Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers have a new head coach this season and they have a new plan for Aaron Rodgers in the preseason.

Rodgers did not play any preseason snaps in Mike Tomlin’s final year as the head coach in Pittsburgh, but Mike McCarthy wants to see him in game action this August. Rodgers told Mike Silver of TheAthletic.com that McCarthy wants him to play in the team’s first two preseason games.

“He [wants me out there for] 30 or 40 plays,” Rodgers said. “I said, ‘Mike, if you want me to play, I’ll play.’ I’m not saying I want to do it. But if he wants me to, I will.”

In a stroke of scheduling kismet, the Steelers’ first two preseason games are against the Packers and the Jets.

Rodgers played two series for the Jets in the 2023 preseason, but his last extensive preseason action came in 2018 with the Packers. It appears that will change this summer.

The Steelers signed safety Rayshawn Jenkins to a one-year contract, the team announced Sunday.

In a corresponding move, the Steelers released safety Darnell Savage. They signed Savage on June 2.

He played two games for Jacksonville, eight for Washington and two for the Bills in 2025. Savage also started 13 games for the Jaguars in 2024 and spent five seasons with the Packers to begin his career.

Jenkins entered the NFL as a fourth-round pick of the Chargers in 2017. He has spent time with the Chargers (2017-20), Jaguars (2021-23), Seahawks (2024) and Browns (2025).

In 17 games with the Browns last season, Jenkins had 45 tackles, 19 of them solos, one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

He has appeared in 139 career games, starting 92. Jenkins has recorded 562 tackles, 5.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, 34 passes defensed, 11 interceptions and 20 tackles for a loss.

The final season of football for Aaron Rodgers was preceded by a reunion with his estranged family. He spoke about it during a Saturday appearance on NFL Network.

“There’s been a lot of conversation about it outside of my own conversation for so many years,” Rodgers told Kyle Brandt. “You know, a big part of it was getting married and having those conversations with my wife that allowed me to kind of open up to the possibility of coming together. It’s been a couple-year process now, the conversations with them, but, you know, I’ve been very, very closed off about that part of my life, and I want to keep it that way. But there’s been a narrative that’s gone on for too long, that I wanted to kind of shut down.

“And it’s been really beautiful to reconnect with them. All of them. And I got to spend a week, a long weekend recently. Those pictures are from in Nashville. My parents, my brother, and his sweet wife, and their incredible two kids. I got to be an uncle. It’s just really — it’s really special. So a lot of my life has been full circle I think the last year. And that was part of it. I knew it was part of it. And I’m happy to be reunited, and that part of my life is a really beautiful addition, and I’ve got to give my wife a lot of credit for — not that she was pushing me, because she never was, but just the way that she loves and supports me, having her by my side during this process has been really special. And I missed those relationships. And there was reasons for it that don’t need to be talked about, but I’m thankful that that’s come all the way back around.”

Although Rodgers said he reconnected with “all of them,” he mentioned only one brother. It’s unclear whether Aaron and his brother, Jordan, have reconnected.

It was Jordan who brought the family issues to light during a 2016 stint on The Bachelorette. Two years later, Jordan chided Aaron for his donation to wildfire-relief efforts after (per Jordan) Aaron didn’t call their parents to check on them during the fires.

Although it’s good news when anyone finds a path back to the most important people in their lives, it’s not entirely clear whether Rodgers truly wanted to reunite with his parents and at least one brother, or whether he simply wanted to “shut down” a “narrative.” (Before anyone gets pissed at me for going there, those are the words he used.)

Ian O’Connor’s 2024 biography of Rodgers made abundantly clear his habit of cutting people close to him off by putting them on “the island.” It will be interesting to see whether Jordan, who apparently is still marooned like Gilligan, will have anything to say about the latest developments.

The Steelers opened their Hall of Honor in 2017. Through 2025, the iconic franchise inducted 60 former players, coaches, and contributors.

