The leading theory behind why Aaron Rodgers has yet to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers is because he is still holding out hope for the Minnesota Vikings to bring him in to go all-in on the 2025 season. A couple weeks ago it was reported that they planned to move forward with 2024 first-round QB J.J. McCarthy, but the door has never been fully shut.
If McCarthy struggles, there still seems to be a remote possibility that the Vikings change their mind. According to Ian Rapoport, that wouldn’t happen for quite a while.
“I’ve had to think what would have to happen for them to say, ‘Alright, we are now not in and let’s go sign Aaron Rodgers.’ Let’s just say Rodgers waits, which I don’t think he would, but let’s say he does. It would have to be through training camp for them to be like, ‘Alright, J.J. is not what we thought, we need a veteran,'” Rapoport said Friday via The Pat McAfee Show. “He’s not gonna wait that long.”
The Steelers don’t sound willing to wait that long either. Mike Tomlin was pretty relaxed about deadlines, only saying that training camp is a rough line in the sand. Team president Art Rooney II took a slightly tougher stance and said that they are willing to wait a bit longer but not forever. Waiting until after training camp starts might as well be forever in the eyes of the organization.
The Steelers constantly talk about how important the team-building process is at training camp, so I don’t think they would be willing to wait anywhere near that long.
If Rodgers would have to wait until July with no guarantee of getting a call from the Vikings, the Steelers would have already moved on by then. That would leave Rodgers with no options, so it would be quite the gamble if he is dead set on playing in 2025. For those reasons, it seems inevitable that the four-time NFL MVP signing with the Steelers will happen in relatively short order.
Will it happen at McAfee’s Big Night AHT next week? I’d guess probably not. But will it happen before the draft? I am pretty positive that will be the case.
