Steelers, Giants Still Stuck Waiting on Aaron Rodgers
The Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants are both stuck waiting on Aaron Rodgers.
The mercurial quarterback has apparently gone radio silent after receiving contract offers from both clubs that are pursuing him in free agency, according to multiple reports.
There seems to be some disagreement on why Rodgers had yet to accept an offer. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk said on Wednesday that the Steelers are being stingy with their contract offer, saying if they had been “reasonable” in their request of Rodgers, the deal would have been done on Tuesday.
But Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported late on Wednesday that money is not the issue, the sides are simply waiting for Rodgers to decide which place he prefers to sign.
While the Steelers and the Giants are waiting for Rodgers, Russell Wilson is getting tired of waiting. The Steelers 2024 starting quarterback, who now appears to be the team’s Plan C at best for 2025, made it clear that he’s taking free agent visits to two other teams this week.
Wilson will visit with the Cleveland Browns on Thursday and the Giants on Friday, likely setting a hard deadline for a return to the Steelers, which Wilson has maintained all along was his priority.
The Steelers have not been in contract talks with Wilson for a week, according to a report by the New York Post, first pursuing Justin Fields and then pivoting to Rodgers when the team’s other incumbent quarterback picked a higher-priced offer from the New York Jets instead.
How long will the Steelers and Giants continue to have patience with Rodgers before one of them decides to just sign Wilson again? And is Wilson even a realistic option for the Steelers at this point, with ruffled feathers in the locker room following the team’s late-season slide and the subsequent reporting of his relationship with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith? Those questions remain unanswered at this point as we enter the fourth day of NFL free agency.
Rodgers, for his part, doesn’t seem bothered by the drama. He was caught by photographers on a beach in Malibu, California on Wednesday afternoon.