The Steelers did not announce their quarterback plans for Thursday night’s preseason game against the Packers.
Aaron Rodgers, though, is on the sideline in street clothes.
Mason Rudolph will start, with Will Howard replacing him at some point in the first half, according to the 102.5 WDVE pregame show. Rookie Drew Allar will play the second half.
Howard missed the 2025 preseason with a hand injury.
Rodgers is expected to play in the preseason, perhaps Aug. 21 against his other former team, the Jets.
Rodgers’ protegee, Jordan Love, will start for the Packers tonight in what is expected to be Rodgers’ final meeting against the team that drafted him.
Steelers Clips
Free agent linebacker Elandon Roberts is returning to Pittsburgh.
The Steelers reached an agreement with the 10-year veteran on a one-year deal, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
Roberts, 32, played in Pittsburgh in 2023 and 2024 before departing for Las Vegas, where he played for current Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.
Roberts entered the NFL as a sixth-round pick of the Patriots in 2016. He played four years in New England and three in Miami before landing in Pittsburgh the first time.
In his career, Roberts has totaled 694 tackles, 14.5 sacks, 37 quarterback hits, an interception, 13 passes defensed and five forced fumbles.
Jordan Love will play in the Packers’ first preseason game on Thursday night. The Steelers have not said whether Aaron Rodgers will play.
With Rodgers playing what he has declared his final season, and the teams not scheduled to meet in the regular season, the Steelers quarterback would play his former team again only if both reach the Super Bowl.
Love sat behind Rodgers for three seasons in Green Bay before the Packers traded Rodgers to the Jets in the 2023 offseason. Love expressed gratitude for Rodgers’ mentorship.
“I’ve mentioned it time and time again: I have nothing but great things to say about A-Rod and my time being behind him and watching him, how much I was able to develop and grow in my process seeing him,” Love said, via Zach Jacobson of PackersDispatch.com. “The transition — I think for the organization, that’s something that’s never easy, and for the players, it’s not something that’s ever easy, either. For a guy that’s been here that long and done so many great things, those are big shoes to fill. For me, I try to focus on being my best and doing the best job I can for the team.”
Rodgers didn’t get much help from Brett Favre when he arrived in Green Bay, and Rodgers vowed to be better with Love. He was, according to Love.
“I’ve heard different stories, Aaron talking to me about his time coming up and how he wanted his approach with me to be different, which is great,” Love said. “But, at the same time, I’m going through my own journey. I wasn’t here to experience some of the stuff he went through, so all I got is what I know and what I saw.”
Rodgers is “bummed” the preseason game isn’t in Green Bay as he will never play at Lambeau as an opposing player.
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers says that the 2026 season will be his final one as an NFL player and that means he will never play in Green Bay as a visiting player.
Rodgers was a Packer for 18 seasons before being traded to the Jets in 2023 and neither the Jets nor the Steelers have played at Lambeau Field since he left the NFC North team. The Steelers hosted the Packers last season and will do so again for a Thursday preseason game.
During a Zoom call with Packers reporters on Wednesday, Rodgers said that he wishes the game had been scheduled as a road contest.
“It would have been strange, being in that [visitors] locker room and stuff, but I would have found my way over, like many former players have over the years . . . and see some of the guys and see some of the trainers and equipment staff and all the people I really care about that still work there. Yeah, I was definitely bummed out that we weren’t in Lambeau for this one,” Rodgers said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com.
Rodgers said that there “has to be an invite back” for him to return to Lambeau once he’s done playing. That seems inevitable given his place in franchise history and likely election to both the team and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but Rodgers would prefer that it happened a little sooner.
Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy said on Tuesday that the team was still deciding whether to play quarterback Aaron Rodgers against the Packers on Thursday and he’s said more than once that Rodgers has expressed to him that he wants to play in the preseason.
Rodgers hasn’t done that during his own media sessions and that continued to be the case when he was asked if he wants to play on Tuesday.
“It’s preseason, it’s not real football,” Rodgers said. “If I do, great. If not, great.”
Rodgers expanded on his thoughts about the artificiality of August football in response to another question and included his feelings about how even joint practices have become a less effective dress rehearsal for the coming season.
“Preseason’s a lot different. Teams don’t run anything anymore. They just really don’t. Even joint practices. The first year we were doing them, it was fun because you got to play a team that wasn’t going to play how they played in the preseason. They were going to show you a lot of different things they were working on. It was like a real day at camp. As that got on, it just stopped being like that. It just turned into fights, and nobody showed anything because somebody’s brother is on the staff and they might show him the film. I think those are a waste of a day. I think preseason football is good to see guys with the pads on, under the lights, how they react to the nerves. But it’s not real regular season football.”
