A month after the Bengals fended him off in the last minute at Paycor Stadium, there is Aaron Rodgers again with that look of disdain for both teammates and foes alike staring at Bengals rookie linebacker Barrett Carter in another AFC North Holy Grail game Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s Local 12) in Pittsburgh.

Rodgers comes off one of the worst losses of his career, a three-week stretch where he's converted 21% of his third downs and a vote of confidence from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. It's Carter's first game since the Logan Wilson trade certified the confidence Bengals head coach Zac Taylor has expressed in his fourth-rounder for months.

"I love being the new kid on the block, and that people don't see me as a 23-year-old rookie. They see me as a leader," says Carter, the green dot signal-caller. "I'm just trying to step into that role and be what this team needs.

"I don't take it lightly. For me, it's just about going back to work, going back to the drawing board, trying to be the best leader, and best player, best man this team needs to get some Ws. It's a blessing."

It takes Barrett Carter's dad, who goes by the same name, back to those days in Chicago. Before they moved to suburban Atlanta. His only son a little kid on the couch watching Rodgers' Packers play the Bears.

The kid was always into it. A lot like he was a few days after the Bengals got Rodgers, and the family drove to Canton, Ohio, to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"We had a fantastic time. It was on my bucket list," says the elder Carter. "He's been inspired at every level by someone or something, and when we walked out of that place, I think he had a whole new motivation for football.

"We saw the different busts, and we went through every single one of them and looked at them. When he started seeing some of these guys he watched growing up, I think that kind of motivated him."

But his son says much of the inspiration starts at home. The son tells you he grew up among leaders.

His best friend and older sister, Kennedy, a Howard-educated architect and assistant producer for Disney, actually organized the Canton trip after working on a project with the Hall. His mother Alexis kept things together at home while his father transitioned from Marine to police officer to stockbroker to independent financial adviser.

"He's the real deal," the son says of the father. "Best leader I've ever been around."

Leadership is a major reason the Bengals drafted him. They saw it not only in the middle of Clemson's pro-fast defense, but in the corridors of head coach Dabo Swinney's program lined with NFL alumni. An Alpha with a personality to match.

(Early in training camp, when Carter noticed a certain reporter kept hanging around the linebackers looking for a story, he jokingly adopted a bouncer's close stare to offer "protection," to his guys. He still does.)

"He was the quarterback of their defense, and it translates well to what we ask our MIKE linebacker to do," says Bengals assistant general manager Trey Brown. "In terms of being a leader, understanding the defense, making guys around him better. Traits we saw coming out of Clemson, and he's doing a nice job of transitioning that into our defense.

"It's a difficult task for a rookie to come in and contribute right away like that. It's how hard they work, how hard they prepare, how hard they study. So far, so good on that front."

Barrett Carter the elder never knew anything else watching him grow up.

"He'd have a high school game at 7:30 on a Friday night," the dad says, "and I'd be in the car taking him to a workout the next morning. A lot of times he'd be the only one. That was the difference. He didn't allow anyone to outwork him. That wasn't from me or his mom. That was his mindset."

He saw the Alpha personality before that, really. "He gets it from his mother." They'd take second-grade Barrett to the high school autograph sessions, and then when he was playing, they watched the Clemson fans keep him so long taking photos with babies and signing anything he could that he'd be scolded for getting into the locker room so late.

The father guesses the son saw his leadership in the simple daily act of providing for the family. Before his kids were born, Barrett Carter was a Marine corporal deployed to Desert Shield, and he was there for the eight months it turned into Desert Storm. At all times, he had to have a gas mask ready, and he recalls putting it on during a stretch 19 Marines died 15 miles away.

"It's a matter of life and death, and you have to depend on your fellow soldier or Marine to have your back," the father says.

He enjoyed policing, but he wanted his weekends and nights for the family. The move to finance meant he and Alexis have been to every game their son has played in high school, college, and the pros except two during Barrett's freshman year at Clemson.

"He wants us there," the dad says, "so we're there."

Besides the best leader he's ever been around, there was Wilson, a friend and mentor. There is Oren Burks, the eight-year veteran steeped in two Super Bowl starts. There is Joe Giles-Harris, a seven-year special teamer working for his fourth team.

"I grew up around leaders, and then I came into a room filled with leaders, too," Carter says, "so it's natural elevating me and forcing me to be better. Leadership is nothing new to me."

The last two games are something new: 86 points and more than 500 yards rushing yards allowed.

"All the mistakes are correctable. It's not something where we're lacking anything in this building," Carter says. "We have everything and everybody that we need right here. It's just up to us to go do it. All the mistakes have been self-inflicted. You turn on the tape, it's all self-inflicted. All correctable. Nothing to lose our heads over. It's a long season."

The best leader Barrett Carter has ever been around has seen him longer than that.

"I think every game is a learning experience, and then he's going to improve with every game, because he wants to. Because he wants to improve," the father says. "He's always at home. Always in the playbook or watching film, and that's always been the Barrett that I know."