With Aaron Rodgers officially on the roster, the Steelers currently have four quarterbacks.
Veteran Mason Rudolph, second-year QB Will Howard, and rookie Drew Allar fill out the rest of the room.
Rodgers’ presence means there are now fewer reps to go around for the younger players, Howard and Allar. But offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio told reporters on Tuesday that is not an issue.
“You can never have enough quarterbacks,” Angelichio said, via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “With the system that’s in place here, it’s great that we have four quarterbacks. We have a plan on how all those guys are going to get reps.”
Angelichio is familiar with Rodgers from their shared time with the Packers, as Angelichio served as Green Bay’s tight ends coach from 2016-2018. With Rodgers potentially going into the final season of his career, Angelichio praised the QB for his willingness to help out his teammates.
“Aaron’s such a great mentor ... His feedback and the information he provides, you can’t beat that,” Angelichio said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “He is very willing to help the players … I think that certainly is a big plus for us.”
With Rodgers set for at least one more ride with the Steelers in 2026, we likely won’t see the effects of his mentorship on the crop of younger QBs until a while down the road.
Steelers Clips
The news broke over the weekend that quarterback Aaron Rodgers is back with the Steelers. As of Monday, that was apparently news to linebacker Payton Wilson.
Via Brooke Pryor of ESPN, Wilson was surprised to see Rodgers at the facility.
“I was walking in, and he was coming out, and it was good to see him,” Wilson said. “I was a little shocked, definitely.”
Unlike last year, when Rodgers showed up for the mandatory minicamp at the tail end of the offseason program, he signed and reported for the first day of OTAs. Which makes sense. There’s plenty of work to be done without long-time coach Mike Tomlin there, and there’s only so much time with which to get it done.
If this will be Rodgers’s last year (and it would be wise for everyone to assume that), he’ll want to savor every minute of it. And he’ll want to have it go as well as possible.
Showing up sends a message that he gives a shit. That he wants to help the Steelers do something they haven’t done in a decade — advance past the wild-card round of the playoffs.
The work now begins in earnest. While it hardly guarantees a good outcome, it’s a good sign that Rodgers is both signed and committed.
The Steelers have signed a pair of their draft picks on Monday.
Pittsburgh announced receiver Germie Bernard and running back/receiver Eli Heidenreich put pen to paper on their respective four-year rookie contracts.
Bernard was the No. 47 overall pick in the second round out of Alabama. He caught 64 passes for 862 yards with seven touchdowns in 2025. He played two seasons for the Crimson Tide after spending 2022 at Michigan State and 2023 at Washington.
Heidenreich was the club’s final selection of 2026 at No. 230 in the seventh round. He played his college ball at Navy, appearing in 38 total games. He registered 109 catches for 1,994 yards with 16 touchdowns as well as 1,157 yards rushing with seven TDs.
Aaron Rodgers returned to the Steelers for the start of Phase III of the club’s offseason program, immediately getting on the field for Monday’s practice.
After the session, offensive lineman Troy Fautanu — who has been working at left tackle after spending the 2025 season on the right side — said that he and many of his teammates found out about the QB signing on Instagram.
But Fautanu is glad to have the veteran QB leading the huddle again.
“I was happy to see him back, obviously to have our leader back from last year, kind of having a year with him and kind of learning from him,” Fautanu said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “We kind of just picked up where we left off.
”... Today had to get back used to [the cadence], because we’ve been hearing Will [Howard] and Mason [Rudolph] and them the past couple weeks. But once he got back in there after that first snap, it was kind of like we never left.”
Rodgers, 42, completed 65.7 percent of his passes for 3,322 yards with 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions last season.
The Steelers signed undrafted free agent cornerback Tamon Lynum on Monday, the team announced.
Lynum had a tryout at the team’s rookie minicamp, and he and center Greg Crippen were the only two players signed afterward.
The Steelers have 91 players on their roster, including an international exemption.
Lynum played two seasons at Pitt after transferring from Nebraska. He appeared in 23 games at Nebraska, totaling 14 tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and two forced fumbles.
In two seasons at Pitt, Lynum played 23 games and recorded 57 tackles, two interceptions and eight pass breakups.
He was not invited to the Scouting Combine.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers officially re-signed with the Steelers on Monday, just as the team began its OTAs.