If those answers didn’t make things clear enough, the quarterback’s response to a question about whether he thinks he gains any advantage from playing in preseason games.
“I don’t think so,” Rodgers said.
None of those answers sound like ones that someone who wants to play in the preseason would give, but we’ll find out soon enough what direction McCarthy decides to go.
Jordan Love is expected to start Thursday night’s preseason game in Pittsburgh, but it remains unclear if his predecessor as the Packers’ starting quarterback will be on the field for the Steelers.
Head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday that he has not determined which of the team’s players will take part in the preseason opener. Rodgers said earlier this summer that McCarthy told him that he wants the quarterback to play in the first two preseason games and that he responded by saying “if you want me to play, I’ll play” while adding “I’m not saying I want to do it.”
McCarthy previously said that Rodgers wants to play and reiterated that on Tuesday while adding that he is deciding if it’s the best course of action.
“I’ve never had a quarterback that didn’t want to play,” McCarthy said, via 93.7 The Fan. “It’s really how it all fits together.”
McCarthy said that players who start the game will play for a series or two and that a second group would play the rest of the first half.
Last year as a rookie, Steelers quarterback Will Howard suffered a fractured hand in early August that kept him out of the team’s preseason games.
That’s part of why it’s understandable that Howard — a sixth-round pick in the 2025 draft — is so excited to get his first pro exhibition opportunity this week when the Steelers host the Packers on Thursday night.
“I’m so fired up. I can’t wait for the game,” Howard said, via video from Mark Kaboly. “Obviously, I’m trying to take it day by day, and it’s still camp. But, sometimes you can’t help but look forward a little bit and start getting excited just to be out there and [get] live game reps — because I haven’t played in over a year in live game reps. I think the last time was the national championship. So, I’ve been champing at the bit for a while to get out there with the guys in a real game-like setting — uniform on, helmet on.
“I just can’t wait. I think tomorrow we’re going to start looking at Green Bay a little bit, do some planning a little bit. I’m just really, really excited.”
Howard added, via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, that he’s expecting to play “a good amount” on Thursday night. But to this point, head coach Mike McCarthy hasn’t set out definitive plans.
No matter how long he’s out there, Howard is going to find Thursday night’s experience meaningful.
“I know everyone says preseason isn’t real football,” Howard said, “but to me, it is.”
Matt LaFleur succeeded Mike McCarthy as Packers head coach in 2019.
The two have coached against one another before and on Thursday will do it again as McCarthy makes his preseason debut as head coach of the Steelers.
McCarthy, of course, won Super Bowl XLV with Green Bay to cap the 2010 season.
LaFleur said he’s gotten to know McCarthy through connecting at league meetings and the times McCarthy has come back to visit Green Bay.
“I’ll say this — I’ve got so much respect for him,” LaFleur said in his Monday press conference. “First of all, how he’s always treated me. Secondly, just by what he’s accomplished here. It’s pretty cool that, when he got the Pittsburgh job, I’m like, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers — I mean, that’s pretty special.
“So, Mike’s a guy I’ve got a ton of respect for.”
The Packers and Steelers will kick off in Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday night.
The Steelers changed up their wide receiver group on Monday.
They announced the signings of Cornell Powell and Isaiah Winstead to the 90-man roster. Wideout Colton Dowell was waived along with offensive tackle Lorenzo Thompson.
Powell was a Chiefs fifth-round pick in 2021 and he played in three games for the team. He led the UFL in receiving touchdowns while playing for the DC Defenders this spring.
Winstead was also in the UFL this year and had 29 receptions for 474 yards and three touchdowns as a member of the Louisville Kings. He was in training camp with the Jets in 2024 when Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was with the AFC East team.
When Steelers rookie offensive tackle Max Iheanachor suffered an injury at practice last week, head coach Mike McCarthy indicated he would be back by Monday. That has proven not to be the case.
Today McCarthy told reporters that Iheanachor remains out of practice, and there’s no timeline for him to return.
That could indicate that the injury Iheanachor suffered, which has been termed a neck/shoulder injury, is more serious than originally thought. But it could also just be that the Steelers want to be cautious with their first-round draft pick.
The Steelers open the preseason on Thursday against the Packers, and while there’s no official word on whether Iheanachor will play, it seems unlikely that he’ll be on the field Thursday if he can’t go today.
