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.
Steelers Clips
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.
Veteran receiver Scotty Miller is getting a look at a couple of NFC North teams.
Miller is taking a free-agent visit with the Lions on Tuesday and is set to try out for the Bears next week, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Miller, 28, was with the Steelers for the last two years. In 2025, he caught nine passes for 62 yards while playing 20 percent of the offensive snaps in his 13 games played.
Miller’s most productive season came in 2020 when he caught 33 passes for 501 yards with three TDs for the Buccaneers.
He’s appeared in 93 career games with nine starts since Tampa Bay selected him in the sixth round of the 2019 draft. He’s caught 99 passes for 1,216 yards with six TDs.
Defensive lineman Dean Lowry will not be returning to the Steelers right now.
A report last weekend indicated that Lowry was set to re-sign with the team, but Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the deal is not moving forward at the moment.
Lowry missed all of last season with a torn ACL and, per the report, has decided to take more time to work himself back into playing shape. Lowry did not take a physical with the Steelers before making the decision.
Lowry had five tackles and a sack in 12 games for the Steelers in 2024. He also played nine games for the Vikings in 2023 and 111 games over seven seasons with the Packers.
There’s been a development in the Aaron Rodgers saga. It was not one that anyone expected.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Steelers have applied an unrestricted free agent tender on Rodgers. And while the move is characterized as “rare,” the Chargers did it last year with running back J.K. Dobbins. The Browns also did it with receiver Elijah Moore in 2025.
The move gives Rodgers a 10-percent raise over his 2025 contract (if he accepts the tender). More importantly, it preserves the ability of the Steelers to get credit for Rodgers’s potential departure to another team in the convoluted compensatory draft pick formula.
Contrary to the report, it’s NOT a right of first refusal. For now, Rodgers can still sign with any team at any time, even if another team offers less than whatever the Steelers have or will put on the table. If Rodgers signs with another team, the transaction counts toward both teams’ compensatory pick formulas.
Bottom line? It has nothing to do with where Rodgers can sign, for now. As of July 22, that’s when things get complicated.
The Steelers at that point would hold exclusive negotiating rights to Rodgers. So if he’s thinking about, for example, staying home and waiting for a starter on a contending team to suffer an injury, the Steelers would hold his rights. To get Rodgers at that point, a new team would have to work out a trade with the Steelers.
The bigger question is how Rodgers (who can be a tad unpredictable) will react to the move. The Steelers have made a chess move during his period of indefinite contemplation. Will that rankle him? Will it make him less inclined to play in Pittsburgh?
Regardless, Rodgers has no other real options (unless something unexpected happens before July 22 as to another starting quarterback). Today’s move complicates any potential plan to wait beyond July 22 for someone who is in position to compete for a Super Bowl berth to develop a sudden need for his services.
The Cowboys added a receiver late in the draft over the weekend and now have added a veteran to the mix.
Dallas has signed receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, according to the transaction wire.
Valdes-Scantling, 31, split last season between the 49ers and Steelers. He appeared in five games each for San Francisco and Pittsburgh, catching four passes for 40 yards for the 49ers and 10 catches for 80 yards with a TD for the Steelers.
A fifth-round pick in 2018, Valdes-Scantling has caught 219 passes for 3,686 yards with 21 touchdowns in his career.
The Steelers are adding six more rookies to their roster.
The team drafted 10 players over seven rounds in Pittsburgh from Thursday through Sunday and they announced agreements with six undrafted players on Monday.
A pair of tight ends are part of the group. Lake McRee had 30 receptions for 450 yards and four touchdowns at USC last season while Chamon Metayer had 38 catches for 375 yards and four scores for Arizona State.
The Steelers also drafted Riley Nowakowski over the weekend. Nowakowski was listed as a tight end at Indiana, but is listed as a fullback by the Steelers.
Nowakowski’s college teammate Devan Boykin also agreed to terms with the team. Boykin is a cornerback and the other incoming Steelers are Missouri linebacker Daylan Carnell, Syracuse defensive lineman Kevin Jobity and Kansas kicker Laith Marjan.
When Mike Tomlin stepped down as head coach of the Steelers, there was no press conference and no media tour. There was never an explanation directly from Tomlin as to why he chose, after 19 straight non-losing seasons in Pittsburgh, to move on.
During his NBC debut on Sunday night’s NBA Showtime, Tomlin addressed his decision to move on after nearly two decades with the Steelers.
“There’s a loneliness with leadership,” Tomlin said. “I just thought it was a good time for me, personally, and by that I mean just where I am in life. And I thought it was a good time for the organization to be quite honest with you. We didn’t have a lot of success in the playoffs in recent years, and there’s just some veteran players there, man. Guys like Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt and [Chris] Boswell that I thought just that were worthy of the excitement and the optimism associated with new leadership.”
The Steelers last won a playoff game after the 2016 regular season, during the divisional round in Kansas City. (It was the last Chiefs game before they drafted Patrick Mahomes.) And it’s currently the longest streak the Steelers have had without a postseason win since the franchise’s first ever playoff victory in the Immaculate Reception game from December 1972.
There’s a real question as to whether the Steelers will be better moving forward. It’s entirely possible that Tomlin made the most from a roster that, collectively, hasn’t been good enough to contend at a high level. If so, that pocket of Pittsburgh fans who periodically grumbled about Tomlin may realize that the past 19 years would have been not quite as good without him as they were with him.
And that’s hardly a bouquet for a new NBC teammate. For years, my message to those Steelers fans who wanted to move on from Tomlin has been consistent and clear.
Be careful what you wish for.
