Steelers Insider Gerry Dulac Talks Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rodgers & More w/Rich

Gerry Dulac takes the preseason with a grain of salt, and he still could not help himself after watching Pittsburgh's two young quarterbacks in the opener.

"It's a big testament to Mike McCarthy," Dulac told Rich. None of it is a shot at Mike Tomlin, who Dulac called a different type of coach, defensive oriented by nature. McCarthy is a proven offensive play caller and a quarterback developer, and the results showed up immediately.

Will Howard ran a two-minute drive that Pittsburgh had been waiting to see since it drafted him, a wait made longer by the hand injury that cost him all of last preseason. Fans there thought he was the savior, which Dulac noted is a lot to hang on a sixth-round pick.

Then Drew Allar upstaged him. Ten of 13, a near-perfect passer rating, three touchdowns on three drives, and he even got to take the victory formation knee in his first game.

That performance sets up the roster math. Aaron Rodgers has said he is retiring after this season and Mason Rudolph is a free agent, so the Steelers have three preseason games to evaluate two young arms with the entire future of the position riding on it. Dulac does not think three games is enough, and he thinks the front office knows it.

"They are going to keep four quarterbacks," Dulac said, calling it an organizational decision rather than a coaching one. The last thing this team wants is to restart the revolving door by importing another veteran starter, and they do not want to move on from Rudolph either, who likes Pittsburgh and loves playing for McCarthy. Keeping all four buys them another year of clarity.

Rodgers came back in large part because of the head coach. Dulac recalled that in Rodgers' exit meeting with Omar Khan after last season, he half joked that if Tomlin ever stepped down, McCarthy was out there. When the hire happened, Rodgers' desire to keep playing went up, and this time he was coming off a division title and 10 wins rather than two sour years in New York.

More than that, he has not slipped. "There has not been one slippage whatsoever in Aaron Rodgers' ability to throw the football," Dulac said. Rodgers never misses a practice and does not want to, and both young quarterbacks cannot say enough about what he does for them.

The offense around him got faster and deeper, which is the real story. Michael Pittman and rookie Jeremy Bernard were added to a receiver room that had no depth last year, and Dulac expects Bernard to take over the third spot in time even with Roman Wilson pushing for it. Rico Dowdle joins Warren in a backfield that should be improved, odd as it sounds to call that an upgrade on a season where Kenny Gainwell was team MVP.

Robert Tonyan is the sneaky one. He put up big numbers as a backup tight end with Rodgers in Green Bay, Rodgers had been praising him days before the game, and he caught four passes for 61 yards on Thursday night. He will not pass Pat Freiermuth, but he adds depth at the position Rodgers most loves to exploit.

Up front, Max Iheanacho has looked so good in camp that Dulac believes the right tackle job is coming to him. Quoting Tom Donahue: they did not bring him in to lead the band at halftime.

Defensively, Patrick Graham inherits a front seven that is basically unchanged. The back end is where Dulac sees the difference, with cornerback depth as good as he has seen it in a long time, Asante Samuel described to him as the MVP of camp and third-round pick Daylen Everett the best rookie of the spring and camp both.

As for the culture question, Rich wondered whether hiring a fully formed head coach removed the awkwardness of a building without Tomlin. Dulac agreed and said that was the point. Camp is less physical than Tomlin's and far more scripted, stressing players mentally with pace and knowing assignments.

"There's not a wasted minute or a wasted moment," Dulac said.