Opinion: The Steelers and Aaron Rodgers deserve each other

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How did we get here? Aaron Rodgers may not be the quarterback some members of the fanbase want, but he’s the one the team deserves.

For months now, Aaron Rodgers’ eventual team-up with the Pittsburgh Steelers has felt imminent. There were whispers even before the free-agent period, but after the organization fumbled its attempt to bring Justin Fields back on a bridge contract, it became clear what path the Steelers had started down. With Fields off to greener pastures, there were simply no viable alternatives on the open market, and trading valuable resources for an injured and expensive quarterback like Kirk Cousins or Derek Carr never made any sense.

Rodgers, whatever your feelings about him, was simply the best available option for the team in 2025. Whether the mercurial quarterback held the same feelings about the Steelers was the real question.

The future Hall of Fame quarterback visited the Steelers’ facilities on March 21, where he met with both Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan. At the time, it was reported that the meeting had gone well, yet no contract was signed. Then, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Rodgers continued to play coy about the situation through the media.

In the days and weeks that followed, Rodgers mused openly about potential retirement, while not so subtly hinting that he’d be open to teaming up with Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings. The Vikings, much like the rest of the NFL, rebuffed Rodgers’ advances. Theories about if and when Rodgers would make it official with Pittsburgh came and went like a doomsday pastor’s prophecies. Former team legends and members of the fanbase alike bemoaned how desperate the whole affair made the Steelers look.

And yet, here we are.

The Steelers and Rodgers should finally put pen to paper Friday — you never know with Rodgers! — just in time for mandatory minicamp on Tuesday. It’s an unsurprising outcome for anyone who has followed Rodgers and, frankly, the NFL for long. Most veterans take it easy during the voluntary portions of the offseason, and the 41-year-old Rodgers hasn’t exactly hidden his feelings about participating in OTAs during the latter stages of his career.

If the whole affair has left a bad taste in your mouth, get in line. Rodgers isn’t the easiest guy to root for, and this year’s relationship is purely mercenary.

At the same time, if you’re relieved we aren’t about to get an entire season of Mason Rudolph starting under center, I can’t fault that point of view either. I might not be drinking Kool-Aid on Rodgers making the Steelers contenders, but I can get a hell of a lot closer with him than with Rudolph.

Whatever your take on Rodgers is, I’m not here to argue you off it. He’s a polarizing figure, and in the coming days, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to discuss him further. But one thing I think we can all agree on is that the Steelers have left us with plenty of frustrations in the post-Roethlisberger years.

In my view, the Steelers are still paying for two mistakes we can trace back to the unfortunate injury to Roethlisberger’s elbow on Sept. 15, 2019. Roethlisberger left that game — which a in a mystically grim bit of foreshadowing came against Russell Wilson’s Seahawks — and was never the same again. Neither were the Steelers.

If it wasn’t then, the team’s lack of a succession plan at quarterback has become painfully obvious. Some will say Rudolph was that plan, to which I say a third-round quarterback is not a serious plan, especially when the Steelers got an extended look at Rudolph during the 2019 season, including a period where they benched him in favor of a guy named Duck.

To make matters worse, the Steelers have been unable to be honest with themselves about their situation. Just one day after Roethlisberger blew out his elbow, the team traded its 2020 first-round pick for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. Now, Fitzpatrick is a hell of a player, but trading away a premium pick for a player at a non-premium position is a luxury a team can only afford when they’re just a piece or two away. That certainly wasn’t the 2019 Steelers. And with the health of your 37-year-old quarterback’s throwing arm in question, it’s frankly insane to look back on.

Crazier still was the refusal to consider drafting an heir to Roethlisberger. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but it’s hard not to look back at the 2020 draft and wonder what could have been if the Steelers had a little more foresight.

In the years since, I’ve heard the arguments that it would have been crazy to draft a QB with Roethlisberger still in the fold. I couldn’t disagree more. It’d have been one thing if Big Ben had been in his early 30s when he injured his throwing elbow, but he was 37. And if we take Roethlisberger at his word, isn’t it a bit insane not to even start making a backup plan for a passer who might have suffered a unique injury we’d never seen a quarterback come back from before?

Had the Steelers held onto the pick they traded for Fitzpatrick, they could have drafted Jordan Love, Aaron Rodgers’ eventual replacement. Shoot, even without it, they had the opportunity to draft Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second round, but instead took wide receiver Chase Claypool.

Those moves initially seemed to pay off, as the Steelers got off to an 11-0 start, but the further the season dragged on, it became clear Roethlisberger wasn’t the same quarterback and teams were figuring out the Steelers’ new schtick on offense. That 2020 team would crash and burn spectacularly, losing four of their final five regular season games, as well as a humiliating Wild Card loss to the Browns.

That ultimately fruitless season put them out of position to draft a rookie quarterback in the 2021 draft. That could have been a blessing in disguise since the 2021 QB class has been mostly disappointing, but the Steelers’ choices in the following draft didn’t do them any favors. With Kevin Colbert halfway out the door and concerned with his own legacy, it was quarterback or bust in the 2022 draft, despite concerns that the class didn’t have any signal callers worthy of a first round selection.

To the Steelers’ credit, they moved on quickly from Kenny Pickett once it became clear he didn’t have what it took to be a quality starter in the NFL, but it was just another reflection of the team being dishonest with itself about the status of the team.

Rodgers will be team’s third starting QB in two years. Much like Wilson a year ago, Rodgers is an over-the-hill vet who prefers to avoid targeting the middle of the field and whose mobility was both key to who he was in his prime and quickly diminishing.

If winning the Super Bowl is the end goal, it takes quite the stretch of imagination to envision this version of Rodgers leading the Steelers there. As a Steelers fan, I would be thrilled if he did, but I have a hard time quieting my skepticism in this case. What feels like the most likely outcome is the Steelers clawing their way to another Wild Card defeat, or at the very least winning enough games to make drafting a rookie an even more expensive proposition.

Rodgers teaming up with the Steelers just doesn’t move the needle for me. In my mind, this feels like Tomlin and Rodgers were the last two people remaining at the bar, who lock eyes at closing time, shrug, and drive home together. Why not? This isn’t going to be a meaningful relationship, but maybe the Steelers can find out something about themselves in the effort.

Regardless of what happens, there is hope on the horizon. The 2026 quarterback class is shaping up to be a good one, and the Steelers are projected to have 12 picks at their disposal. The draft will be in Pittsburgh next season, and it feels almost poetic destiny that the future of the franchise will be introduced to the fanbase for the first time on that stage.

We just need to survive 2025.