The Pittsburgh Steelers remain patient with free agent QB Aaron Rodgers as they wait for him to make a decision, but with OTAs beginning next week, the Steelers may want an answer soon. While leaving the NFL owners meetings today, Steelers owner Art Rooney II said the team will wait a “little while longer” for Rodgers per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
“A little while longer. I’ll say the same thing,” Rooney said via Fowler on Twitter.
On April 1, Rooney said that the Steelers are willing to wait for Rodgers, delivering a similar line to what he said today. “Not forever, but a little while longer.”
With mandatory minicamp beginning on June 10, it’s reasonable to expect that the Steelers and Rooney would want Rodgers in the building by then. Ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft, Rooney hinted that the Steelers would like to have Rodgers in the building for some parts of Pittsburgh’s offseason program, and minicamp would serve as a reasonable deadline.
The team has Mason Rudolph, rookie Will Howard and Skylar Thompson in its quarterback room, and Rodgers would elevate the team’s room and raise its ceiling this season. But the longer it drags on and Rodgers isn’t with the team, the more likely it is that he doesn’t sign, even though the Steelers have maintained that they think they’re getting him.
It doesn’t seem as if there’s any hard deadline for Rodgers, but with it being two months since he visited the team’s facility and no decision on his end, the Steelers’ patience may be running thin. Rooney makes it sound like the team is still content to wait a little bit longer, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens if Pittsburgh’s minicamp comes and goes and Rodgers is still a free agent.
Rodgers would make the Steelers a better team, but the team has confidence in Rudolph and could entrust him as the starter if the Steelers decide they don’t want to wait for Rodgers if he continues to be indecisive. On Rodgers’ end, he said that personal issues have caused a delay in his decision, one at which he hinted Wednesday during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience.
But with OTAs and on-field activity ramping up soon, the Steelers will need an answer so they can move forward at quarterback, and while the Steelers are fine waiting for Rodgers now, their patience could run out.
