The Aaron Rodgers free agency saga of 2025 has come to a close, but it didn’t exactly end the way the QB—or the team he landed with—would’ve wanted. Early on in free agency, the Steelers and Giants seemed to be in on the 41-year-old.
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Rodgers, however, pushed for a move to the Vikings. The Giants responded by signing Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston instead. When Minnesota also backed out, Rodgers wasn’t left with many other options. The Steelers were the only team that hadn’t made a significant move to improve their QB room. Rodgers took his sweet time—three months to be exact—to decide to play for the only team that would have him.
Rodgers officially signed with Pittsburgh last week. The two sides agreed to a one-year, $13.65 million deal that includes $10 million in guarantees. That deal could rise to $19.5 through incentives.
However, it turns out that Rodgers wasn’t on his own in hoping that he would partner up with a team other than the Steelers. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Rodgers was not Pittsburgh’s Plan A, or even Plan B. He was Plan C.
“This was the third option for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were in on Matthew Stafford and couldn’t get a trade done,” Schefter said.
“They tried to re-sign Justin Fields, he opted to go to the New York Jets, where he will meet Rodgers on opening day. And after they couldn’t get a trade done for Stafford and couldn’t get Fields re-signed, they pivoted to Rodgers.”
This report goes to show just how poorly Steelers general manager Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin have handled their quarterback search this offseason. They were in on Matthew Stafford, but the QB was never going to realistically leave L.A. And if he was, it seemed the Las Vegas Raiders were way ahead of Pittsburgh in Stafford’s mind anyway.
The Justin Fields situation is really the one that Pittsburgh’s brass must regret. After playing well through a 4-2 start in 2024, he was benched for Russell Wilson. And even when Wilson was in the midst of an ugly 0-5 run, the Steelers never considered going back to Fields.
Then, when the season ended, they didn’t show nearly enough appreciation or determination to sign Fields to an extension to take over for 2025. He ended up signing for the New York Jets on a two-year, $40 million deal that Pittsburgh certainly could’ve matched.
Whether or not Rodgers was aware that he was not top of the list for Pittsburgh is unknown. Some fans certainly think the report will rub the proud QB the wrong way: “The dude is going to need another darkness retreat to accept this news.” one pointed the finger at the Steelers: “Poor planning by the organization.”
However, some other fans questioned the veracity of the report, claiming that Rodgers was always Pittsburgh’s Plan A. “No chance he was behind fields. They could have paid him a pile and kept him in Pitt,” said one fan.
Those who believe the Steelers had no interest in Fields were not paying attention in the early months of 2025. Everyone among the Steelers brass was pretty clear that their priority at QB was to re-sign either Fields or Wilson, with most assuming Fields, as the younger player with a higher ceiling, was the top priority.
In the end, Khan and Tomlin fumbled the Fields deal and had to move on. They clearly didn’t fall in love with any of the QB prospects in the weak 2025 draft class. So why not sign an aging but proven entity to steer the ship for one year before using their huge haul of 12 draft picks in 2026 to trade up and get a blue-chip guy to finally replace Ben Roethlisberger as their true franchise QB of the future?
