With multiple indications that talks are ongoing between the Steelers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers, what are they talking about?
The only significant topic for negotiation in any veteran contract is money — amount and structure. There could be anther subject, in theory.
This is speculation. I haven’t heard anything to substantiate the possibility. But with a vacuum of information regarding Rodgers, the goal is to make sense of what’s happening.
There’s no guarantee the Steelers will be as good or better than they were a year ago, especially with the franchise’s first coaching change in 19 years. If things go poorly, the Steelers may eventually want to give a young quarterback (Will Howard or Drew Allar) live game reps. If that happens, what will they do with Rodgers?
That should be determined now. Even if it’s not part of the official contract (and it can’t be), Rodgers could seek an unofficial commitment that, if he’s ever benched, he’d also be released.
If that happens after the trade deadline, Rodgers would have to pass through waivers. If it’s believed at the time that Rodgers is targeting a potential quarterback-needy team, anyone could block that by putting in a waivers claim.
There’s only one way for Rodgers to emerge from Pittsburgh in the event of a major early-season regression with the freedom to sign anywhere at any time. Rodgers would have to be released before the Tuesday after Week 9.
What if he’s looking for that kind of commitment on the way in? If the Steelers are (for example) 3-6 or worse after the ninth Sunday of the season (assuming their bye comes after Week 9), he’ll be released — without having to ask for it.
This is spitballing. But Rodgers is smart enough to play out the permutations. He’s experienced enough to have a good sense as to whether the sudden change from Mike Tomlin to Mike McCarthy could result in the wheels coming off for the Steelers. He’s prudent enough to want to have a plan for anything/everything.
It would be very prudent to plan for a quick and easy escape hatch, in the event the first year of the Mike McCarthy era starts poorly.
Steelers Clips
This season, the Saints will host the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in France. Per multiple reports, the opponent will be the Steelers.
The @OzzyNFL account on Twitter, which has been leaking schedule information, posted earlier tonight that Pittsburgh and New Orleans will square off in Paris on October 25. Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has confirmed the news.
All international games that haven’t been previously announced are due to be disclosed on Wednesday morning. This year, nine games will be played on foreign soil: Three in London, one in Paris, one in Madrid, one in Melbourne, one in Germany, one in Rio de Janeiro, and one in Mexico City.
That’s up from five in 2025. And the league, which currently may stage up to 10 international games under the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association, hopes to expand that number to 16.
Long-time NFL assistant coach Tom Moore hasn’t retired, after all. The 87-year-old offensive guru will return to where it all started.
Iowa.
Via Scott Dochterman of The Athletic, Moore will serve as senior consultant to the head coach and offensive advisor at the school where Moore played quarterback from 1958 through 1960. He also started his coaching career there, from 1961 to 1962.
Moore’s coaching career after leaving Iowa took him to Dayton, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Minnesota, the New York Stars of the WFL, and Minnesota again before becoming an NFL assistant coach in 1977.
He spent 13 seasons with the Steelers, four with the Vikings, three with the Lions, and one with the Saints.
Moore arrived with the Colts in 1998, Peyton Manning’s rookie season. Moore served as Manning’s offensive coordinator for the first 11 years of his career, before taking on a senior position in 2009 and 2010.
Moore then went to the Jets for a year, the Titans for a year, the Cardinals for five years (with head coach Bruce Arians). After taking 2018 off, Moore reunited with Arians in Tampa Bay, where Moore worked as an offensive consultant from 2019 through 2025.
In all, Moore has won four Super Bowl rings — two with the Steelers (1978, 1979), one with the Colts (2006), and one with the Buccaneers (2020). Now, 64 years after leaving Iowa, his career is coming full circle.
The Steelers made a change on their offensive line after their rookie minicamp.
They announced that they have signed center Greg Crippen after he tried out for the team over the weekend. They waived offensive lineman Sataoa Laumea in a corresponding move.
Crippen started all 13 games for Michigan last season and appeared in 41 games over his entire time in Ann Arbor. Zach Frazier is set to start at center for the Steelers this season and Ryan McCollum is also on hand as a backup.
Laumea was a Seahawks sixth-round pick in 2024 and he started six games during his rookie season. He was waived last summer and spent time on the Saints’ practice squad before signing with Pittsburgh in January.
Aaron Rodgers may have been in Pittsburgh over the weekend, but his visit didn’t include a meeting with the Steelers.
