For a second offseason in a row, Aaron Rodgers is playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the Steelers. Despite every indication that the 42-year-old shall be Pittsburgh’s starter in 2026 – including a scarcity of other options – he has yet to finalize that call.
The delay is unrelated to financial compensation, per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Steelers placed a UFA tender on Rodgers, which is able to pay him 110% of last 12 months’s salary, or simply over $15MM. He can still sign with one other team, but that deal would factor into the compensatory pick formula.
This sets up a situation wherein Rodgers is virtually guaranteed to play in Pittsburgh this 12 months or sit out the season entirely, which might likely mean the top of his 21-year profession. Even when one other club wanted Rodgers, that team may not wish to risk losing a high-value compensatory pick by signing him.
As such, any offer would likely be well below what he stands to make with the Steelers. Though the present holdup is probably not based on money, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Rodgers could be willing to simply accept a lesser deal from one other team.
Aside from a return to Pittsburgh, Rodgers doesn’t have a transparent path forward. Retirement rumors have followed the four-time MVP for years, and his play within the last two seasons represented a precipitous drop from his time in Green Bay. The Steelers still went 10-7 and made the playoffs last 12 months, so Rodgers may feel that he has some winning football left in him. His relationships with head coach Mike McCarthy and several other members of his recent staff would look like another excuse for him to don the black and yellow for one more 12 months.
But with multiple Steelers-set deadlines within the rearview, there isn’t any way of knowing when Rodgers will make a call and what that call shall be. Pittsburgh didn’t pursue any veteran quarterbacks this offseason and only added Penn State’s Drew Allar within the third round of the draft. He joins Mason Rudolph and 2025 sixth-rounder Will Howard within the Steelers’ quarterback room, essentially making them reliant on a Rodgers return to place forth a competitive team in 2026.