After many months of speculation and endless debates regarding will or won’t he, or should they or shouldn’t they, the Aaron Rodgers saga with the Pittsburgh Steelers might finally be coming to a conclusion.
Rodgers is expected to fly into Pittsburgh Friday and meet with Steelers over the weekend, hopefully leading to a contract for the 2026 season. The expectation was always that Rodgers would play in 2026, and do so in the Black and Gold for a second season, reuniting with Mike McCarthy in the process.
But things have dragged out, leading to some frustration with how Rodgers is handling things.
And former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum ripped into Rodgers Friday.
“That is capital F fraud. As you mentioned, they won a Super Bowl together, him and Mike McCarthy. They were together for 13 seasons. They were a 125-77 and two ties. What are we doing?” Tannenbaum said on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “You were there last year. You have young skilled players that have never been with you before. Get into Pittsburgh, sign the contract and let’s get rolling.
“You’re gonna be 43 in December. There should be a sense of urgency.”
It is a bit puzzling that Rodgers needs to visit the Steelers and have some discussions with members of the franchise, from the coaching staff to the front office. He knows a number of the new coaches in Pittsburgh from his time in Green Bay, and the front office structure hasn’t changed.
GM Omar Khan, team owner Art Rooney II, and even McCarthy have stated all offseason that they’ve had open, healthy communication with Rodgers. Yet now, when things are getting down to it, he has to visit and basically go on another free agency tour around the facility?
It doesn’t make much sense.
Nothing makes much sense with how Rodgers operates during the offseason though. You’d think with a new coaching staff in place — even if he’s familiar with them — that he’d want to get into the building and start laying the groundwork for the offense, especially with the new faces on the roster.
That hasn’t been the case and he’s continued to go through his offseason process. He’ll downplay the timing of things like he did last year, and add that training camp is where all the work gets done from a chemistry perspective, and that might be somewhat true.
But for a guy young players will look to as a leader, he should have signed by now if he intends to play in 2026, even if he isn’t going to participate in OTAs. Hopefully this all ends this weekend, he signs and the storyline moves on to something else.
If he doesn’t after this visit, it will only do the Steelers a disservice as they continue to build toward the 2026 season.
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