JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY

Aaron Rodgers awaits the next drill at minicamp Tuesday on the South Side.

A football fell at my feet. Bounced by the bordering grass of the Steelers' practice fields at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, the throw having belonged to one Aaron Charles Rodgers.

Sure wasn't his fault, though.

In fact, the throw was pretty much as precise as everything else he'd put forth on this day, on and off those fields, and it really should've been caught ... by the assistant equipment manager for whom it'd been intended.

Poor dude was mortified, too, letting out a loud-ish sigh as he'd stumbled behind that ball.

"I mean, read his resume," Mike Tomlin would reply a few minutes later to the first question about his new/old quarterback. "We're excited about him being here. He's excited about being here. We'll make no bold predictions. We're just going to roll our sleeves up and go to work and let our efforts do the talking."

Yep. Just Day 1. Of minicamp, no less. But at the same time, as different a dynamic as any I'd detected in this setting as ... wow, ever.

Look, I've been opposed to this move from the moment Justin Fields exited for East Rutherford. I won't pretend otherwise. I won't alter that stance until there's cause to do that. It didn't make sense then for the Steelers to turn to a 41-year-old amid a grossly overdue search for the next franchise quarterback, and it doesn't make sense now, either.

And at the same time, as long as yet another one-year detour's now cemented on the map, might as well make it a meaningful one, right?

Here's what I did like: Everyone stood at attention.

I'm talking Mason Rudolph, Will Howard and Skyler Thompson, the other three quarterbacks, visibly, palpably pushing their passes to near-perfection right after seeing Rodgers spin one with that signature flair.

“I’m fired up, too, man," Howard would say. "Believe me, this is a guy I grew up idolizing. It’s cool to be in the same room as him. He’s a legend. I’m going to try to learn as much as I can from him and be the best support guy I can be for him. I think it’s amazing, the opportunity for me to learn and to work with a guy like that ... it's second to none."

I'm talking players from both sides of the ball, as beautifully put by Nick Herbig:

"I mean you'd be lying if you said it it don't feel a little different, you know?" Herbig would say. "Obviously, I love Mason, Will and Skyler. But it's just ... you know, it's Aaron Rodgers. Like, the four-time MVP. He won a Super Bowl. He's done it at the highest level. Just having a guy like that with his experience and knowledge, and being able to pass that along -- even though, like, I'm not a quarterback, you know -- just having a guy like that around the team is awesome."

Yeah, I'm talking about that equipment helper, too.

And the couple dozen or so Pitt players who'd emerged from their adjacent facility to observe Rodgers from the second level.

And, really, everyone within eyesight or earshot.

Yep. Just Day 1. Of minicamp, no less. But at the same time, if it's sustainable in any form, fair or not, we might witness the first tangible raising of the bar around this franchise's offense in the post-Ben Roethlisberger era.

That's taking nothing away from Rudolph and what he can still mean to the coming season and beyond. He'll boom his way through cadence with the best of them. But he can't come close to the cachet that a Rodgers carries simply through the act of existing.

Think about it: If DK Metcalf mis-times a route, and Rodgers says something ... who'd shrug that off? If Broderick Jones gets blasted off Rodgers' blind side, and Rodgers says something ... might Jones have a different reaction than most of those he had in 2024? If Kaleb Johnson doesn't absorb all he can from Jaylen Warren about picking up blitzes, and Rodgers says something ... who's that rookie to respond?

Feeling me on this?

The catch, of course, is that all concerned also have to sense that Rodgers is every bit as invested in this process, both the collective and each individual, as they are. And that's been, along with Rodgers' age, my chief criticism of this move. That he'd have no hard motivation to keep playing -- he's only achieved everything in the sport -- never mind playing for the Steelers or the city of Pittsburgh.

Nothing he could've spoken here could've convinced me to the contrary, at least not on the spot, but I've got to say he fared just fine in that category after the practice.

• He brought up very real connections, unlike the pandering Russell Wilson, who might as well have been begging for a Primanti's endorsement. Rodgers cited his old Green Bay coach and Greenfield native "Mike McCarthy for 13 years, having Tom Clements -- or Tommy Clements, depending how old you are, as my quarterback coach forever ... Dom Capers, Kevin Greene, Darren Perry, Derrick McAdoo, Frank Cignetti, Luke Getsy ... I don't want to forget anybody, but a lot of yinzers in my life."

• Of the city, he stuck with what he knew: "This is a blue-collar town. The history of this great area is building the structure of the country. A lot of great people here. Great fan base. We played here over the years. They even got their own song they play late in the third or in the fourth quarter. It's a special, special place to play sports. Just great blue-collar people. I'm excited to meet some of the fans along the way."

• Of what it'd mean to win another Super Bowl: "It'd mean a seventh championship for the city, right? That would be great."

• He came across as genuine in other ways, which we Pittsburghers tend to respect: "Everything's new. It's like the first day of school. I don't know a lot of guys' names. They don't have names on the back of the jerseys here. They don't have names on the doors in the meeting room, so I literally walk out of the locker room lost, try and grab somebody, 'Hey, where am I going?' But I'll get the feel of it. I'm excited about making this home."

• He delivered a message in the locker room in the morning, one he chose to keep to himself but which Zach Frazier described Rodgers as telling teammates, "He's all in from now on."

Now, needless to say, none of that'll matter in the slightest if he can't play anymore. And to that end, he reported in apparently sound condition and showed no trace of lingering ailments, age or whatever in the limited amount of physical activity I saw, some of which I captured for this 40-second set of clips:

The arm's still there, for sure, yeah?

For his part, Rodgers pointed less to his age as a factor and more to the Achilles tear that cost him almost all of the 2023 season with the Jets.

"Yeah, I'm 41, so the body feels different than it did at 25," he'd say. "I feel better. I felt good last year. I worked really hard. It was a tough couple years, getting hurt and rehabbing to get back, but I feel good."

It showed.

Yep. Just Day 1.

As he'd word it himself when asked to speak to Pittsburgh fans' frustrations in recent years, "We're Day 1 of minicamp for me. I'm just taking it one day at a time."