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.
Steelers Clips
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.
The Steelers signed first-round offensive tackle Max Iheanachor to his four-year rookie deal, the team announced Friday.
Iheanachor, who played at Arizona State, was selected with the 21st overall pick.
He is the seventh of 10 picks to sign, leaving only second-round wide receiver Germie Bernard, third-round quarterback Drew Allar and seventh-round running back Eli Heidenreich unsigned.
Iheanachor, a key cog in Arizona State’s offensive line, did not allow a sack in his senior season. He appeared in 32 career games, starting 31 for the Sun Devils.
He was an All-Big 12 Second Team selection in 2025.
“I’m very excited about Max,” Steelers coach Mike McCarthy said, via Teresa Varley of the team website. “He’s great for us. A stud of a young man. Throughout the process, you heard about him a little bit early, and he just kept growing and growing and growing through the evaluation. He kept climbing up our board. We were excited that he was there.
“I think it’s an excellent pick for us. He’ll be a great addition to our offensive line.”
NFL Network lost its schedule-release show. It’s nevertheless gaining a late-season Saturday doubleheader.
In Week 16, on the day after Christmas, NFLN will televise a game at 4:30 p.m. ET and 8:00 p.m. ET.
The schedule identifies four potential games for the two slots: Buccaneers-Falcons, Bengals-Colts, Commanders-Vikings, and Panthers Steelers.
The decision as to which games will slide from Sunday to Saturday will be made during the season.
Coupled with a Thursday night game and three Christmas Day games, Week 16 will have 10 total windows — one more than Thanksgiving week. That leaves only eight games to be played on the Saturday afternoon windows.
During 19 years with the Steelers, coach Mike Tomlin worked 114 games against teams from the AFC North. In his fifth game as an analyst on NBC’s Football Night in America, Tomlin will be handling a game involving an AFC North team.
It’ll happen on October 11 in Atlanta, when the Ravens face the Falcons.
As mentioned on Thursday’s PFT Live, Tomlin’s assessment of the Ravens and quarterback Lamar Jackson promises to be must-see TV.
That opinion is based on just a few minutes of hearing Tomlin talk during an FNIA planning meeting on Monday about the challenge of defending Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, along with other things Tomlin believes Jackson needs to do as he gets closer to his 30th birthday.
I’ll defer the details to Tomlin. But his comments riveted the room. In general, you won’t want to miss anything Tomlin says before any Sunday night game. You definitely will not want to miss what he has to say during the pregame show before Jackson and the Ravens face the Falcons in Week 5.
We don’t know if Fernando Mendoza will be starting at quarterback for the Raiders in Week 1 of the regular season, but we do know who the Raiders will be playing in the first overall pick’s potential debut.
The NFL’s schedule reveal on Thursday night shows that the Raiders will host the Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13. The game will be on Fox.
Mendoza will have to get the nod over Kirk Cousins in order to start for the Raiders. Offseason addition Malik Willis is expected to make his first appearance for the Dolphins. Both teams will definitely have head coaches making their offseason debut as Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak in February and Miami hired Jeff Hafley in January.
Sunday will also feature a pair of divisional games in the late afternoon window. The Packers will visit the Vikings while the Commanders will be in Philadelphia to renew their acquaintance with the Eagles. The NFC North matchup will be on CBS while the NFC East clash will be broadcast by Fox.
The other late game on Sunday afternoon will see the Cardinals visiting the Chargers on CBS. Arizona could have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew or rookie Carson Beck at quarterback for that contest.
The 1 p.m. ET games will send the Bills to Houston for a date with the Texans while the Browns go on the road against the Jaguars. The Colts will host the Ravens, the Saints will visit the Lions, the Buccaneers will travel to Cincinnati for Dexter Lawrence’s first game as a Bengal, and the Steelers will kick off the Mike McCarthy era — with or without Aaron Rodgers — at home against the Falcons.
Previous reports revealed that the Jets will be in Tennessee and that the Bears will head to Charlotte to face the Panthers. The Jets-Titans game will be on CBS along with the Bills-Texans, Ravens-Colts and Browns-Jaguars games. All the other 1 p.m. games will be on Fox.
The entire Week 1 slate will kick off on Wednesday, September 9 with a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in Seattle on NBC. Thursday will bring a Netflix game between the 49ers and Rams in the NFL’s first game in Melbourne and Sunday night will find the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium to meet the Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Those games were all announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal, which was also the case for the ESPN Monday night game between the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City.
The NFL announced the matchups for its first Thanksgiving Eve game and all three Thanksgiving games ahead of Thursday night’s schedule reveal, so the only thing left to announce for the three-day holiday spread of games was the Black Friday matchup.
That game will feature the Broncos visiting the Steelers in a game that will start at 3 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video.
It will be the first time that either franchise has played a Black Friday game. The NFL first held a game on the day after Thanksgiving in 2023 and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that the league is considering ways to add a second game.
That is what they’ve done with the Thanksgiving Eve game. It will involve the Packers visiting the Rams on Wednesday night in a game broadcast by Netflix.
Thanksgiving’s schedule will start in Detroit as usual. The Lions will host the Bears at 1 p.m. ET on CBS and the Eagles will visit the Cowboys on Fox at 4:30 p.m. ET. Thursday’s action will conclude with the Chiefs in Buffalo to face the Bills at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC.
The Steelers signed safety Makari Paige to a one-year contract on Wednesday, the team announced.
Paige originally signed with the Giants as a college free agent following the 2025 draft. He spent time on the Giants’ practice squad last season.
He played collegiately at the University of Michigan, where he appeared in 53 games. Paige was on the Wolverines’ 2023 national championship team.
He recorded 135 total tackles, including 64 solo stops, 11 passes defensed, three interceptions, two tackles for a loss, a sack and a fumble recovery.
In a corresponding move, the Steelers released cornerback Cory Trice Jr. with a failed physical.
The Steelers selected Trice in the seventh round of the 2023 draft, and he played six games with one start in 2024 in his only regular-season action. Trice had knee and hamstring injuries that kept him sidelined the rest of his time in Pittsburgh, including a torn ACL during training camp in his rookie campaign.
All of the international matchups for the 2026 NFL season were announced on Wednesday morning.
We already knew the first two games on the schedule. The 49ers and Rams will meet in the NFL’s first-ever game in Melbourne, Australia in Week 1 while the Ravens and Cowboys will head to Brazil to play a game in Rio in Week 3.
There will be three straight weeks of games in London kicking off the next week. The Colts will face the Commanders at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Week 4 and the Eagles and Jaguars will square off in the same place the next week. The Jaguars will stay in London to take on the Texans at Wembley Stadium in Week 6.
From there, it will be on to Paris for the first time in league history. The Steelers will battle the Saints at Stade de France in Week 7.
The Bengals-Falcons matchup in Madrid in Week 9 was announced earlier this week and it will be followed by a Patriots-Lions clash at Allianz Arena in Munich the next weekend. The NFL’s return to Mexico City will come in Week 11 when the Vikings and the 49ers square off on Sunday Night Football.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has talked about his desire to see the league play international games each week and the NFL is moving closer to that goal in 2026.
