Two days later, the Steelers’ decision to apply the unrestricted free agency tender to quarterback Aaron Rodgers makes no sense.
The explanation from owner Art Rooney II didn’t help it make sense. He downplayed it as something that helps them preserve the ability to get a compensatory draft pick, if Rodgers signs with another team.
There’s currently no reason to think that will happen. And the fact that the Steelers don’t know with sufficient certainty that it will be them or no one shows how little they actually know about Rodgers’s plans for 2026.
The most significant consequence of the UFA tender, in our view, is the part Rooney didn’t mention. As of July 22, the Steelers acquire exclusive negotiation rights to Rodgers, if he has yet to sign a contract with the Steelers or any other team. That takes away his option to play the waiting game, remaining a free agent for as much of the season as he chooses before joining a team wherever and whenever he chooses.
And that’s the wrinkle that shows how different 2026 is from 2025 for the Steelers and Rodgers.
Last year, it wasn’t about the articles and sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It was about Rodgers wanting to play for the Steelers and the Steelers wanting Rodgers, with Rodgers taking less than he could have gotten to play where he wanted to play. He could have easily expected $30 million or more. He took $13.65 million. It was a favor to the Steelers.
This year, the Steelers opted to do him no favors. They elected not to allow him to retain full freedom as it relates to his future. It shows that, in hindsight, he should have insisted on a structure that would have forced the Steelers to terminate the contract, which would have blocked them from putting him in checkmate — if he was indeed considering the possibility of joining another team during the season.
That’s reason enough for Rodgers to be upset with the situation. He didn’t play games with them in 2025. Now, they’re suddenly playing games with him.
It reinforces the possibility that the Steelers are trying to get Rodgers to be the one to choose not to continue the relationship. If the Steelers cut the cord, who knows what Rodgers will say about the Steelers the next time he dials up Pat McAfee and company?
For now, they’ve given Rodgers something he can use, if he so chooses to eventually put the Steelers on blast. He could say it wasn’t supposed to go like this. That Mike Tomlin wouldn’t have pulled something like this. That Tomlin would have given Rodgers full flexibility to do whatever he ultimately decided to do.
While it’s less potent than the grievances Rodgers was able to air about the Jets in 2025, there’s still a way that he can bemoan the fact that he never wanted the relationship with the Steelers to be about business leverage. And that, if he’d known that this is what they’d do, he would have both asked for more money in 2025 along with a structure that would have prevented them from playing CBA “gotcha” in 2026.
Steelers owner Art Rooney II said a month ago that he expected to know whether Aaron Rodgers would play in Pittsburgh this season before the draft. That didn’t happen, but Rooney still thinks he’ll know soon.
Rooney said on NFL Network that the lines of communication remain open with Rodgers, and his decision is coming soon.
“We’ve been in contact with Aaron on a regular basis,” Rooney said. “He’s been keeping us up to date on his plans. Even though I thought we’d have concluded by now, I think we will come to a conclusion here in the next few weeks.”
Rooney said the recent decision to apply an unrestricted free agent tender to Rodgers was simply a matter of protecting the Steelers’ ability to get a compensatory pick if Rodgers signs with another team — which the Steelers are not expecting.
“The main thing the tender gives us is the potential for a comp pick if Aaron would choose to go to another team. We don’t expect that, but by the same token you never know. It was just something we had an opportunity to protect if needed,” Rooney said. “Not a real big deal, but just something that if, in the unlikely event he goes somewhere else, we are eligible for a comp pick in that situation.”
The big deal for the Steelers is finding out whether or not Rodgers will be their quarterback this season. That’s something Rooney thinks he’ll know soon.
Last year, the Steelers’ offseason program meshed perfectly with the priorities of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The workouts ended with a mandatory minicamp from June 10 to June 12, allowing Rodgers to sign a contract right before the three-day session that capped the offseason process.
This year, the dates don’t land the same way.
The 2026 mandatory minicamp in Pittsburgh is scheduled for June 2-4, with four OTA sessions coming after that — on June 8 and 9 and June 11 and 12.
So if Rodgers plans to sign before the annual mandatory minicamp, he’ll then have to decide whether to show up for the final four OTA sessions.
In 2025, some believed Rodgers waited to sign until the mandatory minicamp in order to avoid questions about being on the team but not being present for voluntary OTAs. This year, if he signs before the mandatory minicamp, there will be multiple voluntary OTAs after that.
It could prompt Rodgers to wait until after the entire offseason program ends. He already knows coach Mike McCarthy’s offense, and he knows most of the players. Given the timing of the mandatory minicamp, it’s not crazy to think he’ll continue to remain out of sight, but not out of mind, until camp opens in July.
The Steelers released quarterback/wide receiver John Rhys Plumlee.
Plumlee, 25, confirmed his departure on social media.
“Thankful for my time in Pittsburgh and the Steelers organization! Can’t wait to see what’s next!” Plumlee wrote.
He signed with the Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 2024 and served as the fourth quarterback during training camp while experimenting as a wide receiver, kick returner and punt returner.
The Steelers cut him out of the preseason.
He returned to the team on Oct. 29, 2025, signing with the practice squad, and signed a futures contract after the season.
Plumlee has also spent time with the Jaguars and Seahawks.
Pittsburgh’s move to apply an unrestricted free agent tender to quarterback Aaron Rodgers becomes, in essence, a chess move in a game no one thought was being played.
On the surface, it means nothing. Rodgers isn’t being courted by any other team. There’s no need for the Steelers to extend the window for getting compensatory draft pick consideration in the event Rodgers signs elsewhere.
Maybe they were just being skittish, given that they recently had the rug pulled out from under them regarding receiver Makai Lemon, whom the Steelers were in the process of drafting before they found out they’d been leapfrogged by the Eagles. If so, they’re worrying about something that, by all appearances, they shouldn’t have been worrying about.
The move commits the Steelers to paying Rodgers more than $15 million in 2026. He can still take less than that from another team, if he wants.
The situation won’t become truly interesting until July 22, when Rodgers (by rule) becomes exclusive to the Steelers. After that, the only path to another team would entail accepting the tender and being traded.
The tender also puts a hard deadline on his ability to play in 2026. As of November 17, Rodgers won’t be able to play for the Steelers or anyone else this season, absent a showing of extreme hardship.
It’s hard to imagine Rodgers not being at least a little upset by the move. If he has told them he’s returning, there’s no reason to do it. If, as it appears, he hasn’t, the tender makes one of his potential options — a Philip Rivers-style late-season return for another team — difficult if not impossible.
If nothing else, the gesture gives Aaron’s cage a little rattle. The Steelers want to know what he’s going to do. And they don’t want to find out later that he plans to play the torn ACL waiting game.
One significant injury to a contender’s starting quarterback would have opened the door for a final shot at getting to a Super Bowl and winning it. The Steelers wouldn’t have made this move if they had no reason whatsoever to believe he was considering that option.
Or maybe, as suggested on Monday’s PFT Live, the Steelers have simply been saying all the right things while hoping he chooses not to return. Frankly, it’s difficult to imagine coach Mike McCarthy pining for a player whose skills have diminished, but whose potential to be a locker-room irritant has not.
Ultimately, it could be a message. One that isn’t clear and obvious. One that the Steelers could plausibly deny. But one that could let Rodgers know that, despite everything they’ve said, the Steelers prefer to move on without him.
