Matt LaFleur believes Aaron Rodgers is Pittsburgh bound
As we get closer and closer to the month of June and closer to mandatory minicamp, the anticipation of the Aaron Rodgers to Pittsburgh expectations and rumors continue to grow and grow.
Rodgers is heavily expected to sign with the Steelers ahead of that mandatory minicamp mark of the offseason, so these next few weeks will certainly be days when the news could break at any point. And it isn’t just the media that expects Rodgers to be a Steeler; it’s head coaches, as well. Specifically, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur. Joining Up & Adams, LaFleur says that, while neither Mike Tomlin nor Arthur Smith has reached out to him to ask any Rodgers-centric questions, he expects that Rodgers will be a Steeler.
“I’m pretty sure they know what they’re doing,” LaFleur said. “I’m sure they’re confident in what they’re doing. I would fully expect him to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.”
Has Mike Tomlin asked Coach Matt Lafleur about Aaron Rodgers???
Rodgers played under LaFleur from 2019-22, where the duo led the Packers to three consecutive 13-3 seasons from 2019-21. Rodgers also won two MVPs with LaFleur as his head coach. It’s certainly not nothing that LaFleur would go out of his way to say he expects his former quarterback to head to Pittsburgh.
New Orleans rebuffed those overtures and doubled down on their commitment to the 2022 first-rounder by picking up his fifth-year option. That will keep Olave under contract through the 2026 season, during which he will earn a fully-guaranteed $15.5MM.
Installing a new coaching staff tends to lead to player turnover as the roster is evaluated for fit with the incoming scheme. Between that and Olave’s down year in 2024, the Browns and the Steelers may have thought they could swoop in for a bargain.
However, the Saints declined to engage in trade talks for the 24-year-old wideout. That could be because new head coach Kellen Moore and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier see a major role for Olave in their passing attack. It could also be due to Olave’s lower trade value coming off a 400-yard season after he eclipsed 1,000 yards in each of his first two.
Picking up Olave’s fifth-year option indicates that the Saints believe he can bounce back in 2025, though he will have to adjust to a new coaching staff and a new quarterback, likely rookie Tyler Shough. If Olave returns to his top-25 production, he should be in line for an extension with a substantial raise next offseason.
The league’s best offensive lineman will now be honored at the end of the season.
NFL Honors will look a bit different in the upcoming season with the introduction of the “Protector of the Year” award.
The NFL is introducing the Protector of the Year Award given to the league’s best offensive lineman, as decided by a panel that includes a number of former OL greats.
Troy Vincent gives credit to Bills OL Dion Dawkins and Andrew Whitworth for pushing this idea.
The new award, the league announced, is to honor the season’s best offensive lineman — a position group always left out of the MVP and Offensive Player of the Year discussion.
The “Protector of the Year” honor was pushed by Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins and former Rams and Bengals offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth. Per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, the voting panel for the award will include former NFL “greats” at offensive line.
The Steelers haven’t had an elite offensive line for several seasons, but the team would’ve had strong candidates for the award in the past. Most recently, former Pittsburgh offensive linemen Maurkice Pouncey and David DeCastro were each two-time first-team All-Pros.
Pittsburgh does have a rising star currently on the offensive line, with center Zach Frazier being named to the Pro Football Writers of America’s all-rookie team following his performance last season.
At an NFL owner’s meeting May 21, the Green Bay Packers’ proposal to ban the play did not receive enough votes to pass, meaning perhaps the most controversial play in the league will stay in the playbook for another season.
Steelers president Art Rooney II had previously said he supported banning the tush push, but when the Eagles updated the wording with language that seemed to ban even more than just the play, the odds of it passing seemed to drop even lower.
Another rule change proposal to re-seed the playoffs by record following the Wild Card round was never even voted on, with the Lions interestingly withdrawing the proposal the day of the meeting.
That’s likely good news for Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, who said he was a “division purist” in March when critiquing an earlier version of the proposed change.
Once change did pass, though. Teams can now declare an onside kick at any point in the game when playing from behind (last year this was only allowed in the fourth quarter).
