Saunders: Steelers Shouldn’t Be Sweating Aaron Rodgers Decision
The Pittsburgh Steelers have not yet gotten an answer from quarterback Aaron Rodgers about whether he intends to play for them in the 2025 season, a status that, after several days, has the fanbase on edge.
But I doubt that Steelers general manager Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin are sweating things as we enter the first weekend of free agency.
First of all, I’m not even sure Tomlin sweats. The man has worn head-to-toe black, long-sleeved clothing at training camp for so long that he just might be immune to it at this point. Khan might be the most patient general manager in the entire NFL. If he could wait six months to see about getting Brandon Aiyuk without coming off his price point, he can certainly wait out Rodgers.
And the Steelers are in very good shape in these negotiations. They are clearly the best option for Rodgers.
The Minnesota Vikings already have their quarterback of the future in J.J. McCarthy, and while that keeps getting brought up as a destination — probably due to some nice work by Rodgers’ agents — how good of an opportunity is that for a soon-to-be 42-year-old quarterback that says he wants to play two more years?
Rodgers would be looking over his shoulder at McCarthy in Week 1. If people thought his tenure with the New York Jets was a public relations and locker room mess, how do you think that would go? Are the Vikings going to want their backup quarterback going on The Pat McAfee Show and talking about how their first-year starter is doing every week? I bet they’d love that.
Rodgers doesn’t have the personality to be a backup. He’s going somewhere to be the guy, or he’s going to pivot to a full-time media career that he will likely be great at. The Vikings just want someone to hold the door open for their youngster. I can’t see Rodgers wanting that. It’s a bad fit for him and a bad fit for them.
The New York Giants do at least have a legitimate starting quarterback opening, but for how long? With a top-five pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders could easily be headed to the Big Apple this April. Rodgers would likely need some kind of assurance that’s not going to happen for him to sign there.
Now, it’s possible the Giants brass could go along with that. After all, many analysts thought that Joe Schoen and/or Brian Daboll should have been fired after the 2024 season. It’s hard to envision them surviving another disappointment. The pressure is on to win now, and the quarterbacks in this year’s draft are probably not well-suited to provide that.
Rodgers could. So it’s feasible the Giants could give Rodgers that promise. But will they win even with him? The Giants finished 21st in scoring defense last year and 23rd in rushing offense. Adding Rodgers won’t help those factors of the game. Is he better than the collection of Daniel Jones, Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito that started for the Giants last night? Yes. Enough to lift the 3-14 Giants into the playoff picture in a division with the Philadelphia Eagles and rising Washington Commanders? Probably not.
Maybe Rodgers just likes being New York. I could see that. But with the Giants reportedly offering more than Pittsburgh at this point, if he really did want to be in NYC, he’d probably have already signed with the G-Men.
So that leaves Pittsburgh, where Rodgers has always appreciated Tomlin and vice-versa, the team made the playoffs last year with mediocre quarterback play, and is the NFL city that is among the most like the place where he had his greatest success in Green Bay.
Rodgers has become a pariah in some circles for his non-football opinions, but that would be mitigated in impact when moving to a purple state like Pennsylvania. There are probably just as many Steelers fans that greatly agree with him than greatly dislike him. Can’t think that’d be the case in New York.
He has plenty of connections to the city. His old head coach Mike McCarthy and assistants Tommy Clements, Frank Cignetti Jr., Alex Van Pelt, Luke Getsy and Ben McAdoo all have Pittsburgh ties. So does Pat McAfee, Rodgers’ media cohort. That show employs one reporter that covers an NFL team — Mark Kaboly in Pittsburgh.
Coming to Pittsburgh just makes too much sense for Rodgers to go anywhere else.
As far as the Steelers, they very clearly do not want Russell Wilson back. If they did, he’d have been under contract a week ago. There is not a better option out there in the market right now.
The Steelers also want to win now, even though they’re in the middle of a rebuild, and have given no signs they’re likely to draft a quarterback highly in this year’s draft. Their big move for the future will likely come next year, which would let Rodgers play his second season before handing over the reins.
With the signing of Mason Rudolph, the Steelers are protected enough from Rodgers suddenly deciding to take a retreat to the Peruvian Andes, or giving up football to become a monk or getting really into avocado farming, that they can afford to sit back, relax, and let him take his sweet old time to come up with the obvious conclusion laid out above.
Even if it takes a while.