After a whirlwind first day of the legal tampering window, things are expected to move quickly once again Tuesday across the NFL landscape.
For the Pittsburgh Steelers, that should include quarterback. After seeing Justin Fields come to an agreement with the New York Jets on a two-year, $40 million deal with $30 million guaranteed, the Steelers have had to pivot at the most important position in sports. Shockingly, that pivot has seemingly landed on Aaron Rodgers.
On Monday, the Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac reported that the Steelers were “closing in” on a deal with Rodgers, before he later re-worded it to the two sides talking. All indications, though, point the Steelers and Rodgers coming to an agreement.
For ESPN’s Dan Graziano, that’s the likeliest outcome. During an appearance Tuesday on Unsportsmanlike, Graziano stated that it’s “probably” Rodgers for the Steelers, and that he expects the rest of the QB market to have resolutions Tuesday, too.
“Well, probably Aaron Rodgers [to the Steelers], unless somehow the Giants can convince Rodgers that that’s a better situation for them. I don’t know how the Giants will do that. If they can, good for them. But I think that’s where the Steelers pivot to now is Aaron Rodgers,” Graziano said, according to audio via ESPN Radio. “I think there’s resolution on the remaining quarterback situations today, other than draft, obviously.
“But you know, I think Rodgers and Russell Wilson, Daniel Jones, guys like that probably get placed today. And you can kind of see where the remaining musical chairs are.”
Those musical chairs could be Rodgers in Pittsburgh, Russell Wilson with the New York Giants, and Daniel Jones with the Minnesota Vikings or Indianapolis Colts. Graziano added that he believes in an ideal world Rodgers would want to go to the Vikings, but the Vikings haven’t shown any interest in him. So now, his focus is seemingly on the Steelers.
All offseason, the talk was that the Steelers’ preference was to re-sign Fields or Wilson. But with Fields reportedly not responding to the Steelers’ contract offer entering the legal tampering window forced the Steelers to pivot. That led to some interest in Sam Darnold, but Darnold ultimately agreed to a three-year, $100.5 million deal with the Seattle Seahawks, taking another QB option off the board.
So, that has seemingly led the Steelers to Rodgers, who will turn 42 in December and will be the fifth-oldest quarterback to take a snap in the NFL, should he reach the start of the season.
He’s coming off a disastrous 2024 season with the Jets. New York went 5-12, the head coach was fired early in the season, Rodgers had some public clashes with ownership, and he created more headlines than necessary during appearances on The Pat McAfee Show.
On the field, which is most important at this point, Rodgers showed signs he could still play, especially late in the year. In his final five games of the season, Rodgers had a passer rating of 98.3, threw for 1,270 yards, nine touchdowns and three interceptions. That included one game of 339 passing yards against the Miami Dolphins, and then a four-touchdown game in Week 18 to close out his Jets tenure.
In fact, following the Jets’ 37-15 loss to the Steelers in Week 7, Rodgers had a pretty good run to close the season. He threw for 2,234 yards from Weeks 8-18, with 18 touchdowns and four interceptions to go along with a QB rating of 97.0. He was sacked 23 times, too, but the Jets went 3- 7 in that stretch.
Now, he’ll seemingly be going from a dumpster-fire organization to one with stability, which might help handle some of the headlines and headaches.