Onside kicks will now be kicked from the 34 yard line instead of the 35; the rest of the kicking team will still line up at the 35 yard line, with the hope that the recovery rate will go slightly up in 2025.
Will Howard hasn’t taken a snap in the NFL yet, but he’s already turning heads in Pittsburgh. The sixth-round pick out of Ohio State is making a strong impression on the Steelers’ coaching staff, showing poise, intelligence, and leadership during early workouts. Let’s take a look at Will’s intangibles and how he’s making an early impression.
The Steelers didn’t take Will Howard to be a savior, but they saw enough in his college tape to believe he could stabilize a quarterback room that’s lacked clarity in recent years. Winning the first expanded College Football Playoff has proven that Howard offers depth, upside, and a calm presence in high-pressure moments.
Oddsmakers like those that gambling expert Matt Bastock has reviewed in his guide on betting sites without ID that offer generous bonuses and anonymous play through utilizing crypto currently list Pittsburgh at +550 to make the playoffs. This figure reflects both the competitiveness of the AFC North and the uncertainty surrounding their offense.
Howard’s arrival doesn’t guarantee a postseason run, and he may not play a snap in 2025 depending on any other passers the Steelers add. (Aaron Rodgers is still a hotly specualted name to join the team.
However, Howard gives the team flexibility in case Mason Rudolph, the most tenured quarterback current only the roster, should falter. In a division where every win carries extra weight, having a capable, well-prepared third option at quarterback could end up making a real difference.
A championship pedigree rarely seen in the sixth round
What makes Howard’s early impact in Pittsburgh even more notable is the resume he walked in with. Few quarterbacks drafted that late come with his kind of experience. He started more than 30 games in college, split between Kansas State and Ohio State, with his final season ending in a national title.
At Ohio State, he posted 4,010 passing yards with 35 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, showing consistency and command of the offense. He led the Buckeyes to convincing wins in all three College Football Playoff Championship games, completing 58 of 80 passes for 839 yards, six touchdowns and only a single interception.
That performance didn’t just win him a ring. It caught the attention of NFL scouts who began revisiting earlier evaluations. The Steelers were one of the few teams that kept him on their board and brought Howard in for a pre-draft visit. Pittsburgh’s staff was reportedly “surprised and thrilled” he was still available in the sixth. Now he’s part of their rookie draft class of 2025, running plays during rookie minicamp and picking up the offense quickly.
Arthur Smith, Tomlin, and a QB room that feels reinvigorated
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith has kept things close to the vest, but he’s offered high marks for Howard’s early work. “He’s played in a lot of big games. We liked his tape, and we’re excited to have him here,” Smith told local reporters during minicamp. Head coach Mike Tomlin has also praised Howard’s presence, calling him “sharp” and “engaged.”
In a room that has seen the team move on from veteran starter Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, Howard may have landed in an opportune situation.
The Steelers have one of the most uncertain quarterback situations in the league, with only Rudolph and former Dolphins QB Skylar Thompson on the depth chart. Even if Pittsburgh were to sign Aaron Rodgers, Howard has already been quoted as being open to learn from the vets while still asserting himself in team drills.
What separates Howard, according to several staff members, is how quickly he processes. He isn’t scrambling to call plays in the huddle or hesitating when pressure comes off the edge. He also turned heads when he immediately called and requested the offensive playbook shortly after he was selected in on day three of the NFL Draft.
There’s still a real possibility that 2025 is a developmental year for Howard. Coach Tomlin typically leans on experienced players to start the season, and his pattern is to make rookies earn their spot. Traditionally, the lower a player is selected in the draft, the longer the path to playing time is within Tomlin’s system.
For now, Mason Rudolph is the presumed starter. Skylar Thompson, a former seventh round pick, has 10 games of playing experience with three starts, though that only amounts to 105 pass attempts.
Should Rodgers remain at home, unsigned, Howard has an opportunity to usurp the backup role. However, team president Art Rooney II spoke following day two of the draft, saying that any passer the team selected on day three would have to wait a year before playing.
Whether the players ahead of Howard on the depth chart perform well enough to remain in those spots will be a wait and see approach. Injuries, which are commonplace in a league that’s seen over 60 QBs start games in each of the last two seasons, could also get Howard meaningful reps sooner than expected. The coaching staff doesn’t see him as a gadget player or someone to stash on the practice squad.
