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Brooke Pryor
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers are between A. Rodgers and a tough place.
The 2025 league 12 months is 2 weeks previous, and the Steelers have two quarterbacks on their roster as they await a choice from four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers, although, does not seem like in any hurry to make up his thoughts in regards to the subsequent step in his profession. The primary-time free agent took a go to to Pittsburgh final week, spending six hours within the apply facility assembly with coach Mike Tomlin, common supervisor Omar Khan, crew proprietor and president Artwork Rooney II and several other coaches, together with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
Regardless of the automotive wash of conversations, Rodgers left Pittsburgh with out agreeing to a deal. The previous Jet and Packer is seemingly working with no deadline at the same time as his choices slender. The Giants, a onetime Rodgers suitor, signed Russell Wilson to a one-year deal Tuesday evening, whereas the Vikings made it clear that 2024 first-round choose J.J. McCarthy is their precedence transferring ahead.
That seemingly leaves Rodgers pondering three life like choices at this juncture: changing into a Steeler, changing into a retiree or ready till a quarterback-needy crew comes calling nearer to coaching camp. However Rodgers has by no means been one to let others dictate the tempo of his decision-making, giving him an indefinite deadline.
The Steelers, although, do not have the posh of time. They reunited with 2018 third-round choose Mason Rudolph, signing him to a two-year deal and giving themselves a quarterback with beginning expertise in a room that additionally contains the Dolphins’ seventh-round choose in 2022, Skylar Thompson.
The longer Rodgers’ determination drags out, the less choices accessible to the Steelers. The identical day Rodgers visited the Steelers, 2015 first-round choose Jameis Winston signed with the Giants. 4 days later, the Giants added Wilson, leaving few veteran quarterbacks with beginning expertise accessible in an already unimpressive free company class. The nearer the Steelers get to the draft — which kicks off in lower than a month — the extra pressing determining a contingency plan turns into.
Let’s speak about a world the place the Steelers do not land Rodgers. Khan mentioned on the NFL mix all quarterback choices had been on the desk, however the Steelers’ place setting is shortly being cleared by impatient bussers. Let’s check out the 2 probably remaining eventualities.
Add a new-to-Pittsburgh veteran QB with beginning expertise
Signing one other veteran to pair with Rudolph would sign the Steelers are firmly within the hunt to draft a 2026 quarterback. Not one of the accessible choices challenge to be greater than bridge quarterbacks to a stronger draft class, and a veteran from this group may compete with Rudolph for the beginning job via coaching camp.
With Winston and Wilson sure for the New York Giants, there are solely a handful of remaining accessible free agent quarterbacks who performed a minimum of 25% of their crew’s offensive snaps for a minimum of two seasons: Joe Flacco, Carson Wentz, Drew Lock, Case Keenum and Desmond Ridder. Teddy Bridgewater technically counts in that class, however he unretired to hitch the Lions in December a season in the past. There is no indication he desires to proceed placing his burgeoning teaching profession on maintain to play one other season.
Former Ravens and Dolphins quarterback Tyler Huntley performed 27.6% of the Dolphins’ offensive snaps in 2024, and he noticed motion in a shade underneath 25% of the Ravens’ snaps in 2022.
Different accessible veterans who’ve began a minimum of one recreation embrace Trey Lance, Josh Johnson and Jeff Driskel.
Of these potential choices, essentially the most life like to pair with Rudolph would appear to be Flacco and Wentz. Flacco, who turned 40 in January, has the latest beginning expertise. In eight video games for the Colts final season, the 2008 Ravens first-round choose accomplished 65.3% of throws with 12 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. Of the accessible veteran free brokers, Flacco is essentially the most much like Rudolph. Whereas Rudolph, a decade Flacco’s junior, is extra cellular, they’re each strong-armed pocket passers and have the same stature. Signing Flacco would fall according to the choice Rooney II expressed in his end-of-season information convention to have a quarterback room with gamers of the same talent set.
