From an outsider’s perspective, the Pittsburgh Steelers had a long three months to wait for Aaron Rodgers to sign with them. For Mike Tomlin, the deal was happening long before pen officially met paper. Joining The Pivot podcast in an interview recorded last week and airing Sunday, Tomlin admitted he “knew something” about Rodgers’ 2025 plans.
“You’re right, I knew something,” Tomlin said with a smile in a conversation with Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor, and Channing Crowder.
The comments came on the heels of Clark wondering why Pittsburgh opted against using a high draft pick on a quarterback, waiting until the sixth round to address the position with Ohio State’s Will Howard.
This is Tomlin’s clearest admission of Rodgers’ future. But it’s hardly surprising. As was reported during the three month wait and confirmed by Rodgers and Tomlin since he signed his one-year contract in June, the Steelers and Rodgers kept in constant contact. Tomlin and Rodgers spoke at least once per week, and their conversations played a key reason in the four-time NFL MVP ultimately signing with the Steelers.
“From Day One that we talked on the phone in the offseason, I was never talking to a head coach,” Rodgers said of Tomlin on The Pat McAfee Show late last month. “I was talking to a friend. I respected the hell out of that. I have crazy respect for him.”
Rodgers and Tomlin have offered minimal details of those conversations but at some point, Tomlin felt very confident Rodgers was going to end up in Pittsburgh. That he wasn’t going to retire, or hold out for Minnesota, or try any other path but signing with Pittsburgh. Rodgers has cited the need to settle his personal life as the main reason for the delay, inking his deal in June just in time for the team’s three-day mandatory minicamp.
Tomlin admitted some of those conversations focused around Rodgers’ reason for returning for a 21st NFL season.
“I just wanted to know why, why does the fire still burn?” Tomlin told The Pivot. “What is his agenda? Those are some of the conversations that we had in the spring. And I just got real comfortable with his ‘why.’ All he wants to do is win. All he wants to do is have fun within the game. He wanted to be a component of the process of development for young players.
“Everything that we talked about through our conversations in the spring, I’m watching him live out right now in this training camp setting. I believed him when he said it, but it’s fun to watch it play out. I think that’s why I’m excited. I think that’s why I was comfortable.”
Pittsburgh is set to set a fifth different Week One quarterback in five-straight years. That’s a franchise first. But Tomlin is selling what Rodgers can offer the Steelers the others couldn’t. Not just a chance to win a playoff game but make a deeper run. It’s something he’s known was possible probably since Rodgers’ March visit to the team, knowing the two would eventually be in training camp together long before anyone else did.
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