Since Ben Roethlisberger retired, the team’s approach to finding a long-term answer at the position has been fluid. Some speculated that Roethlisberger is being lured to return, but that ship has long sailed. Pittsburgh has tried the veteran route with Wilson, the former first round reclamation projects with Mitchell Trubisky and Justin Fields, and also their own high pick, Kenny Pickett. None of those options have worked out.
Howard, however, brings a sense of upside that isn’t tied to desperation. The decision to draft Howard was no fluke. The Steelers met with him multiple times during the scouting process and viewed him as an ideal fit in their system. At 6-foot-5, 235 lbs., Howard has good pocket presence and above-average mobility. Like Big Ben, he’s tough to bring down. He matches what Tomlin and Smith have publicly said they want out of the position.
For now, Howard is doing everything right. He’s studying the playbook like a vet, handling the media with calm, and delivering on the field in low-stakes drills. It’s still spring football, and training camp will provide a more honest look at how he handles real pressure.
But so far, the reviews have been steady, and the optimism is growing. The fan base may not be ready to call him the future just yet, but inside the facility, coaches aren’t ruling anything out.
The Steelers legend sees a down season coming for Pittsburgh
Even though Ben Roethlisberger has been retired since the end of the 2021 season, but hasn’t gone too far from the football world. Steelers fans continue to get their dose of No. 7 through his podcast Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger, where current and former Steelers frequently join the two-time Super Bowl champion.
On the show’s latest episode, Roethlisberger broke down the Steelers’ schedule and gave his record predictions with a slight caveat. Big Ben predicts that the Steelers will have a losing record if Aaron Rodgers doesn’t join Pittsburgh, but has them outperforming their 2024 season if Rodgers does sign.
“I have us 7-10 without Aaron, and I have us 11-6 with Aaron,” Roethlisberger said.
Will the Steelers suffer a losing record without Aaron Rodgers?
Some may see this as a slight dig at the Steelers’ current quarterback room, specifically Mason Rudolph. That said, there clearly wasn’t any malicious intent with Roethlisberger’s predictions. Rather, he recognizes the difference between a future Hall of Fame quarterback and a career backup being on the field.
If and when Rodgers does join the Steelers, their ceiling instantly gets raised, as does their floor. If Rudolph is the starter, the ceiling is very low, frankly speaking.
Rodgers is coming off a season in which he threw 28 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions with 3,897 yards passing. Rudolph threw nine touchdowns and nine interceptions in eight games and five starts with the Tennessee Titans in 2024.
(From Penn Live’s Nick Farabaugh): The Cincinnati Bengals are hosting former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Montravius Adams for a visit on Monday. This is Adams’ first visit since his release from the Steelers following the NFL Draft.
Adams spent four seasons in Pittsburgh from 2021-24. Over that span, he started 21 games and recorded 72 total tackles, one sack, and six tackles for loss. Released on April 28, the eight-year veteran is now looking for his fourth NFL team.
The Steelers cut Adams presumably to give him a better shot at making a roster elsewhere after drafting two defensive linemen in the 2025 NFL Draft. The Bengals defense was bottom-10 in the league in both points and yards last season.
(From Steelers.com’s Teresa Varley): “My dad is a football junkie,” said Sawyer. “Ever since I was little, I would be watching games with my dad. I’d be throwing the football when I was one, two years old, watching games with him on the couch. He said he could tell from an early age that I had a love for the game. I think it started with watching football together on television every Saturday and Sunday and always dreaming about having a chance to do what I’m able to do now. It’s just hard to explain.”
In the feature, Sawyer talks about his belief that games are decided by a handful of plays. That philosophy, combined with Sawyer’s film study and nonstop motor, explain his knack for creating clutch plays during his time with Ohio State. It’s also a big reason why the Steelers drafted him.
(From NFL.com’s Kevin Patra): “I feel like I’m a versatile back. I could be a Derrick Henry back, or I could be a Dalvin Cook back,” Johnson recently told the team’s official website. “And I feel like that’s what separates me from a lot of backs in the league and in this class that I came into because I just feel like, you know, overall. I feel like I’m a fast back, and I could be a strong back, also catch the ball in the backfield and be reliable.”
