When the Pittsburgh Steelers hired Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rodgers agreed to return a few months later. This Rodgers-McCarthy reunion will mark the last dance of Rodgers' NFL career. Multiple analysts scoffed when the Steelers brought Rodgers back, assuming he would run exclusively the limited passing attack Arthur Smith deployed in 2025. What these analysts fail to see is that Rodgers and McCarthy are bringing back the next installment of the drop-back, West Coast offense. Rodgers highlighted this in a report by Tribune-Review Steelers beat writer Chris Adamski.
Adamski points out the obvious: Rodgers can't dance the dance like he once did. However, he'll face a minimal adjustment period in an offense he has already mastered.
"I spent 13 years in (head coach Mike McCarthy's offense)," Rodgers said. "He's changed some stuff when he was in Dallas … It's stuff that we used to run, but he's just called it something different now."
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Rodgers and McCarthy Are On the Same Page
"It's just the next generation of the West Coast offense," Rodgers said of McCarthy's system. "It went kind of Bill Walsh to kind of what Mike was doing with Paul Hackett, and then it's kind of grown from there."
The late John Madden once described the West Coast offense as a quarterback simply throwing a touchdown or a check-down pass. McCarthy, however, has turned that approach into a more vertical attack. Rodgers ran a version of it in Green Bay, and Dak Prescott ran one with the Cowboys. The offense will certainly include quick-passing concepts, as any offense does, but Rodgers relied on those last season mainly because of limited weapons and limited pass concepts. Smith's offense also depends heavily on the run game to sustain any passing threat. McCarthy, by contrast, builds a passing attack that helps set up the run game.
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McCarthy's Offense Will Benefit the Young QBs Behind Rodgers
Rodgers knows what it takes to succeed in this system, and it ultimately comes down to the one thing that can make or break an offense: timing. McCarthy has been seen in clips working with Will Howard and Drew Allar on fundamentals, timing included.
"From a real fundamental level, it's all about the quarterback's timing," Rodgers said.
Rodgers understands what the offense demands. Unlike Smith's scheme, which relied heavily on play-action, McCarthy's passing attack is more structured and precisely timed, in true West Coast fashion. That structure should set Rodgers up for success, and it should also help the young quarterbacks develop their games.
The Steelers didn't bring in McCarthy just to build a competitive offense for Rodgers' final season; they also brought him in to develop the quarterback of the future. Allar and Howard both have upside but need significant refinement, and this offense should give them exactly that.