In 2026, the Steelers will add three more: former G.M. Kevin Colbert, cornerback J.T. Thomas, and guard Craig Wolfley.

Colbert worked for the Steelers from 2000 through 2022, with 11 seasons as director of football operations and 12 as General Manager.

“It was very shocking, humbling just to get that call from Art Rooney and to hear that,” Colbert told Steelers.com. “It’s very touching and I’m appreciative. You don’t expect something like that.”

Thomas was a member of four Super Bowl-winning teams, playing for the Steelers from 1973 (when he was a first-round pick) through 1981. His late interception of Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler in the 1974 AFC Championship sealed the win that gave the Steelers their first Super Bowl appearance.

Wolfley was a fifth-round pick in 1980, and he spent 10 seasons with the Steelers as a guard and tackle. He appeared in 129 regular-season games, with 102 starts for the Steelers. Wolfley passed in 2025.

They’ll be officially added to the Hall of Honor during the Week 4 game against the Bengals.

The Packers signed long snapper Cal Adomitis and wide receiver Kaden Prather on Friday, the team announced. Prather’s agreement was previously reported.

In corresponding moves, the Packers released kicker Lenny Krieg and waived/injured wide receiver Brenden Rice.

Adomitis is a fifth-year player from the University of Pittsburgh who originally signed as an undrafted free agent with the Bengals in 2022. He played 49 regular-season games and three postseason contests in three seasons in Cincinnati.

He was released toward the end of training camp last season.

Adomitis ended up playing nine games for the Eagles last season before finishing the season on the Steelers’ practice squad.

Prather entered the NFL as a seventh-round pick of the Bills in 2025 but was waived/injured at the end of training camp. He helped the Louisville Kings win the UFL championship this spring.

Krieg was signed earlier this week to compete with sixth-round pick Trey Smack for the kicking job.

Rice, who was claimed off waivers from the Raiders in May, was on the non-football injury list. The son of Hall of Famer Jerry Rice joined Las Vegas’ practice squad late last season after also spending time on the practice squads of the Seahawks and Patriots.

He was with the Chargers in training camp last summer.

Veteran offensive lineman Andrus Peat announced his retirement on Friday.

Peat made the announcement in an Instagram post that said he “gave it everything I had” over the course of an 11-year NFL career.

Peat was a 2015 first-round pick in New Orleans and he spent nine seasons with the team. He played for the Raiders in 2024 and appeared in six games for the Steelers last season.

During his time with the Saints, Peat started 102 of the 111 regular season games he played. Peat was a Pro Bowl selection at guard from 2018-2020 and he also started six playoff games while with the team.

Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt has played mostly on the left side in his career. He took only 10 snaps on the right side last season, leaving that side to Alex Highsmith.

Watt indicated in the offseason that he would move around more, and according to Bob Labriola of the team website, that has been the case in training camp. Watt played both sides in Thursday’s practice, per Labriola.

The four-time All-Pro, who has admitted being resistant to playing the right side, has embraced a chance to move around this season in Patrick Graham’s defense.

“Very dynamic, very elite group,” Watt said about his position group. “I think you’re going to see us moving all around. I know I say it every year, but I think you’re truly going to see us moving all around this year. It’s a better problem to have when you have guys who are really capable to affect the game in any area. I think that if we do things that we really set out to do in this training camp and get this thing like a well-oiled machine with us three, it’ll be special.

“I’m just trying to be open-minded, just trying to do anything to affect [the opposing offense], whether it’s how they are doing protection schemes, how they’re running the ball. Wherever I can move around or just knock down inside, be able to allow [Nate] Herbig to come outside, whatever it takes to win football games, whatever it takes to mess up the offensive scheme, I’m willing to do.”

Watt led the NFL in sacks with 19 in 2023. He has only 18.5 over the past two seasons, including seven in 2025 when he missed three games.

The Steelers hosted veteran safety Jordan Whitehead for a free agent visit on Thursday, according to the NFL personnel notice.