(From NFL.com’s Grant Gordon): NFL owners passed a resolution, 32-0, on Tuesday at the Spring League Meeting that will allow league players to try out to participate in flag football during the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. A maximum of one player from each team will be allowed to participate and each club’s designated international player is also permitted to take part for his country.
The next Summer Olympics will be July 14-30, 2028. That will certainly overlap with portions of training camp, and the NFL is working on details regarding injury possibilities, playing conditions, and salary implications. There are a lot of hurdles left to clear, but allowing NFL participation in Olympic flag football is a massive marketing opportunity for the league that will not impact most of its players.
Of course, there’s the question of how well NFL players will transition to flag football. Yes, they are the best football players in the world, but flag football is an entirely different sport. There’s far less physicality and it’s a game built almost entirely on speed and agility; instead of breaking tackles, you have to make sure your flag doesn’t get pulled.
That means the NFL players on the team won’t necessarily be a 1:1 replica of the All-Pro roster.
As for how the game looks, I’d recommend checking out some highlights from past international flag football matchups. It doesn’t look like the NFL. The field is 70 yards long and 25 yards wide, including 10-yard end zones. The offense is composed of one quarterback, three receivers, and one running back, while the defense has one designated rusher and four defensive backs in coverage.
Scoring and downs are a bit different, too. You can check out the Olympic rulebook here for all the details.
Which Steeler would make the Olympic flag football team?
Right now, the Steelers don’t seem like a team that would have a frontrunner for Team USA’s Olympic flag football squad, but in three years that might be different. On the Pittsburgh roster right now, Calvin Austin III and his blazing 4.32 speed is an obvious choice.
However, my top pick would probably be safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick is a great athlete himself, and he’s played plenty of single-high safety in the NFL on a field that’s 53 yards wide — 25 would be even easier. Plus, with 20 interceptions and four touchdowns over his career, he’s a proven playmaker.
If you have some time to kill, I’d also love to hear your thoughts on what a 10-man flag football team of NFL players would look like this season. What about a team of all-time Steelers?
What are your thoughts on NFL players in Olympic flag football? Join the BTSC community and let us know in the comments below!
Think you can figure out which Steelers player we’re talking about? You’ll get five clues to figure him out in our new guessing game!
Hey Steelers fans! We’re back for another day of the Behind the Steel Curtain in-5 daily trivia game. Game instructions are at the bottom if you’re new to the game! Feel free to share your results in the comments and feedback in this Google Form.
The goal of the game is to guess the correct Steelers player with the help of up to five clues. We’ll mix in BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED PLAYERS. It won’t be easy to figure it out in one or two guesses, but some of you might be able to nail it.
After you correctly guess the player, you can click “Share Results” to share how you did down in the comments and on social media. We won’t go into other details about the game as we’d like your feedback on it. How it plays, what you think of it, the difficulty level, and anything else you can think of that will help us improve this game. You can provide feedback in the comments of this article, or you can fill out this Google Form.
B) You’re looking down the barrel of this 2025 season, wracked with anxiety about whether there will even be any good quarterbacks available for the Steelers in the draft, let alone if they will have the necessary pick to secure them. Unfortunately, I also count myself among you. We’ll get through this together.
C) You think it’s dumb to talk about the 2026 Draft just one month after the 2025 Draft. I disagree, but I get it, and hope I can provide you with some info and observations you’ll be able to use over the next 11 months.
Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Regardless of which type you are, there is no underselling how important next year’s draft in Pittsburgh will be for the home team. Finding a player that can stabilize the quarterback room will not only impact the next several years for the organization, but it will also impact the legacies of everyone from decision makers like Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan, to players still searching for a playoff victory like T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick.
That’s why I plan to follow along with the college football season and provide you with updated temperature reads on which quarterbacks are trending towards being first-round picks. With the college football season roughly 94 days away, the next several weeks seem like the perfect time to start familiarizing ourselves with the quarterbacks who could declare for the draft in 2026.
