{"id":329535,"date":"2026-05-05T12:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T07:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=329535"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T07:05:06","slug":"aaron-rodgers-steelers-return-not-held-up-by-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/aaron-rodgers-steelers-return-not-held-up-by-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Rodgers&#8217; Steelers Return Not Held Up By Money"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>For a second offseason in a row, <strong>Aaron<\/strong> <strong>Rodgers<\/strong> is playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the Steelers. Despite every indication that the 42-year-old shall be Pittsburgh\u2019s starter in 2026 \u2013 including a scarcity of other options \u2013 he has yet to finalize that call.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.profootballrumors.com\/files\/2025\/11\/USATSI_27494688-scaled.jpg\"><\/a>The delay is unrelated to financial compensation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.post-gazette.com\/sports\/steelers\/2026\/05\/04\/is-aaron-rodgers-playing-in-2026-nfl-news-rumors\/stories\/202605030132\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/a>. The Steelers placed a UFA tender on Rodgers, which is able to pay him 110% of last 12 months\u2019s salary, or simply over $15MM. He can still sign with one other team, but that deal would factor into the compensatory pick formula.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;t necessarily mean that Rodgers could be willing to simply accept a lesser deal from one other team.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from a return to Pittsburgh, Rodgers doesn&#8217;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 <strong>Mike<\/strong> <strong>McCarthy<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<p>But with multiple Steelers-set deadlines within the rearview, there isn&#8217;t any way of knowing when Rodgers will make a call and what that call shall be. Pittsburgh didn&#8217;t pursue any veteran quarterbacks this offseason and only added Penn State\u2019s <strong>Drew<\/strong> <strong>Allar<\/strong> within the third round of the draft. He joins <strong>Mason<\/strong> <strong>Rudolph<\/strong> and 2025 sixth-rounder <strong>Will Howard<\/strong> within the Steelers\u2019 quarterback room, essentially making them reliant on a Rodgers return to place forth a competitive team in 2026.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s starter in 2026 \u2013 including a scarcity of other options \u2013 he has yet to finalize that call. The delay is unrelated to financial compensation, per Gerry Dulac [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[1116,9310,1113,1161,5596,8721],"class_list":["post-329535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-aaron","tag-held","tag-money","tag-return","tag-rodgers","tag-steelers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329538,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329535\/revisions\/329538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}