Aaron Rodgers knows the basics of Mike McCarthy’s offense, but that doesn’t mean he has everything figured out in Pittsburgh. The two haven’t worked together since 2018, and McCarthy’s system has evolved since then.

“Everything is different. With McCarthy, it’s just different,” 93.7 The Fan’s Jeff Hathhorn said, describing the change in practice tempo between Mike Tomlin and Mike McCarthy on The Fan Evening show. “There’s some work to do trying to get through this offense. I mean, there’s a lot of new for these guys. Even for Aaron, there’s new stuff.”

After the Steelers hired him, McCarthy said he leans into analytics. When studying the numbers, certain concepts and philosophies naturally change over time. When McCarthy entered the league, they didn’t have the advanced statistics that we have today.

Even when McCarthy served as the offensive playcaller in Dallas, he had bright, young offensive minds like Kellen Moore and Scott Tolzien. They helped push the envelope and move McCarthy’s offense into the future. Rodgers is starting to see those new concepts for the first time.

“Just [getting] familiar with some of the changes that Mike has made to the offense over the years,” Rodgers said after signing with the team. “There’s some terminology we’re working through.”

That’s why, early in the offseason, McCarthy’s been focused almost exclusively on the offense and quarterback play. By the time of training camp, the Steelers should be past the basics and growing pains and into the actual install portion of learning the specifics. Then Rodgers can put his flair on the calls with his typical pre-snap hand signals and checks.

Despite the new ideas, McCarthy and Rodgers are ahead of where Arthur Smith and Rodgers were this time last year. Even more so because Rodgers is with the team for OTAs this time.

Rodgers and McCarthy are working against history when it comes to finding success for a HC-QB reunion. By the time they were done with the Green Bay Packers, the ideas were growing stale, and the team was stagnating without any playoff success.

Perhaps time apart, with each learning new tricks along the way, will help get them over the hump in Pittsburgh.