Being a rookie in the NFL is stressful enough without a 42-year-old, four-time MVP watching every rep. For the Pittsburgh Steelers’ second-round pick wide receiver Germie Bernard, playing with Aaron Rodgers creates a complex.
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“I be having low-key a little bit of anxiety when I’m out there with him. It’s because it’s like I don’t really want to mess up that he finna he finna chew my a** out…” Germie Bernard said on Not Just Football. “But at the same time is like I enjoy being there with him and being under him because he’s just teaching me the game. He’s giving me all the knowledge. He knows about the game… I’m 22. He’s been playing that long.”
This is not the first time rookies have felt the pressure about playing with Rodgers. Many former rookies at Green Bay felt intimidated by him, and struggled most with learning his signals. They had to learn on the go during the season, since doing so in practice would give them away to opponents. Former Packers running back Kylen Hill told The Athletic that rookies would feel “shy and scared to speak” to Rodgers because they had all grown up watching him play.
The feeling seems to be felt by everyone who will take the field for the first time in their careers with Rodgers, including veterans.
“It definitely raises your stress levels, but I think it’s good because this is the most that I’ve studied in like my whole career, college or pro,” Michael Pittman Jr. added. “I’m studying, and I’m trying to learn all of his signs and his signals and, like, just what he’s thinking. The past two practices that I was still practicing, I felt like I really saw something turn on, and we gotta just keep growing that.”
Adam Thielen, who has been in the league for more than a decade, told SiriusXM NFL Radio that playing with Rodgers has been one of his most stressful times as a player. The experience even made him feel like a rookie, and he was worried that he’d get his “a– chewed” and “probably never gonna get the ball.”
For what it’s worth, the pressure seems to be working. Rodgers, with his years of experience, is pretty much a coach to the younger players. About Bernard, he said that the WR has “phenomenal hands,” but the Steelers only needed him to be “super confident and play as fast as he can.”
This is also Aaron Rodgers’ last year in the NFL, which ups the ante even more for everyone else on the team. Everyone is working hard to make the most out of this experience, because even though Rodgers can be hard on a young’un, they’ll carry the learnings for their whole career.