The Pittsburgh Steelers revamped their quarterback room this offseason by signing four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers. After cycling through five different starting quarterbacks over the last three years—Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph and Mitchell Trubisky—the Steelers have turned to the future Hall of Famer to lead them for the 2025 season.

Though Rodgers didn't sign and begin practicing with Pittsburgh until June and the Steelers are still early in training camp, his impact on the team is already palpable. This is particularly the case for the defense, which is getting accustomed to the challenges that come with facing an all-time great quarterback in practice every day.

"Frustrating because he talks a lot of smack," Pittsburgh linebacker T.J. Watt said of practicing against Rodgers during The Pat McAfee Show. "He really does. A lot of the no-look passes are things that we're getting used to. I like to bat down a lot of passes at the line of scrimmage, he's able to manipulate the defense good, so that's been very frustrating. Hopefully one day we get the better of him."

"His cadence is deadly," Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward added of Rodgers. "The thing he does best is he knows how to abuse the play clock. It's ridiculous, but it's gonna make us better."

The Pittsburgh defense has provided a challenge for Rodgers in turn, even recently prompting questions about an interception he threw in his first training camp practice.

"It's not a bad thing to get beat up a little bit," Rodgers said of facing the defense, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. "... Sometimes you can learn more from the failures in training camp than getting after him every single day."

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as T.J. Watt Reveals Two Reasons It's 'Frustrating' Facing Aaron Rodgers in Practice.

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