When it comes to Rodgers’ pass-catchers, Pittsburgh traded for Michael Pittman earlier this offseason. The two started to get acquainted weeks ago, when Pittman got in some throws with the QB. But he found out Rodgers was officially coming back much like the rest of us.
“I found out from Twitter,” Pittman said Monday, via Mark Kaboly of the Pat McAfee Show.
Pittman is still getting familiar with Rodgers’ style as a QB, but the receiver knows Rodgers isn’t afraid to let a teammate know when he doesn’t like something.
“It didn’t happen to me specifically yet, but I’ve seen it from watching games and stuff,” Pittman said with a laugh, via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “He’s just a vet — a super vet quarterback. So he knows what he likes and doesn’t like. You guys have watched him [play, how if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do, he’s going to let you know — which is good. I just think it’s good to have that leadership.”
Even with Rodgers’ experience, Pittman knows he and the QB have some work to do to get on the same page.
“This is the first day,” Pittman said, via Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “so we have from now up until that first game, and we’re gonna get as many reps as possible.”
With quarterback Aaron Rodgers returning to Pittsburgh, the Steelers now have four quarterbacks on the offseason roster. Eventually, they’ll be required to cut the roster to 53. Which could mean they’ll be moving on from one of the three quarterbacks not named Aaron Rodgers.
Or will they?
Chris Simms and I talked it through during Monday’s PFT Live. And we came to the conclusion that they’ll possibly keep all of them — Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, and Drew Allar.
It rarely ever happens. Three, for most teams, is the maximum. (Plenty only keep two.) Still, this could be one of those unique situations in which a team keeps four quarterbacks after the cuts are made.
As to Rudolph, the Steelers need a veteran who can play in a pinch. A guy who is game ready. A guy who can step in if Rodgers is injured during a game. And Rudolph has 34 regular-season appearances and 19 starts, with a 9-9-1 record.
As to Allar, they just used a third-round pick to draft him. Even if they need to re-teach him the position from the ground up (and they apparently do), cutting Allar would be an admission that they wasted a prime pick, the 76th overall selection.
As to Howard, the Steelers spent plenty of time in the offseason talking him up. McCarthy supposedly loves him. Cutting him would expose their comments as the smokescreen many believed they were.
Yes, Allar or Howard — if cut — could be signed to the practice squad. But first they’d have to get through waivers. Any other team could make a claim. And if they aren’t claimed by another team, wouldn’t that be a loud and clear indictment that neither guy should have been drafted?
The safe way to save face would be to trade Allar or Howard. Or to cut Rudolph (who wouldn’t be subject to waivers) and sign him to the practice squad. They could then elevate Rudolph for game days and make him the backup quarterback. But Rudolph would have to be willing to not sign to another team’s active roster, for that strategy to work.
In the end, the only practical solution could be to keep all four of them on the 53-man roster. Which would make them shorthanded at some other position, by one player.
With Rodgers back, it’s a good problem to have. Still, the only good problem is no problem. With four quarterbacks, the Steelers eventually will have a problem to solve as to how the rest of the depth chart fits into the 53-man limit.
The news that Aaron Rodgers is officially back with the Steelers for his 22nd NFL season means he’ll continue to add to one of the most impressive statistical résumés any quarterback has ever assembled.
Of particular note is that Rodgers is likely to move ahead of Peyton Manning for the third-most touchdown passes in NFL history. Rodgers has thrown 527 touchdown passes in his NFL career, while Manning retired with 539, so Rodgers needs just 13 touchdown passes to move ahead of Manning. As long as Rodgers stays healthy, he should eclipse Manning’s career total early in the season.
Rodgers would likely need to play two more seasons to move into second place, which is currently occupied by Drew Brees, with 571 career touchdown passes. And Tom Brady’s all-time record of 649 career touchdown passes appears insurmountable.
Rodgers could also lose, a couple of of the career records he currently holds, however. At the moment, Rodgers is tied for the highest career passer rating in NFL history: Rodgers and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson both have a passer rating of 102.2. But last year Jackson’s passer rating was 103.8 and Rodgers’ was 94.8, so if they both play at the same level in 2026, Jackson will take first place in the record books all to himself.
Rodgers could also fall behind Joe Burrow (101.1) and Patrick Mahomes (100.8), who are currently third and fourth in NFL history in career passer rating. The best career passer rating is a record Rodgers likely won’t hold by the end of the season.
