Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin are two huge personalities, but Charlie Batch isn't worried about how they'll coexist in Pittsburgh -- the ex-Steelers QB tells TMZ Sports he believes the guys are actually a great match for one another.
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00:00i think everybody's relieved at this particular point it's the worst kept secret
00:05ever right so it was just a matter of when he was going to get here and everybody right now
00:10is relieved because now as you head into minicamp next week gives him an opportunity to start
00:14learning the offense learning who his teammates are and ultimately get him ready and start
00:18prepare for training camp to start next month in terms of fit you know they clearly didn't need
00:23there was a need at the position but how do you think he fits with this roster you know moving
00:28forward is he the plug and play piece to say now they're an instant super bowl contender no not
00:34immediately only because there's still holes that they have to fill on this particular roster so
00:39that's going to still there's going to be some moves made as prior to they get the training camp
00:42in preparation of that but right now is not at the time to hoist the lombardi trophy in the offseason
00:48right so you got to be able to do so moving forward for me as he learns the offense one of the critical
00:52things for me that i want to see how can he now build a rapport with this with this team because
00:5850 of this roster is new but yet they're young on the offensive side of the ball this is going to
01:02be the fifth year that they now have a new offensive captain so they're looking for a leadership
01:07position he instantly fills that particular void but how is he going to build relationships with the
01:13young first rounder derrick harren hammond that he's 21 years old and now karen rogers is 21 years
01:19in the nfl so he has to figure out how he's going to blend it but when you've been around his league you
01:24know how to build relationship with the younger players do you think he has you know i guess the
01:28cliche stuff you know anything left in the tank what did you see last year from aaron obviously
01:32at a year off essentially the year before coming back from the injury and i think you know you never
01:37want to wish injury on anybody but that could potentially be a blessing as you move forward
01:41because gave his body a chance to recover as he was recovering from his achilles injury but yet last
01:46year wasn't his best year and he'll be the first to admit that but now as you now move on to
01:51another year there's still going to be a lot of doubt that people nationally have for him and that
01:56fuels the fire for him to not want to come in and prove a lot of people wrong so i think there is an
02:00opportunity that way for him to move forward are we going to get the best well what we saw 10 years
02:05ago when he beat the steelers in the super bowl no but that's expected you know but ultimately this is
02:12why but uh that's this is why the organization felt the need to make this move and obviously bring him
02:17in here because if they didn't he would not be a member of the steelers he obviously one of the
02:22most polarizing players in the league as well but the steelers have a coach who's handled a lot of
02:27of interesting players in the past you know mike tomlin while you played for mike tomlin how about that
02:34fit coach tomlin coaching aaron rogers up yeah i think it's a good fit because he knows how to build
02:40the rapport with players it doesn't matter at what stage of your career that you are he's going to figure
02:44out a way to uh build that relationship so i don't see anything changing from that particular
02:49perspective i think now because of his resume and everything he's earned what is that timeline going
02:54to look like for him because that when you are an aging player in pittsburgh he does give you
02:58opportunities to take days off so is there going to be kind of essentially a pitch count when he gets
03:03there when ben roethlisberger was here was every third day that he had off i would imagine at some
03:08particular point he's going to get that but again a lot of that comes down to him how fast he learns
03:13this offense earning the right to get those days off because remember training camp is not the same
03:18as when it was 10 years ago right there's no more two a days there's only one a day practice so
03:23those are going to be things that mike tomlin is going to have to monitor we saw last week terry
03:27bradshaw had some comments you know that this was a joke even the idea of bringing of him do you do
03:33you like the move does charlie batch like the move the steelers turning to aaron rogers well you like
03:38the move only because there wasn't a lot of options from the beginning as it related to free agent
03:43quarterbacks and i stated this back in january when you look at just what the free agent crop
03:47looked like right top of the scale was sam darnold and the next one was justin fields the steelers had
03:53the opportunity to potentially sign him but justin was willing to go to the free agent market to see
03:58exactly what was out there offered more money was made to the jets that's what he made his move to go
04:04there and ultimately it left aaron rogers available as a free agent now there were other quarterbacks on
04:09rosters but what was the draft capital to have to go out there and get those the steelers weren't
04:14willing to give any of those draft picks up that's why they waited patiently for aaron rogers to get
04:20here to pittsburgh expectations this season it's a tough division there's a lot of storylines now on
04:25every single team in that division what do you expect from the steelers in 2025 yeah well i know the
04:31nfl is happy for the schedule that they put out in anticipation of aaron being here so you know
04:36there's there's going to be a sense of urgency here right and i think ultimately you know when
04:40you aren't playing in pittsburgh the goal is not just to win the division it's just to be the goal
04:45was to win a super bowl every single year and that's not going to change the organization up until
04:49this point had not come out to say this is a rebuilding year and since they're not saying that
04:53guess what i'm expecting them to compete and go out there and potentially win that super bowl so
04:57these are things that we are going to continue to figure out but again how fast can they gel
05:02it's this is going to be really one of those conversations that we table and we're going to
05:06have to pick back up in the middle of the year toward the end of the year to see if things are going
05:10accordingly