The Steelers haven’t made an official announcement about quarterback Aaron Rodgers re-signing with the team yet, but it should be coming very soon.
Word that Rodgers has agreed to a one-year contract with the team came on Saturday and Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com reports that Rodgers is at the team’s facility on Monday morning. Rodgers is expected to sign a deal paying him up to $25 million for his second season with the Steelers.
The Steelers are kicking off the OTA phase of their offseason workouts on Monday and they are due to be on the practice field at 11 a.m. ET.
With Rodgers back in the fold, the Steelers are on track to have the same starting quarterback in Week 1 of back-to-back seasons since Ben Roethlisberger did it in 2020 and 2021. The wait for a playoff win stretches even longer — a January 2017 win over the Chiefs — and the Steelers will be hoping Rodgers can help end that streak as well.
The Steelers supposedly had a strong affinity for quarterbacks Mason Rudolph and Will Howard. And then they used a third-round pick on quarterback Drew Allar.
Now that Aaron Rodgers is back, the Steelers eventually will have a decision to make.
One of the other three will be gone, via trade or release. Rudolph would be the obvious candidate to go, but they’ll need a veteran backup with playing experience in the event Rodgers is injured.
That leaves Howard and Allar. Surely, they wouldn’t move on from Allar after using a second-day pick on him last month. Howard, a sixth-round pick in 2025, becomes the most likely candidate to be traded or released.
Yes, Howard. The guy new coach Mike McCarthy supposedly loves. The moment they drafted Allar, the truth trickled out about their feelings as to Howard.
For now, they need four quarterbacks. And it’s smart to keep all of them in the event one of them gets injured. Still, if all are healthy as August creeps toward September, someone will be gone. The most likely someone at this point is Will Howard.
Last year, quarterback Aaron Rodgers gave the Steelers a massive bargain. This year, it’s still a bargain. But it’s not as massive.
Per multiple reports, Rodgers will earn up to $25 million from the Steelers in 2026, with a base deal of $22 million. In 2025, his base rate was $13.65 million.
It always seemed as if $25 million was the magic number. That’s what former Packers backup Malik Willis will get for each of the next two years from the Dolphins, fully guaranteed.
Regardless, the Steelers are still getting a very good deal. The top of the market is $60 million. Getting Rodgers for up to $25 million is a win.
Now, they’ll need to get some wins come September. It’ll be a lot easier with Rodgers than it would have been without him.
He’s back.
Per multiple reports, the Steelers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers have agreed to terms on a one-year deal.
The move comes two days before the first of the Steelers’ 2026 OTA sessions. They’re voluntary; Rodgers isn’t required to attend. The annual mandatory minicamp is next month.
The agreement caps months of speculation regarding whether Rodgers will play again in 2026 and, if so, where. Nearly three weeks ago, the Steelers upped the ante by using the unrestricted free agent tender, aimed both at ensuring compensatory draft-pick consideration if Rodgers signs elsewhere — and at giving the Steelers exclusive negotiating rights if he didn’t sign with anyone by July 22.
Now, it’s moot.
The next question becomes the value of the deal. Last year, Rodgers gave the Steelers a bargain, with a base package of only $13.65 million. (He added $500,000 by the Steelers making the playoffs.)
Either way, a deal is in place. Rodgers is back. Which is good for the Steelers. It’s unclear what they’ll be with him. They likely would have been screwed without him.
Even for a slow weekend, initial accounts on social media of free-agent quarterback Aaron Rodgers supposedly getting ice cream with multiple Steelers players in Pittsburgh didn’t initially move the needle.
Beyond the basic fact that bullshit is currently ubiquitous on Twitter, it wasn’t entirely clear that it was Rodgers — or that the video posted by @brogey412 was recent (the presence of pumpkin on the menu sparked a side debate as to when the video was taken). Now that multiple members of traditional media are passing it along, it’s worth a mention.
It’s unclear what it all means. There’s been no indication that the Steelers and Rodgers have agreed to terms on a contract. Or that he has visited the Steelers. Or that anything is imminent. It shows only that Rodgers was physically in Pittsburgh as of last night. Which is no different than where he was a week ago.
That said, OTAs start Monday. If Rodgers signs and shows up, he’ll be officially joining the team several weeks before he did a year ago. In 2025, he arrived for the mandatory minicamp that capped the offseason program. If he signs by Monday, he’ll be available for the full slate of OTAs and the mandatory minicamp.
It’s possible Rodgers simply waited until the schedule was released, in order to prevent the league from giving the Steelers a more burdensome schedule of standalone games. Two years ago, the NFL saddled Rodgers and the Jets six early-season prime-time games — and a pair of short weeks — under the rationale that “the Jets kind of owe us one” given Rodgers’s Week 1 torn Achilles tendon in 2023.
As it stands, the Steelers have four night games. That decision possibly presumes they’ll have Rodgers; without him, the Steelers arguably don’t have a quarterback room that is ready for prime-time.
Regardless, Rodgers apparently is still in Pittsburgh. Whether (or perhaps when) he’ll be signing with the Steelers remains to be seen.
