All signs point to Aaron Rodgers landing with the Pittsburgh Steelers… eventually.
The veteran NFL quarterback has long been flirting with the Steel City, but has not yet officially announced his next step as teams begin their OTAs.
Rodgers left the New York Jets after a disappointing 2024 season, and is widely expected to favor at least one more year in the league over retirement.
The Steelers are his only realistic landing spot, given they are the one team looking to sign a veteran QB, and president Art Rooney II has already publicly expressed hopes he will arrive.
But Pittsburgh’s prolonged pursuit of the four-time MVP has upset one franchise legend.
Terry Bradshaw, a four-time Super Bowl champion with the Steelers, has made it clear he doesn’t want his former team to sign Rodgers.
“That’s a joke. That to me is just a joke,” Bradshaw told 103.7 The Buzz, when asked about Pittsburgh’s chase of the QB.
“What are you gonna do? Bring him in for one year, are you kidding me?
“That guy needs to stay in California. Go somewhere and chew on bark and whisper to the gods out there.”
It’s fair to say Bradshaw, who spent his entire 14-year career with the Steelers, probably won’t be offering his iconic No. 12 jersey to Rodgers, should he eventually sign.
While the 1978 MVP has made his feelings clear on Rodgers — who last week brutally rejected the Saints — one fellow quarterback he believes deserved more of a chance in Pittsburgh is Kenny Pickett.
The 2022 first-round draft pick was traded away by the Steelers less than two years after he was selected 20th overall by the franchise.
Pickett is now with the Cleveland Browns, having spent last year with the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles, and Bradshaw believes the Steelers ‘failed’ him.
“I liked Kenny Pickett,” he said.
“I liked him at Pitt. I know him, I know what he’s like. When they got him to Pittsburgh, they didn’t protect him, they didn’t get him an offensive line.
“They wanted to run the football, but they didn’t have an offensive line that could protect and they didn’t have weapons. He had no wide receivers to speak of.
“Then they throw a kid in there for two years and you’ve got an offense that doesn’t fit and doesn’t work, and they can’t run because their offensive line’s not even good enough for a run blocking team.
“Now, they’re saying Kenny Pickett is a failure. He wasn’t a failure, the Steelers were a failure.”
While Bradshaw didn’t mince words when it comes to Pittsburgh’s QB situation, he will almost certainly be watching Rodgers under center at Acrisure Stadium in 2025, with NFL insider Ian Rapoport suggesting it’s a case of when, not if, he will sign.
And that means Mason Rudolph, currently set to start in Week 1, would slide down the depth chart.
He has also been speaking about the Steelers’ ongoing pursuit of Rodgers, and made an honest admission about the ‘noise’ that surrounds the team.
“That’s nothing new to me. There’s been constant noise,” Rudolph said, after teammate Alex Highsmith also sent a clear message last week.
“That’s the nature of the NFL. So I am used to that for a long time.
“Now I’m doing nothing but being the best I can be to help our team get better this spring.”
As it stands, the three quarterbacks on Pittsburgh’s roster are Rudolph, signed to a two year, $7.5 million contract, former seventh-round pick Skylar Thompson and rookie Will Howard.
Rodgers is set to join them and lead that quarterback room, but it seems the prolonged pursuit is starting to take a toll.
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