The Pittsburgh Steelers have been playing the waiting game with regard to free agent quarterback Aaron Rodgers for three months now. And while owner Art Rooney II has been public about being patient, he also said time is limited.
Now, as ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reports, the Steelers could be turning to plan B if this thing drags out much longer.
“I had some conversations with people this week that led me to believe that Cousins is at the very least on the Steelers’ radar, if something were to fall through on Rodgers," Fowler reported. "Now, here's how they could make that happen. Cousins has $37.5 million in guarantees between this year and next year. Somebody's on the hook for that, whether it's Atlanta or someone else. So to facilitate a trade, Atlanta would need a team to offset some of that money, whether it's $4 million, $20 million, whatever it is, but the feeling around the league is that Atlanta has not been willing to budge on this. They haven't shown a lot of interest in trading Cousins, it would take a hefty price tag for another team to wiggle that out.
"As one source told me, if they were willing to take a small percentage, like let’s say $7 or $8 million of that money, a deal would be done by now. There was interest earlier in the offseason. Right now, Pittsburgh might be the only hope for Cousins or he’s stuck in Atlanta."
Right now, Pittsburgh is rolling into the offseason with Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson. And that hardly strikes fear in opposing defenses.