With each passing day, Aaron Rodgers attracts stronger and stronger skepticism about his ability to invest in the Pittsburgh Steelers. For many weeks, he has kept them at arm’s length, at least from an outside perspective. Openly stating he is focusing on his personal life, his timeline is reaching a key milestone.
This coming week, the Steelers open OTAs, and nobody seems to anticipate that Aaron Rodgers will show up. He can’t without a signed contract, of course, and he doesn’t have one. The Steelers have an offer on the table for him, but it’s gathering dust at this point. Former NFL OL Ross Tucker just doesn’t see how someone who really values football would behave in this manner.
“I would just argue it’s not important enough to him. If it were important enough to him, he would be in Pittsburgh right now,” Tucker said of Aaron Rodgers on the Kaboly + Mack podcast. “He would be with those guys, trying to get them to have a successful year.”
The Jets released Rodgers earlier this offseason after a disappointing, injury-marred two years. While multiple teams expressed interest, the Steelers always appeared to be the most likely option. Especially as alternative options dwindled, it seemed to be Pittsburgh or retirement.
While Tucker doesn’t necessarily think Rodgers will retire, he questions his willingness to commit to the Steelers or any team. “He’d rather be in California”, he said, while adding that he does believe Rodgers wants to play and to win. “I think he cares about all that stuff. To me, he just doesn’t care enough”.
And ultimately, what it comes down to is value. How much value does Aaron Rodgers really offer the Steelers, not even relative to what their alternative options are for this season, but for what potential he represents? Tucker doesn’t think the likely payoff merits the game of riddles it takes to get there.
“What is best-case scenario? Absolute best-case scenario is that they maybe win a playoff game — which, by the way, I highly doubt,” Tucker said. If Rodgers were to lead the Steelers to a playoff win, it would be their first since 2016. But that’s a tall order, especially being in the AFC North with the Ravens and Bengals. That almost guarantees that, if they do make the playoffs, it’s on the road as a Wild Card team.
“They’re not beating the Bills in Buffalo; they’re not beating Lamar [Jackson] and the Ravens; they’re not beating the Chiefs,” he said of an Aaron Rodgers-led Steelers team. “So, who are they playing in the playoffs, where they are even winning that game? It just seems like a lot to accomplish, really not much. It seems like a lot of bending and yielding to be in the same place they’ve been for a while now.”
While the Steelers understand Aaron Rodgers isn’t a long-term solution, their pursuit of him does appear to be aimed at simply checking off that “win a playoff game” box. For as much as Steelers fans are tired of “never had a losing season,” they want people to finally be unable to say “haven’t won a playoff game since 2016.”