Although Wentz began just one recreation final season and tried simply 20 passes, the Eagles’ first-round choose from 2016 is an intriguing choice if the Steelers forgo the Flacco route. Wentz’s final season as a starter got here in 2022 with Washington the place he went 2-4 to begin earlier than breaking his finger, giving strategy to Taylor Heinicke, who continued to begin even when Wentz was cleared to return. Wentz threw 11 touchdowns to 9 interceptions in eight video games that season, however since then, he is spent a season with the L.A. Rams and the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs.
Draft a quarterback
Cease me in case you’ve heard this earlier than: Selecting at No. 21, the Steelers want a quarterback, however the top-tier of the draft class lacks depth. The Steelers, after all, had been in the same place in 2022 after Ben Roethlisberger retired. That 12 months, they signed Mitchell Trubisky and chosen Kenny Pickett, the primary quarterback off the board, with the No. 20 general choose. However when the Steelers choose this 12 months, a minimum of two quarterbacks will probably be gone in Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders.
Meaning the Steelers may both attempt to orchestrate an unprecedented, blockbuster commerce to leapfrog the quarterback-needy Titans and Giants on the high of the draft — which is more and more unlikely — or they might see how the board falls because it will get nearer to their flip and make a play for Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart or Louisville’s Tyler Shough to compete with Rudolph for the beginning job.
“I feel Jaxson Dart is in play sooner than [21],” ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. mentioned. “Now if he is there, it might be actually fascinating. In the event that they love him, you’re taking him. Tyler Shough from Louisville — take a look at the scale he’s. He is obtained the arm. Ran nicely on the mix. I did not see it all the time translate to the sphere. And he had these three years of accidents at Texas Tech. He will be 26 arising in the course of the 12 months, however he’ll be in play for the second [round]. Might he go within the first? Possibly. Would not shock me now whenever you’re listening to all this positivity popping out of varied individuals’s mouths after I speak to associates within the league.”
They may additionally take a flier on a extra developmental prospect with a mid- or late-round choose to hitch the crew as Rudolph’s backup. It is also value noting the Steelers do not presently have a second-round choose after sending it to Seattle as part of the DK Metcalf commerce compensation.
They may take a look at Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, whom Tomlin dined with forward of the quarterback’s professional day, both with a commerce again into the second spherical or maybe within the third spherical. However for all of Milroe’s constructive traits as an explosive, cellular quarterback, his inconsistencies make projecting his professional potential troublesome.
“He is simply so inconsistent in brief, intermediate areas with passes,” Kiper mentioned. “With passes that must be layups, [he] simply misfires. … He had video games the place you possibly can say if he would’ve bottled that one recreation or this recreation and performed that constantly, sure, you’d have been speaking about him within the mid-first, nevertheless it simply wasn’t, it was the erratic play. The expertise is there.
“Second-round most likely for Jalen Milroe. However [the Steelers] do not have a two, so in case you do not pull the set off within the first spherical, you have to wait till the third spherical, until you progress up.”
Tomlin and the Steelers’ brass had been additionally at Texas’ professional day, the place amongst different prospects, they noticed quarterback Quinn Ewers.
The truth is there aren’t many nice choices if the Steelers fail to land Rodgers. The most effective-case state of affairs is discovering a pair quarterbacks to carry the crew over till a talent-rich 2026 class. And that blockbuster commerce concept for 2025? It is much more life like subsequent 12 months when the Steelers determine to reap the compensatory advantages of dropping two quarterbacks, a beginning left deal with and a beginning working again in free company, and a surplus of picks makes it loads simpler to maneuver up within the draft.
However simply getting by with a patchwork quarterback room and the promise of subsequent 12 months is a troublesome promote for a corporation confronted with the rising urgency of growing old defensive stars and a playoff victory drought that extends almost a decade. Rodgers may not be the reply to ending that streak, however there aren’t another apparent options on the market, both.
