Feels like it's morphing into ... something, moving from one phase to the next. Free agency's up. NFL Draft's up. Now the rookie minicamp's complete after a fun weekend at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. OTAs open in a couple weeks.

And yet ...

Yeah. Me, too.

Because for all that can occur on the perimeter of the process, if we're all being honest, whatever form the 2025 Steelers might take, it won't come with a meaningful clue until someone, anyone can label a starting quarterback.

Or even locate him, if we're talking about Aaron Rodgers.

Not to be that guy, but sorry, I can't help it in this context. Watching from the sideline at this camp, I'd catch an encouraging scene, I'd try to project a prospect or two onto a depth chart or camp battle or even more, I'd glance over by the open weight room door that had a few of the vets emerge to check out the new kids ... and I'd still wonder who'll be QB1. 

And, for that matter, QB2.

And, for that matter, what's even happening.

One final time before I get to a bunch of other bulleted observations: Mason Rudolph's here. He wants to be here. He sees the opportunity to be the quarterback of the Steelers -- of these Steelers, in this city -- not as some potential midlife crisis he's tasked with resolving but, rather, as the chance of a lifetime. He's 29 to the other guy's 41. And while he's not exactly equipped with four MVPs, a Super Bowl ring and a pre-fitted yellow jacket, the last time he was seen around here just happened to coincide with the last sighting of legitimately inspirational, all-team, all-out football in Pittsburgh.

There. Got it out of the system.

Onward ...

• I happen to like that aforementioned depth chart much better than at the same time a year ago. A couple other age concerns set aside -- squeezing 17 games each from, say, Cam Heyward at 36 and Darius Slay at 34 seems a stretch -- I don't feel the same stretch in suggesting that slot corner's the only hard hole I see, aside from the newly created hole at WR2. And even at slot corner, I'll grade Beanie Bishop's splash on a happy curve ahead of some routine coverage trouble he'd experienced as a rookie. He can get better.

• Everything I heard at the facility about Omar Khan's pursuit of a WR2 has me only about 14 times more confident he'll come through this time. Mostly because of the assets he's smartly accumulated. There's no available receiver he wouldn't be able to add. But there's also no real rush. Get the one that makes the jaw hit the floor.

• Why would that vary from my stance on quarterback? Aside from the obvious differences of position and time of preparation, assimilation, chemistry and all that, it's because the market on receivers opens up new options with each passing week. And that runs all the way into the first few days of September. Not so at quarterback. What's there now is pretty much what'll be there.

• Feels fair to call left tackle a hole, too, I suppose, since Broderick Jones has to bounce back from a season-long sophomore struggle. But I've heard almost as many good things about him in this setting as I have about Roman Wilson. Progress isn't linear, as the scouts often say.

• Nothing instantly upgrades offensive line play quite like a quarterback who'll either hold the pocket or step up into it. We all saw that late in the 2023 season. Just saying.

KARL ROSER / STEELERS

Rookie minicamp group photo Sunday, with Kaleb Johnson horizontal at the front.

• It's never easy to make an impression in shorts, so the players at rookie minicamp invariably don't. There wasn't even much passing. Just a long orientation dotted with walkthroughs and, amid those, rudimentary instruction. Even so, I'd be remiss if not sharing more than one occasion of watching Kaleb Johnson take a first step ... that'd blur into his third step. And then I'd pay attention for it again, and it'd happen again. And again. Remember this.

• Alas, I don't have much to offer on Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black because the defense was practicing two fields away from me ... other than that I could still pick them both out.

• Everyone loves Will Howard. I get that:

See?

That never stops, believe it or not. It's the polar opposite of forced or phony. And anyone around here who hasn't fallen for him yet, be warned that it's on the way.

But man, let's also keep it a little real. No matter what Rodgers decides -- or when he'll descend from his own Mount Olympus to decide it -- Howard's going to be QB3. That's not my opinion, either. The Steelers have set everything to play out this way, so it's reasonable to deduce they don't see him as ready. 

Much as they love him, too.

• Howard might have the thickest legs I can ever recall seeing on a quarterback. Hard to even describe, apart maybe from sharing that I began by comparing him to a tight end ... except that his legs are thicker than Pat Freiermuth's. And I wound up with a comparison point of ... Chuks Okorafor! No kidding!

Remember how defenders used to just kinda slide down a young Ben Roethlisberger's legs when trying to tackle him?

I can envision this.

• With the schedule being released this week, I can also envision Dublin, Ireland, an absolute gem of a city I had the chance to visit in 2019 upon hopping across the pond to catch the reunion of the Vapors, one of my favorite bands as a teen:

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

• Can't wait. Seriously. One of my favorite stops ever in Europe. Always knew I'd return.

• George who? Said what?