The wait for Aaron Rodgers to make a decision regarding his future in the NFL and if he’ll sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers continues to drag out, and now former Steelers Super Bowl-winning safety and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark is fed up.
“I mean, it makes me sick, to be honest. Unless the general manager, Omar Khan, of the Pittsburgh Steelers has some sort of promise or some sort of lean on Aaron Rogers believing that he is gonna come back and play football, and if he does make that decision, he’s going to be a Pittsburgh Steeler, I feel like this has been mishandled already,” Clark said Tuesday morning on Get Up, according to video via ESPN. “I feel like to be waiting, right, or be to be held hostage by a former quarterback of the New York Jets that’s actually never done anything for you, what has Aaron Rogers done in the last two years or since leaving Green Bay that says he should be afforded this type of time, since that says that you should give him the sort of respect that keeps your franchise at bay?”
Dating back to the start of the new league year on March 12, the Steelers have found themselves in a holding pattern with Rodgers. There’s very clearly interest in both sides there, with a lot of mutual respect between head coach Mike Tomlin and Rodgers as well.
But this has dragged on far too long and is starting to become comical — and embarrassing — at this point. He’s a 41-year-old quarterback coming off of a 5-12 season with the Jets. While Rodgers still put up some good numbers and showed late in the season, he still has plenty of juice left in his arm, he’s not a quarterback a team should be bending over backwards for, awaiting his decision like the Steelers are.
Though there has been some movement since the start of the new league year, with Rodgers visiting the Steelers’ South Side facility on March 21, and then throwing with new Steelers WR DK Metcalf at UCLA on the weekend of March 29-30, nothing has happened with Rodgers as far as signing a contract with the Steelers. That has led to plenty of speculation regarding Rodgers possibly holding out for a better opportunity, like Minnesota or San Francisco.
Steelers owner and team president Art Rooney II seemed a bit frustrated with how long this has played out, too, stating back at the NFL’s owners meetings that the team was willing to wait on Rodgers, but not too long, and that he didn’t expect it to take this long.
That was two weeks ago.
“When I think about this decision, to me, it doesn’t matter what happens going forward. I think it’s been a bad play by the Pittsburgh Steelers already,” Clark said. “And so I would give Aaron Rodgers a deadline, and when I give him that deadline, it wouldn’t lead me into next week. I would need to know if you’re coming back to play or not this week. And more importantly, if you’re coming back to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Clark’s spot-on. This hasn’t been played all that well by the Steelers, who missed out on other quarterbacks and contingency options, including another 40-year-old QB in Joe Flacco, who reportedly spoke with the Steelers before signing with the Cleveland Browns.
Ultimately, it seems like Rodgers will be a Steeler and all will be relatively fine at the QB position for 2025. But this hasn’t been a good look for the Steelers, waiting around for a QB at the end of his career who hasn’t done anything worthwhile in a few years and seems like more of a headache off the field than a positive addition from a performance perspective.