Another career record Rodgers could lose is the all-time lowest interception percentage. Rodgers has thrown 123 interceptions in 8,743 career passes, a career interception rate of 1.41 percent. Rodgers is just barely ahead of Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who has a career interception rate of 1.42 percent, and not far ahead of Justin Herbert at 1.7 percent and Burrow and Mahomes at 1.8 percent.
Ultimately, the numbers Rodgers puts up this season, when he’ll turn 43 years old, won’t matter a lot to his legacy. He’s an all-time great regardless of what he does this season. But his career numbers will change, and perhaps not entirely for the better.
It’s official.
Aaron Rodgers is back.
The Steelers have announced that Rodgers has re-signed with the team, on another one-year deal. The move reunites Rodgers with coach Mike McCarthy. Sixteen years ago, their partnership with the Packers resulted in a Super Bowl win over the Steelers.
The item confirming the contract contains no quotes from Rodgers, McCarthy, G.M. Omar Khan, or owner Art Rooney II. The only person quoted in the article is Steelers quarterbacks coach Tom Arth, who was a Packers quarterback in 2006 with Rodgers, when Brett Favre was the starter.
“He’s extremely focused and locked in,” Arth said. “He’s such a competitive player, but he has so much fun playing the game. And that’s what I really enjoy about Aaron.
“He loves playing this game. He plays the game like he’s still 10 years old running around in the backyard. At the same time, he’s got this ferocious competitive spirit that obviously helped push him to the heights that he’s reached.
“His football IQ is off the charts. What he’s able to process and see on a play-by-play basis, between plays, it really is uncanny. There are not many players who have been able to do the things that he’s done.”
For the Steelers, there weren’t many viable options at the most important position in the sport. For Rodgers, there were no other options to be a starting quarterback.
With quarterback Aaron Rodgers recommitting to the Steelers for a second season, a new narrative has emerged in some circles of the media.
“As it turns out, there was never any question at all.”
“Which was the plan all along.”
“That was the plan.”
“That was the plan all along.”
Each of those lines come from one-sentence paragraphs in the Sunday item from Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Dulac has covered the Steelers for decades. He’s plugged in. He knows the team. And if it was the plan all along that Rodgers would be back, Dulac’s source(s) were lying to his face.
Two weeks ago, Dulac wrote that the team’s “patience could be starting to wear thin” with Rodgers, after he didn’t give them an answer before the draft. If “there was never any question” about Rodgers returning, there would have been no reason for the team’s patience to ever be tested.
Then there’s the fact that, three weeks ago, the Steelers applied the unrestricted free agent tender to Rodgers. If “there was never any question” about Rodgers returning, there was never any reason for the Steelers to make a CBA chess move aimed at securing a potential compensatory draft pick for Rodgers if he signed with another team. If “there was never any question” about the outcome, the Steelers never had to be concerned about Rodgers signing with another team.
Of course there was a question about whether Rodgers would re-sign. The Steelers thought he’d come back, but they didn’t know he was coming back until he did. They didn’t even know he was making a sudden and unexpected trip to Pittsburgh 11 days ago. They brushed it off, as one source told us, as “Aaron being Aaron” — and they remained both willing to roll out the Terrible Towel and fully unaware as to what he was going to do.
The fact that he chose to sign a one-year deal with the Steelers over the weekend hardly means that it was a fait accompli from the moment the 2025 season ended.
If anything, the immediate signs were pointing to Rodgers walking away. In the regular-season finale between the Ravens and Steelers, NBC’s Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth seemed to be dropping fairly strong hints that Rodgers was leaning toward calling it quits — something they surely gleaned from whatever Rodgers had said during the production meeting before the game.
Ultimately, Rodgers chose to return to the Steelers, even with the guy who attracted him there in the first place (coach Mike Tomlin) gone. Maybe the explanation is as simple as this: Rodgers didn’t want his last throw in the NFL to have been a pick-six in a playoff game.
Whatever his reason(s) for running it back in Pittsburgh, the fact that Rodgers decided to come back hardly means it was always inevitable. In the end, however, the Steelers (who have no other immediately viable starter) needed Rodgers and Rodgers (who had no other takers in free agency) needed the Steelers.
Once Rodgers decided he wanted to keep playing, the passage of time — and the lack of options elsewhere — left him with only one place to play.
