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GREEN BAY, Wis. -- From the outside, many are looking at Sunday night's game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers as Aaron Rodgers against his old team. That's not how Packers coach Matt LaFleur sees it -- at least not for those inside Lambeau Field. "We're playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, who happen to have Aaron Rodgers," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Monday. "It's as simple as that. That is for you guys to talk about. Granted, I mean, we've got a lot of love and respect for Aaron. What he's done here, I mean, he's a Hall of Famer. And I know like our past together, we had a lot of great moments, but this game is not about that." LaFleur coached Rodgers in Green Bay from 2019-22 before the Packers traded him to the New York Jets in 2023 and turned their offense over to Jordan Love. After two seasons in New York, Rodgers signed with the Steelers this past offseason. Pittsburgh is off to a 4-2 start. The Jets did not play the Packers in either 2023 (when Rodgers missed all but the first series of the first game of the season) or last season, so this is the first time he will play against the team that drafted him in 2005. Rodgers was the Packers' starting quarterback for 15 years, won four NFL MVP awards in Green Bay and led the team to the Super Bowl XLV victory in the 2010 season. Based on what LaFleur said to reporters Monday, it doesn't sound like he made much of a mention of the Rodgers-against-his-old-team aspect of this game to his team. "I don't even know if many of these guys played with him," LaFleur said. "There's a few guys but, nah, I think that's for you guys." While the Packers (4-1-1) were the youngest team in the NFL for the third straight season based on opening weekend rosters, there are more than a few players who teamed with Rodgers for at least one season in Green Bay. In fact, there are 13 of them in all. "I'm going to talk about how we, just like we do every week, what is our blueprint and what are our keys in order to go to Pittsburgh, which is a damn good football team and a really tough, hostile environment, and try to play our best, because we haven't [played] our best yet to date," LaFleur said. "We've got a lot of work to do." Rodgers, 41, is coming off a four-touchdown, two-interception game in last Thursday's 33-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. LaFleur said he has not seen much film of Rodgers this season "That's kind of what we're diving into right now," LaFleur said.
