aaron Rodgers going forward.
The Pittsburgh Steelers won’t win many more games this season if quarterback Aaron Rodgers continues to play like he did in Week 10.
The performance was clearly Rodgers’ worst performance this season with the Steelers. He posted a 51.6% completion percentage and 5.2 yards per attempt, both of which were season lows. Rodgers also threw two interceptions and took three sacks, one of which resulted in a safety.
But head coach Mike Tomlin made it clear Tuesday he is confident Rodgers will bounce back and play well the rest of the year.
“I’m not going to chalk it up to an off night. But there are no long-term concerns,” Tomlin told reporters.
“Sunday night was what it was, but I have no long-term reservations about his ability to play the position, and play the position at a high level for us.”
There’s little doubt that Rodgers played poorly in Week 10. He had a couple opportunities for big plays in the first half, which could have significantly changed the trajectory of the game. Most notably, Rodgers missed D.K. Metcalf on a long pass that probably would have been a touchdown.
But while it was a bad night, it makes sense Tomlin still has confidence in the 4-time MVP.
Rodgers may not be an elite quarterback anymore, but after seven games this season, he was on pace for 3,616 passing yards and 39 touchdowns.
The past two weeks have been rougher outings for Rodgers but also the Steelers offense overall. The quarterback has completed 62.1% of his passes and averaged 5.5 yards per attempt the last two games. He also had two touchdowns and two interceptions.
In the first seven contests, Rodgers posted a 68.3% completion percentage, 7.6 yards per pass, 16 touchdowns and five interceptions.
The Steelers will host the Cincinnati Bengals on November 17. Cincinnati has one of the weaker defenses in the league from a statistical standpoint.
So, the Bengals aren’t really a great test for Rodgers and the offense.
But the Bengals are a test from the sense that if Rodgers struggles again, then there should be a much higher level of concern from Tomlin and the coaching staff.
In Week 7 against the Bengals, Rodgers completed 67.6% of his passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns with two interceptions. He would obviously prefer to avoid the giveaways in the rematch, but other than that, the Steelers would love a repeat performance.
If the Steelers offense doesn’t play well versus the Bengals on Sunday, it’s going to feel like déjà vu for the fan base.
Last year, Russell Wilson threw for a season-high 414 passing yards with three touchdowns in the first matchup against the Bengals. That was also in Cincinnati.
But when the teams met for the rematch in Pittsburgh a little more than a month later, Wilson only had 148 passing yards. He went from averaging 10.9 yards per attempt in the first Bengals game to posting 4.8 yards per pass in the second matchup.
Not only do the Steelers need Rodgers to have a repeat performance against Cincinnati to give the offense confidence going forward, the team needs a win.
If the Steelers suffered a season sweep with a loss versus the Bengals on Sunday, Pittsburgh will drop to 5-5 and potentially out of sole possession of first place in the AFC North.
The Cleveland Browns are off to a 2-7 start, and fans have called for head coach Kevin Stefanski to be fired.
However, it is unlikely that Stefanski will be fired this season. Meanwhile, Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot revealed that he is likely to return in 2026. General manager Andrew Berry is also expected back, according to Cabot.
“The truth is, we have no idea what they are actually really thinking,” Cabot said on 92.3 The Fan. “I know going into it, Jimmy Haslam has indicated, I believe at the owner’s meetings, that he wasn’t holding Kevin and Andrew’s feet to the fire because this was the year they were trying to figure out what they had in one of these rookie quarterbacks. Or, at least at that point, they knew it was going to be one rookie quarterback.
“I don’t think there was this sense of ‘win or else’ this season. It was about fact-finding and figuring out what they had and helping them inform what to do in the 2026 draft. I just don’t think this was a year where the expectations were super, crazy high. But, still, you have to see certain things from your football team. … I do think that Jimmy believes in continuity and alignment in his organization. And, he knows that this is a challenging year with all of the rookies. In a perfect world, he’s going to want to try to maintain that continuity. And, see if they can’t get this thing on the right track with a new quarterback they will probably draft in 2026.
Cabot believes Haslam still has confidence in Berry and Stefanski, and both could very well return next season with a new quarterback.
Cleveland has struggled this season as the Browns are off to a 2-7 start and coming off a disappointing 27-20 road loss to the New York Jets.
Following the loss, Stefanski made it clear that the goal and focus are on turning it around and finding ways to win.
“Obviously frustrated, disappointed on that result yesterday,” Stefanski said on Monday. “And we’re spending time right now watching it with the players and trying to learn from that. You know, hard to win on the road, and certainly hard when you do some of the things we did in that ball game. But we’re committed to this thing, and we’ll just find ways to get better in all areas and we’ll go from there. Big division game at our place this week.”
Stefanski believes the Browns have to be better in all three phases of the game. Despite that being an issue all season, he has full confidence in his group.
The Browns will host the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday in a game Cleveland is a 7.5-point underdog.
Although Stefanski hasn’t been fired, and there are no signs he will be, his name has come up for other jobs.
The New York Giants fired Brian Daboll on Monday after a loss to the Chicago Bears. Following Daboll’s firing, NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky links Stefanski to the Giants.
“The No. 1 name that I would pay attention to if I were the Giants is what happens in Cleveland with Kevin Stefanski,” Orlovsky said on Monday on NFL Live. “If I could hand-pick a guy, it would be Stefanski. He’s an outstanding coach, two-time Coach of the Year.
“I understand people in Cleveland are like, ‘This guy can’t coach’. But there’s a lot of empirical data that would say otherwise. … I would pay attention to see what’s going on in Cleveland.”
Stefanski has been the Browns’ head coach since 2020 and has led them to the playoffs twice.