All the Steelers’ veteran players have played only for head coach Mike Tomlin during their time in Pittsburgh, but new head coach Mike McCarthy says he’s impressed with how the players have responded to a different approach this offseason.
The departure of Tomlin after 19 seasons left McCarthy with the job of having to work with veteran players on a new way of doing things, and he said those players have accepted his coaching and appear eager to get to work.
“The buy-in is excellent,” McCarthy said. “You have to make changes, there’s things you’re going to adjust, and there’s things you’re going to emphasize. . . . I think the buy-in has been excellent.”
As a new head coach, McCarthy is allowed to start his offseason program two weeks earlier than teams retaining the same head coach from last year, and McCarthy said that’s valuable time to get to know his players.
“I think this is awesome that they give you the extra two weeks,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy wants all the time he can have to teach the Steelers his way of doing things, and so far he likes how they’re responding.
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Steelers owner Art Rooney II said last month that he expected to know quarterback Aaron Rodgers’s plans for the 2026 season by the start of the draft, but all indications out of Pittsburgh this week have been that Rodgers will be taking a little longer before making up his mind.
On Tuesday, Rooney confirmed that Rodgers has not informed the team of his decision about playing this year and declined to offer any details about when a final answer might be coming beyond saying that it was “warm” to say that the team would expect to have more clarity by the time OTAs start on May 18.
“I wish I could tell you we’re at the end of the discussion, but we’re still talking to Aaron and he’s still deciding what he wants to do,” Rooney said on WDVE. “I think we’re close. He’s kind of told us his time frame and what he’s going to be up to over the next couple of weeks. I think we’ll have an answer soon, let’s put it that way.”
Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy said on Tuesday that he doesn’t think it will take long for Rodgers to be up to speed if he does decide to play. Until then, it will be Will Howard and Mason Rudolph at quarterback during Pittsburgh’s offseason program.
To this point, Aaron Rodgers has not revealed whether or not he will be back with the Steelers in 2026.
That means Will Howard and Mason Rudolph are getting the bulk of the work at quarterback early on in the offseason program under new head coach Mike McCarthy.
But should Rodgers make that choice to return for a 22nd pro season, McCarthy said on Tuesday that he’s confident it won’t take Rodgers long to get up to speed.
“I think Aaron is probably more in tune than we would realize,” McCarthy said, via Mike DeFabo of TheAthletic.com. “But I have confidence in where he would be the day he would arrive, if that’s his decision.
“What l’ve learned through instituting an offseason program, there are benefits of periods where your veterans aren’t here. When we’re talking about the quarterback position, this is a very beneficial time for Will and Mason right now. They split all the reps the last two days.”
With Rodgers obviously familiar with McCarthy from their shared time with the Packers, Howard and Rudolph are benefiting from more time with the coaches to get comfortable with the offensive system.
We’ll see if the Steelers add another quarterback to the mix with this week’s draft and whether or not that factors into Rodgers’ decision.
In Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin wanted volunteers, not hostages. He has now volunteered for a new assignment.
Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reports that Tomlin will join NBC’s Football Night in America.
Tomlin resigned from the Steelers after 19 seasons on the job, two Super Bowl appearances, one Super Bowl win, and never a losing record. Many will assume it’s a short-term stint in TV before a return to coaching. Time will tell whether Tomlin has made a more permanent career change.
He’ll be great on TV. He has always been a master communicator, with a long list of catchphrases — some of which seemingly were crafted in the moment. If so, that will serve him well on NBC.
Tomlin’s arrival comes at a time when the NBC pregame show is in flux. Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy will not be returning. NBC has made no announcements regarding other possible changes. (And they don’t tell me anything.)
Marchand notes in his article that yours truly “is expected” to return. I can state a little more clearly that I’ll be back for a 17th season. Unless and until I show up and my ID won’t scan. Which is something I’ve been bracing for throughout most of the first 16 seasons.
The NFL changed the rules for this year’s draft, limiting teams to eight minutes between first-round picks. Some NFL general managers are not happy about that.
Steelers GM Omar Khan said he preferred the old rule of 10 minutes between first-round picks.
“I’d love to have 10 minutes, but it’s the same for everybody else,” Khan said. “Eight minutes is what it is, but those two minutes, it feels like an eternity sometimes.”
After Khan said that at the Steelers’ pre-draft press conference, head coach Mike McCarthy joked that if Khan feels rushed during the draft, he should try calling plays on the sideline during a game.
“I only get 40 seconds to call a play,” McCarthy said. “We’ll be fine.”
Khan said he and other GMs have been talking more about trades in the days leading up to the draft because they know they’ll have less time to work out trades while they’re on the clock.
“They moved the first round from 10 minutes to eight minutes, so naturally we’ve been having more conversations to set parameters of what the value is if you move up to this spot or trade back,” Khan said. “There’s more conversation, but until we get there, I’m not sure how that’s going to go.”
