Most teams around the NFL are hitting the field and strapping on their helmets for their first few days of organized team activities (OTAs) this week, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are among them. They got started on Tuesday in Latrobe, PA, and, you guessed it, Aaron Rodgers was not in attendance.
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The mercurial 41-year-old QB has yet to sign with the club, despite teasing them a lot more in recent days. So, at the moment, it’s still just: Mason Rudolph, a Steelers castoff back for a second shot, Skylar Thompson, a fourth-year guy with one TD and three INTs on his NFL resume, and Will Howard, a National Championship-winning sixth-round pick. Steelers fans can be excused if they didn’t jump for joy after reading that QB roll call.
Former Steelers great Terry Bradshaw seems to be fine with it, though. The Hall of Famer said he thinks it’s “a joke” how long the Steelers are letting themselves be strung along by the whole Rodgers saga.
“That’s a joke. That is, just to me, is a joke. What are you going to do? Bring him in for one year, are you kidding me? That guy needs to stay in California. Go somewhere and chew on bark and whisper to the gods out there,” said the former QB (via 103.7 The Buzz in Arkansas this week). And NBC’s Mike Florio tends to agree.
“This isn’t the way people are in Pittsburgh. You don’t have a lot of bark chewers in Pittsburgh. This is just a culture clash, that is just waiting to happen,” said Florio on an episode of Pro Football Talk.
“Whether it’s Cam Heyward saying either you wanna be a Steeler or you don’t, or it’s Bradshaw saying go chew on bark and whisper to the gods, it unlocks the floodgates of Steelers fans, who are like, right on, we don’t want this guy!” he continued.
Florio is on to something here. And it should mean something that a man who spent his entire 14-year NFL career in the Steel City—Bradshaw—doesn’t think Rodgers would fit in with the hardscrabble nature of the town and team. Based on the evidence, that’s not a crazy assumption.
Still, the situation in Pittsburgh might be dire enough that they’ll have to look past those potential shortcomings.
Rodgers is the Steelers’ best QB option; could also mentor Howard
Over on ESPN, however, Stephen A. Smith is looking at things a little bit more pragmatically. Sure, Rodgers is a strange fellow who might upset the balance of the locker room. But there’s no denying the talent gap between him and Pittsburgh’s current crop of QBs, even with the aging star’s recent downturn in quality of play.
On an episode of First Take, while Stephen A. acknowledged Bradshaw’s credentials as a four-time Super Bowl champ, he didn’t agree with him on Rodgers.
“Because the Steelers quarterback room is an absolute joke. Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson, is just abysmal. Make no mistake about it. … It’s been a while since the Pittsburgh Steelers have had a quarterback, so Aaron Rodgers is going to be an upgrade no matter which way you slice it,” said the analyst.
The culture clash is definitely a possibility and a worry with someone like Rodgers, but was there really that great a culture there to begin with? This is a proud franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game in nearly a decade, and they just traded away a massive talent because he was causing locker room problems.
Apart from Rodgers simply being a better player than Rudolph, Thompson, or the rookie Howard, there are other advantages to signing him. Despite his anger when the Packers drafted Jordan Love a few years ago, Love said Rodgers treated him well and that he “learned a lot” working behind the older QB for three years.
“I learned a lot. I was able to watch a great quarterback, how he works every day, how he handles business in the locker room, interacts with teammates, how he attacks every day. Just being able to sit back as a quarterback and observe him, observe his footwork, how the ball comes out of his hands, just how he practices every day and takes that into the game. There’s just very valuable stuff. I was able to sit for three years and kind of just pick his brain and watch him work.”
A similar one-year Rodgers internship for Howard could pay long-term dividends for the Steelers. Sixth-round picks don’t usually turn into starters in the NFL, but it’s not unprecedented either.
If worst comes to worst, Rodgers leaves after a mediocre year, and the Steelers trade up in the 2026 draft class to get their franchise QB. That seems to be their plan for now. They might just have to move up from further down in the draft if Rodgers eventually does come in.
