Adam Schefter gave a prediction last week for when Aaron Rodgers will ultimately sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers. It wasn’t voluntary OTAs starting a week from today, but rather by mandatory minicamp on June 10. He doubled down on that prediction this morning, while also laying out what would be the worst-case scenario for the Steelers.
“It’s hard for me to imagine that if he does intend to sign with Pittsburgh that he’s gonna skip the mandatory minicamp in June,” Schefter said via ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike this morning. “Is it critical…No it’s not, but I think everybody could agree that if you’re gonna be stepping into a new situation, it would be ideal to be there now, but it would certainly be ideal to be there for mandatory minicamp. If he’s not there June 10th to 12th, I think at that point it’s fair to wonder if he is gonna play.”
During Rodgers’ only media appearance of the offseason, he made it clear on The Pat McAfee Show that he was working on nobody’s timeline other than his own. It was telling when Mike Tomlin initially gave a deadline of training camp only to walk that back a bit when Art Rooney II started to express a greater sense of urgency. During the draft, Rooney said they should get word soon from Rodgers and stated his strong preference for the four-time NFL MVP to be there for some (or all) of the offseason program with the team.
The Steelers’ words and actions have been aligned all along. They clearly think Rodgers intends on signing, but things could get interesting if he decides to hold his decision beyond June 12.
Once minicamp breaks, players and coaches typically go on vacation with their families and get off the grid for a bit. The next chance for Rodgers to sign would be at the end of June or beginning of July, in the weeks leading up to training camp. The media chatter will get quite loud if the Steelers still don’t have Rodgers under contract by then.
Could Rodgers retire? He left that possibility open during his McAfee appearance, but everybody who knows him seems to think he wouldn’t want to exit the league after his disastrous two-year stint with the New York Jets.
Biographer Ian O’Connor seemed to know the personal issues that Aaron Rodgers said were the reason he had put his future on hold and said they should be close to wrapping up. A decision could come anytime now. But with Rodgers, you never quite know.
