As the Aaron Rodgers saga with the Pittsburgh Steelers is now in its second month, he has finally broken his silence during a lengthy interview on The Pat McAfee Show this afternoon. There have been many theories about what could be causing the hold up, and among those is the size of his contract.
Mike Florio made what he called a “semi-educated guess” on the terms of a potential Rodgers contract back in early March and tossed around a two-year $90 million contract. Rodgers set the record straight.
“There’s been a lot of people assuming they have information about me. That’s just not true,” Rodgers said. “I’ve been straight up with these teams from the start about where I was at, starting with the money thing. I told every single one of the teams I talked to it ain’t about the money. I’ll play for $10ms. I never once said I need a multi-year deal [of] $30, $40 million.”
Even if Florio’s guess was seemingly on the high end of things, nobody could have guessed Rodgers’ asking price would be this low. If he were to actually sign for $10 million, that would rank 23rd in the NFL in terms of quarterback average value per year. That’s just a hair below Russell Wilson’s contract with the New York Giants.
The Steelers just had a very inexpensive quarterback room in 2024 with Russell Wilson playing for the veteran minimum and Justin Fields on a cheap rookie contract. If Rodgers signs with the Steelers, it would be slightly more expensive, but they would still have among the cheapest rooms in the league.
As the Steelers work toward extending T.J. Watt’s contract, the extra cap space and cash for the 2025 season would help them get that deal across the finish line.
Unfortunately, Rodgers gave no real update on his free agent status or any timeline for getting the deal across the finish line. But it’s no wonder why the Steelers are waiting for Rodgers at this point. For one, there aren’t very many other veteran options who make sense at the moment. And there is no doubt that $10 million on a one-year deal would be worth rolling the dice to maximize their performance in the 2025 season.