Whitehead, who played at the University of Pittsburgh, recently was cleared to resume his football career.

He also has worked out for the Colts and the Texans.

Whitehead missed all of last season after being seriously injured in a two-vehicle car crash in Tampa on Jan. 4, 2025. He underwent neck surgery, putting his future in doubt.

Dr. Alex Vaccaro, the Eagles’ spine specialist, signed off on Whitehead’s return to play in 2026.

Whitehead, a fourth-round pick in 2018, played five years for the Buccaneers and two for the Jets.

He has played 105 games with 101 starts, totaling 557 tackles, 11 interceptions, 45 passes defensed and two forced fumbles.

The Mike McCarthy era will be different from Mike Tomlin’s 19-year tenure with the Steelers. When training-camp gets rolling, there will be one major change from nearly two decades of Pittsburgh football.

“We won’t do live tackling,” McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday. “No, I’ve done live tackling in the past. . . . Every drill’s been evaluated. There’s a GPS component behind everything that we do. You know, there’s more stress that we need to apply to our training situations than just going the ground. The footwork’s the priority. It always will be about the feet and everything that we do whether tackling, blocking, you know, ball security, all those things. So the footwork component about it is important.”

The balance is preparation and health of the players.

“You have to assess stress in everything you do,” McCarthy said. “That’s [what] I look at as one of the primary responsibilities of being a head coach, and one of the primary focal points of being in charge of a training regimen for your football team. So tackling is a good way to go. I’ve done it. But I feel like, you know, we’ll be able to get it done in in other ways of training, particularly in our tackling drills, in the team drills. So, injuries are part of the game, you know? And I think you’ve clearly got to do the best you can. And it’s a judgment. You try to reduce risk. So — but we will not live tackle. And we’ll have goal-line, but we won’t live tackle. And it is, you know, that’s one of the harder drills to get that done.”

Tomlin preferred live tackling in training camp. In 2017, for example, he said, "[W]e see the benefits” of intense tackling sessions, and “we’ll continue to do what we do.”

The big change last year wasn’t to change what they do but to when they do it. Tomlin moved practice to a hotter part of the day.

“Wasn’t hot enough last year,” Tomlin said about the plans for 2025 training camp. “To be quite honest with you, heat aids in the development of physical conditioning. It makes it a more stressful environment, and that’s what we go to camp for. We go to camp to get better, and if it’s a little bit more miserable late in the day, man, that’s what we want.”

There will be many differences between the two Mikes. Many of them will be noted and studied. And the ultimate test is whether, when it’s time to play games, the Steelers win their first playoff game since the 2016 season, they regress and miss the playoffs, or they continue a trend of one-and-done postseason appearances.

Steelers coach Mike McCarthy generally has carried only three quarterbacks during training camp. He has four in his first season in Pittsburgh.

It’s a unique situation with starter Aaron Rodgers in his final season, and the Steelers evaluating their future at the position.

Mason Rudolph, Will Howard and rookie Drew Allar are behind Rodgers, and the Steelers could keep all four into the season.

“I don’t know why it wouldn’t be [an option],” coach Mike McCarthy said Tuesday, via Chris Adamski of triblive.com. “I’m not philosophically opposed to keeping the best players.”

Rudolph, the nine-year veteran, will start training camp as the No. 2. That is a change from the offseason when Howard received the second-team reps.

“Aaron will take the ‘ones;’ Mason will start out with the second group; and Will and Drew will take the third-group reps,” McCarthy said. “That’s the way we’ll start.”

Allar is a third-round pick who could be the heir apparent. But the Steelers will have to figure out how to get him enough reps for him to be ready to compete in 2027, while getting Rodgers ready to start his final season and Rudolph or Howard ready to back up Rodgers.

“The responsibility to get the starter ready is not only on the quarterback coach and the play caller, but it’s also on the other quarterbacks,” McCarthy said. “And then the starter’s responsibility is to make sure those other three are connected. We’ve got to move the room along.”