We are more than halfway through May, and QB Aaron Rodgers is still a free agent. Many still expect that the Pittsburgh Steelers will sign him to a contract. You can include insider Mark Kaboly among that group.
But the next big question is, when could that happen? Is Rodgers going to wait until training camp? Or will he sign earlier to be involved in some of the Steelers’ offseason activities, like Ben Roethlisberger thinks he should?
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio thinks Rodgers will be signing soon.
“The Steelers only have six OTA days before the mandatory minicamp,” Florio said Monday on Pro Football Talk. “I think he will be there next Tuesday, May 27, when the OTAs, Phase 3, begins. That’s nine practices before training camp. That’s enough time to get him properly ensconced. I think he’s going to, I don’t know this, but I think there’s going to be a press conference this week. And he’ll be there with the team next Tuesday.”
While no one should begrudge Aaron Rodgers for taking care of personal business, the sooner he gets into Pittsburgh, the better it will be for the whole team. Offseason practices are important for the players to get communication down and build relationships. These practices are also important for new players to learn the schemes.
That’s why the Steelers should want Aaron Rodgers in their building as soon as possible. And it’s the same reason that former Steelers QB Charlie Batch thinks that QB Mason Rudolph will be in a better situation the longer Rodgers waits to sign. Rudolph will be the beneficiary of all that practice time the longer Rodgers takes to sign.
However, we saw how well that worked out for former Steelers QB Justin Fields last season. When Russell Wilson suffered his injury on the eve of training camp, Fields received the bulk of the practice reps and showed improvement. Yet, the moment Wilson was healthy, he started splitting reps with Fields, and Tomlin named him the Week 1 starter. Then he suffered another injury, pressing Fields into service for the first six weeks of the season.
I think we all would love to not relive the quarterback chaos of 2024. And at this point, the best way for that to happen is either for Aaron Rodgers to sign with the Steelers very soon, or not to sign at all. The longer this continues, the more opportunities there will be for problems to arise.