But, as a lifelong sports fan, I know how easy it is for biases against certain players — or more often, schools/teams — to cloud our judgment when it comes to talent evaluation. If the NFL Draft has taught us anything over the years, it’s that projecting quarterback success isn’t an exact science.
Entering their final year of college ball, neither Joe Burrow nor Jayden Daniels were considered a player who would hear their name called early on Night 1 of the draft. The same could be said of this year’s first overall pick, Cam Ward. After his 2023 season at Washington State University, Ward was advised he would not be considered a Day 1 prospect in the 2024 draft, so he made the wise decision to head back for one last year of school.
Meanwhile, Trevor Lawrence was considered a generational, can’t-miss type of player, yet he hasn’t fully lived up to the potential we all envisioned for him so far. Caleb Williams didn’t have quite the same hype as Lawrence, but his debut season was bumpier than many anticipated.
Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Images
That’s why I wanted to find a way to present these players to you blind, at least initially, for this exercise. I want to combat those biases in you, the readers, as well as the ones I know I hold for some of these quarterbacks.
There’s also the issue that this class is marked by uncertainty. That’s not entirely unique this time of year, but it will mark the second straight class without a definitive frontrunner at quarterback.
Of the 15 quarterbacks I will profile in this series, only six are seniors or grad-transfers in the final year of their eligibility. The rest are all underclassmen who possess traits that could make them high picks if paired with an exceptional 2025 season, but who could just as easily decide they need one more year of seasoning before going pro.
And yes, that includes the quarterback prospect with the famous family and only two career starts. You know the one.
Brett Davis-Imagn Images
Add in that, generally speaking, we know only a handful of these quarterbacks will end up being worthy of a first-round grade. A class with three or more quarterbacks taken in the first is not always a given, as we just saw with the most recent draft class.
With all of those factors to consider, I knew contextualizing this crop of quarterbacks in a way that was equally informative and entertaining was not going to be an easy task.
But that’s when I had an idea.
While I’m certainly an NFL Draft nerd, I also have an interest in pop culture, including from eras before my time. While this may be the result of my childhood home having TV Land included in our television package, as I thought about how I wanted to talk about this group, I was reminded of the old game show The Dating Game.
First airing in 1965, The Dating Game had iterations air sporadically across the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, as well as a short-lived celebrity version that ran as recently as 2021. For those who have forgotten or weren’t alive when the show was at its peak in popularity, the show has a pretty simple premise: three contestants are hidden behind a barrier that allows their voices to be heard but keeps them out of sight from the person who will be interviewing them. That person takes turns asking each contestant questions about themselves, and then by the end of the show, they pick one to go on a “date” with.
Over the years, the show would include everything from regular folks, to pre-breakout celebrities such as Farah Fawcett and Arnold Schwarzenegger and even, infamously, a man who would go on to be convicted as a serial killer.
All of that’s to say, like this quarterback class, The Dating Game featured a mixed bag of characters.
With that in mind, I will be periodically releasing entries in this series over the next several weeks, leading up to the kickoff of the 2025 college football season. I’ve identified 15 quarterbacks that are either commonly discussed as potential first-round picks or that I think could rise to that level with a strong 2025 performance.
Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
While I hope to make a fun game out of obscuring their identities when I present them, I see no reason to hide that quarterback list from you now if you wish to get started on your own research. Leading up to the start of the college football season, I will present the cases for the following players, in no particular order or ranking:
During this series, I will try to keep my own biases in check about certain players — like Klubnik (positive) and Beck (negative) — as I present to you the positives and negatives about their football journeys so far. Each entry in the series will feature three signal callers whose identities will be initially withheld and then revealed at the end of the article.
This is where I’ll need your help. With each entry, I’ll need you, the audience, to vote in the poll at the end of each article and sound off in the comments to pick the “winner” from each installment. Then, before the first college game of the season, I’ll do a film breakdown of the five winners in our series and do one last vote to determine which player the BTSC readership is favoring in August. If nothing else, it’ll be fun to revisit after the season and see how good we were at determining which quarterbacks we’ll be talking about next spring.
The draft is just 337 away and counting, Steelers Nation. It’s time to get to work.