This is the first time the NFL has changed the timing of the first round since 2008, when the time between picks was reduced from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. The timing for Rounds 2-7 remains the same as last year: Teams get seven minutes to make picks in the second round, five minutes in Rounds 3-6 and four minutes in round 7.
The Steelers disputed a report that left tackle Broderick Jones had a setback from a neck injury that required surgery during the offseason.
General Manager Omar Khan and coach Mike McCarthy, though, acknowledged that uncertainty remains over Jones’ future. Jones’ main hurdle is regaining full strength in his upper body.
“Nothing has changed with Broderick,” Khan said Monday, via Mark Kaboly of The Pat McAfee Show. “He is still working to get back to where he needs to be. Nothing has changed there. No new information since we last spoke in March [at the NFL annual owners meeting].”
Jones injured his neck in Week 12 of last season, and he has since undergone spinal fusion surgery.
He worked with the “medical group” on the first day of the team’s offseason program, according to McCarthy.
“We are really trying to establish a common language,” McCarthy said. “We went over the fundamentals of football today. They haven’t changed. How you talk about it and how you drill them. We are really starting at the beginning and going through it. He has participated, so that’s not a problem.”
The Steelers will not exercise the fifth-year option on Jones’ contract.
Monday morning brought a report that the Steelers have not received word from quarterback Aaron Rodgers about his 2026 plans and that they do not expect to get that word before the draft starts on Thursday night.
That’s a shift from what the team was saying in March about Rodgers’s timetable and General Manager Omar Khan confirmed later in the day that there’s been no new developments on the Rodgers front. Khan opened his pre-draft press conference by addressing the Rodgers report and saying that the two sides have kept in touch without solidifying anything about the regular season.
“We’ve had some great communication with Aaron,” Khan said. “Nothing’s changed, but it’s all been positive and good. I said this to you guys in March when we met, he knows how we feel about him and we know how he feels about us.”
There was no other discussion about when the Steelers might know more about the quarterback’s plans. Rodgers waited until June to sign on for his first season with the Steelers and it looks like any hopes of a quicker process in Year Two were misplaced.
Draft week began with the Steelers throwing Iron City beer on one of the most intriguing rumors that had been making the rounds.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, as the rumor goes (or went), will make an appearance on the draft stage in Pittsburgh to announce that he’ll be back for another year.
Now, the official word (from NFL Network) is that the Steelers haven’t heard from Rodgers as to whether he plans to play in 2026, and that the Steelers do not expect a decision from Rodgers before the curtain rises on round one.
That’s a dramatic change from what owner Art Rooney II said last month in Arizona: “I expect we’ll get an answer before the draft.”
Unless it’s part of the setup, the nugget is likely aimed at avoiding disappointment from Steelers fans expecting the draft to include a WWE-style sprint to the stage by Rodgers.
That said, it would be the perfect time for Rodgers to announce his intention to return. Plenty of Steelers fans remain leery about a sequel. What better way to get them on board than to fold the Rodgers announcement into the natural excitement of hosting the draft for the first time ever?
Instead, the Steelers will continue to proceed with Will Howard, Mason Rudolph, and whoever else they add to the roster through the draft, undrafted free agency, veteran free agency, and/or a trade.
This isn’t how it was supposed to go. Resolution was supposed to happen more quickly than it did in 2025.
“I think neither side wants to have this drag on like it did last year,” G.M. Omar Khan said in February.
No one wanted it to drag on. But drag on it is. And it will keep on dragging, largely because Aaron Rodgers is either naturally enigmatic or likes to be perceived that way.
Or both.
When Steelers left tackle Broderick Jones injured his neck in Week 12, it was not believed to be overly serious, and there was talk that he could return for the playoffs. That didn’t happen, and now the injury appears serious enough that his availability for 2026 is in question.
Jones had a setback to the neck injury and is scheduled to be examined this week to determine whether he will be ready for training camp and the start of the season, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
The evaluation might lead to the Steelers drafting a left tackle in the first three rounds of the draft, preferably one they think could be ready to start in Week One if Jones isn’t ready.
The 24-year-old Jones was drafted by the Steelers with the 14th overall pick in 2023. He hadn’t missed a game in his NFL career until going on injured reserve after last season’s neck injury.
Steelers owner Art Rooney II said last month that he expected to get word from quarterback Aaron Rodgers about his 2026 plans ahead of the draft, but that timeline has apparently changed.
NFL Media reports that the Steelers have not received any communication from Rodgers about whether he will play and that there is now no expectation that the quarterback’s decision will come before the first round gets underway in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
The Steelers opened their offseason program a couple of weeks ago and they will hold a three-day voluntary minicamp this week. With no Rodgers in the building, 2025 sixth-round pick Will Howard is set to serve as the team’s No. 1 quarterback during minicamp.
Mason Rudolph is the only other quarterback currently on the Steelers’ roster. That could change this week and the use of a high pick on another quarterback could be a sign of which way the Steelers expect things to go when Rodgers is ready to share his plans.