A report from 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh late last week said that Rodgers would be at the team’s facility and that he was expected to sign with the team before the weekend was over. Subsequent reports cast doubt on the imminent signing, whether the Steelers had any idea that Rodgers was going to be in the city and that any meeting was in the works.
Saturday brought word that Rodgers and the Steelers had not met and Adam Schefter of ESPN said on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday that the weekend passed without any interaction between the quarterback and the team.
The Steelers move into the final phase of their offseason program next Monday when they hold the first of 10 scheduled offseason team activities. Whether Rodgers will be there for any of those workouts remains as much of a mystery as it was when his first season as a Steeler came to an end in a 30-6 blowout loss to the Texans.
The Steelers haven’t settled anything with quarterback Aaron Rodgers for the 2026 season, but they got a deal done with kicker Chris Boswell.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Boswell has agreed to a four-year extension with the team. That puts him under contract in Pittsburgh through the 2030 season.
Boswell’s deal is worth $28 million and the $7 million average annual salary of the extension is equal to the one that Brandon Aubrey signed with the Cowboys earlier in the offseason.
Boswell is heading into his 12th season with the Steelers. He is 299-of-341 on field goals and 353-of-369 on extra points during his time in Pittsburgh. Boswell, who was a first-team All-Pro in 2024, was 27-of-32 on field goals and 42-of-43 on extra points last year.
Twenty-five years after Acrisure Stadium opened in Pittsburgh, some of the seats are being replaced. And the old ones are for sale.
Via WPXI, roughly 22,000 seats can be purchased from the Upper Level East, Upper Level West, and North Club sections.
A single seat can be purchased for $399. A pair of seats costs $599.
For a slightly cheaper option, individual seat backs cost $199. Seat bottoms are $149.
The seats are both yellow and gray. Currently, a smattering of black seats are being added to the stadium, in an effort to soften the eyeball-scorching effect of bright, piercing yellow.
The facility opened in 2001 as Heinz Field. It replaced Three Rivers Stadium, a multi-purpose facility that the Steelers and Pirates shared for three decades.
Yes, Aaron Rodgers has returned to Pittsburgh. No, he has not yet returned to the Steelers.
Via Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rodgers “has been in town for a couple days.” However, he has not met with the Steelers. He also has not made an appearance at the team’s facility during the weekend’s rookie minicamp. (There had been at least one report that he wanted to get to know the new players.)
Instead, the Steelers have been talking to Rodgers’s agent.
Despite persistent claims that Rodgers’s potential re-signing isn’t about money, there’s nothing to discuss in a veteran contract except money. He had a base salary of $13.65 million last year, a very low rate relative to the market at the position. This year, the ultimate question is the amount he wants, the amount the team will offer, and whether (and where) the two positions will overlap.
Meanwhile, coach Mike McCarthy met with reporters on Saturday. On the possibility of Rodgers officially joining the team before OTAs begin on May 18, McCarthy said, “Three quarterbacks is the normal. Four would be awesome.”
Scotty Miller attended Bears rookie minicamp on a tryout basis in an effort to get on the team’s 90-man roster.
He’s now able to say, “Mission accomplished.”
Chicago has agreed to sign Miller, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Miller, 28, spent the last two seasons with the Steelers. He caught nine passes for 62 yards in 2025.
Miller’s best season came in 2020, when he was part of the Bucs team that won Super Bowl LV. He caught 33 passes for 501 yards with three touchdowns that year, with another four receptions for 80 yard with a TD in the postseason.
Veteran receiver Scotty Miller, who spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons in Pittsburgh, has found no takers in free agency. He’s participating in the Bears’ rookie minicamp on a tryout basis, in an effort to win a spot on the 90-man offseason roster.
As Larry Mayer of the team’s official website explains it, Miller made a “dazzling diving catch deep down the right sideline” on the last snap of Friday’s minicamp practice.
“He’s got a history with [receivers] coach [Antwaan] Randle El,” Bears coach Ben Johnson told reporters. “Randle El was with him when he was a young buck there in Tampa, so there are some shared experiences. Looking forward to seeing him run around and compete a little bit. From afar, I’ve been able to see the speed, quickness. [He’s] certainly very intriguing.”
A sixth-round pick of the Buccaneers in 2019, Miller won a Super Bowl in 2020 with Tampa. After four seasons there, he spent a year in Atlanta before joining the Steelers.
The 2020 season was his best, by far, with 33 catches for 501 yards and three touchdowns.
