The Pittsburgh Steelers once again enter an offseason without a long-term option at quarterback, or any convenient way to find one. Thus, the Steelers find themselves on the Aaron Rodgers train once again.
The problem is, that train can take a while. Last offseason, it took until the final week before mandatory minicamp. While we’ve obviously got quite a bit of time to go before this wait matches that, Mike Florio thinks the Steelers are already handling the situation poorly.
“They’re so committed to it, they’ve convinced themselves they believe it. Like, our only choice for now is to say ‘Aaron, whenever you’re ready, we’re here’. And if he says no, then they’ll come up with a new plan then,” Florio said Thursday on his Pro Football Talk show. “When there’s one team, one organization, who has one person as their plan A, and he’s not even on anybody else’s radar screen, somebody’s got it badly wrong.”
Florio isn’t the first one to present this point, but it may be a little early to do so. It’s reasonable to expect Rodgers to take a while, as he did last year. But it’s still the beginning of March, and the new league year doesn’t begin until next Wednesday. That’s still some time for Rodgers to give the Steelers a decision. And the Steelers could pivot to other options if he says no, which they’ve likely already considered.
For what it’s worth, some insiders still believe that’s when an answer will come. On the Steelers beat, Ray Fittipaldo claims Aaron Rodgers is trending towards a return, and will come back in mid-March. NFL insider Ian Rapoport said the same on Wednesday, that the Steelers expect an answer before free agency. It’s fair to disagree with the idea of bringing Rodgers back. But if that’s how things go down, the Steelers wouldn’t really be handling it that poorly.
It’s hard to trust that too much given how long it took last offseason, though. Mike Tomlin says he knew Rodgers was coming for a while, but the Steelers still put themselves in quite a risky situation.
This offseason, there aren’t a lot of other options at quarterback. If Rodgers extends his wait past free agency, the Steelers may miss out on the top options like Malik Willis and Kyler Murray. They might not want to take a quarterback early anyway. But if the wait extends past the draft, that only makes things more complicated. You don’t want to get stuck and have to turn to Will Howard at the last minute. Even if the Steelers do think he’s the future.
It’s more than fair to be pessimistic about how this wait might turn out. And it would be nice to see the new regime take some initiative instead of waiting patiently for what could be an entire offseason, again. But for now, waiting is what the Steelers seem content to do with Aaron Rodgers.
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