Now that quarterback Aaron Rodgers is finally in the fold, I wanted to continue looking at the potential fit with the Steelers for the 2025 season. A facet of Rodgers’ resume that aligns with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is play-action. The latter impact has already been felt in the Steel City, resulting in increased play-action usage. The goal of the article is to see what Rodgers has done in the situation in his career.
Let’s look at play-action attempts and passer ratings per season from Pro Football Focus (PFF), using their data that’s been tracked since 2012. Blue season numbers are Rodgers’ results, and gray dots are the best/worst numbers per season. I also excluded Rodgers’ seasons with fewer total dropbacks (under 500) for quality/quantity context:
Right away, we see that Rodgers has been above average for much of his career. Play-action attempts jump out first, landing above the mean in every non-injured season since 2016 (eight times). As the QB has aged, this has become a focal part of the offenses he has run.
Starting with the most recent 2024 season, Rodgers had 161 play-action attempts, seventh-most in the league. The chart illustrates a slightly below-the-mean 93.2 play-action passer rating, which ranked 28th last year. That most recent result is not ideal, obviously. But, that being his worst rating since 2019 (over five years ago), is an encouraging flip side.
In fact, six of his qualifying ten seasons were above the mean in play-action passer rating, ranking top 15 in each of those years, including three in the top two:
Rodgers Play-Action Passer Ratings:
2024: 93.2, 28th.
2022: 104.9, 11th.
2021: 118.3, 2nd.
2020: 138.1, 1st.
2019: 91.3, 26th.
2018: 95.9, 19th.
2016: 106.9, 12th.
2015: 71.8, 35th.
2014: 119.2, 2nd.
2012: 102.0, 15th.
Ranking first or second in three separate seasons is impressive. Two of them coming in the last five years are recent enough to be optimistic about how play-action could look in Pittsburgh for 2025. While the numbers are positive overall, we see there were down years to say the least, and unfortunately, includes the 2024 season.
Here’s a similar breakdown of Rodgers’ Play-action attempts:
Rodgers Play-Action Pass Attempts:
2024: 161, 7th.
2022: 147, 10th.
2021: 146, 16th.
2020: 179, 4th.
2019: 171, 5th.
2018: 122, 14th.
2016: 121, 8th.
2015: 112, 12th.
2014: 141, T-6th.
2012: 106, T-15th.
Even more impressive, in the top 15 QBs in play-action 9-of-10 qualifying seasons. For context, Pittsburgh was dead last in play-action attempts in 2023 pre-Smith. In his first season with the Steelers, that bumped up substantially to 17th, and used it even more pre-Steelers, including an eighth rank in 2023 as head coach in Atlanta.
While it all hasn’t been perfect, we can clearly see that Rodgers AND Smith love play-action.
I only expect that trend to continue, especially now that Rodgers is in the fold. The question is, how will it fare? Neither Smith nor Rodgers had the results they wanted in 2024. But the potential for a turnaround is on their resume.
