As Sunday night's winner-advances game against the Ravens approaches, it's not completely irrational to start thinking about what might happen in the offseason.
One of the questions atop the list is whether or not Aaron Rodgers is willing to play another season. And if he is, if will he play in Pittsburgh:
"Listen, I'm thinking about this week," Rodgers said Wednesday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "But obviously I'm 42 years old and I'm on a one-year deal, so you know what the situation is. Whenever the season ends, I'll be a free agent, so that will give me a lot of options if I still want to play. I mean, not a lot of options, but there'll be options, I would think maybe one or two if I decide I still want to play. But I've enjoyed this experience, and everybody in Pittsburgh has been fantastic to me on and off the field, and it's really what I was hoping for. For this experience was, it's been even better than I was hoping."
From my own conversations with those on the inside, I can definitively say there has been openness on the Steelers' side for a reunion. One of Omar Khan's primary goals is finding the next franchise quarterback. Rodgers certainly isn't that, but another season with him at quarterback doesn't have to get in the way of that, either.
If that solution is through the draft, it could benefit that player to sit behind a future first-ballot Hall of Famer for a season. If Patrick Mahomes can sit behind Alex Smith for a season, then someone can sit behind Rodgers. But, there's no guarantee that quarterback will be attainable in the draft. Yes, the Steelers have a lot of draft capital, but it might not be enough to trade up high enough to get that caliber of quarterback. And, it's worth noting that the 2026 crop of draft-eligible quarterbacks isn't nearly as formidable as it seemed to be a few months ago before the college season began.
So, another season with Rodgers could be a safety net in case a quarterback isn't worth selecting in the draft. Plus, Rodgers could play better in his second season with the Steelers than he's played this season.
All things considered, Rodgers has arguably produced the best quarterback play this franchise has seen since Ben Roethlisberger retired. Not only are his 23 touchdown passes the most produced by any quarterback in black a gold since Roethlisberger threw 33 of them in 2020, but his ability to make things happen before the snap have produced plays that weren't possible to achieve by any of the quarterbacks who played in Pittsburgh from 2022-24.
It's not always been great. Rodgers has had some games that he likes to call "stinkers," with last Sunday in Cleveland being one of them. But there's a chance a second season under Arthur Smith could be beneficial for both parties.
"Anytime you're in a first-year offense, there's always some growing pains within the offense," Rodgers said. "It's always you feel like if you had another year, you know what you could do. I look at the way I played in 2019 and then the adjustments we made in the offseason, and then the way I played in 2020, which was just in a whole kind of different level. I felt like, and I used to tease (Matt) LaFleur about this all the time, I was a game manager in 2019 and a game impactor in 2020 and 2021. I think a lot of that's just familiarity with the offense and with the guys. We've done the best we could with our conversations and our meeting time outside the facility and our meeting time in the facility. But obviously, the more years you get in a system with the same guys, the more continuity you have, the better you feel like you can play."
Now, the Steelers were committed to keeping Russell Wilson for multiple years before the 2024 season began. How that season ended changed everyone's mind on the inside. Perhaps what transpires on Sunday does the same. Or maybe, Rodgers bounces back from a bad game and leads the Steelers to their first division title in five years.
"I don't have a lot of stinkers back-to-back over the years," Rodgers said. "So that's same mindset every week, same approach. Just expect greatness, and when it doesn't happen, you don't shift up the plan. You just keep on keep on going and trust the process."
THE ASYLUM
Rodgers (mostly) mum on future, focused on Ravens
As Sunday night's winner-advances game against the Ravens approaches, it's not completely irrational to start thinking about what might happen in the offseason.
One of the questions atop the list is whether or not Aaron Rodgers is willing to play another season. And if he is, if will he play in Pittsburgh:
"Listen, I'm thinking about this week," Rodgers said Wednesday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "But obviously I'm 42 years old and I'm on a one-year deal, so you know what the situation is. Whenever the season ends, I'll be a free agent, so that will give me a lot of options if I still want to play. I mean, not a lot of options, but there'll be options, I would think maybe one or two if I decide I still want to play. But I've enjoyed this experience, and everybody in Pittsburgh has been fantastic to me on and off the field, and it's really what I was hoping for. For this experience was, it's been even better than I was hoping."
From my own conversations with those on the inside, I can definitively say there has been openness on the Steelers' side for a reunion. One of Omar Khan's primary goals is finding the next franchise quarterback. Rodgers certainly isn't that, but another season with him at quarterback doesn't have to get in the way of that, either.
If that solution is through the draft, it could benefit that player to sit behind a future first-ballot Hall of Famer for a season. If Patrick Mahomes can sit behind Alex Smith for a season, then someone can sit behind Rodgers. But, there's no guarantee that quarterback will be attainable in the draft. Yes, the Steelers have a lot of draft capital, but it might not be enough to trade up high enough to get that caliber of quarterback. And, it's worth noting that the 2026 crop of draft-eligible quarterbacks isn't nearly as formidable as it seemed to be a few months ago before the college season began.
So, another season with Rodgers could be a safety net in case a quarterback isn't worth selecting in the draft. Plus, Rodgers could play better in his second season with the Steelers than he's played this season.
All things considered, Rodgers has arguably produced the best quarterback play this franchise has seen since Ben Roethlisberger retired. Not only are his 23 touchdown passes the most produced by any quarterback in black a gold since Roethlisberger threw 33 of them in 2020, but his ability to make things happen before the snap have produced plays that weren't possible to achieve by any of the quarterbacks who played in Pittsburgh from 2022-24.
It's not always been great. Rodgers has had some games that he likes to call "stinkers," with last Sunday in Cleveland being one of them. But there's a chance a second season under Arthur Smith could be beneficial for both parties.
"Anytime you're in a first-year offense, there's always some growing pains within the offense," Rodgers said. "It's always you feel like if you had another year, you know what you could do. I look at the way I played in 2019 and then the adjustments we made in the offseason, and then the way I played in 2020, which was just in a whole kind of different level. I felt like, and I used to tease (Matt) LaFleur about this all the time, I was a game manager in 2019 and a game impactor in 2020 and 2021. I think a lot of that's just familiarity with the offense and with the guys. We've done the best we could with our conversations and our meeting time outside the facility and our meeting time in the facility. But obviously, the more years you get in a system with the same guys, the more continuity you have, the better you feel like you can play."
Now, the Steelers were committed to keeping Russell Wilson for multiple years before the 2024 season began. How that season ended changed everyone's mind on the inside. Perhaps what transpires on Sunday does the same. Or maybe, Rodgers bounces back from a bad game and leads the Steelers to their first division title in five years.
"I don't have a lot of stinkers back-to-back over the years," Rodgers said. "So that's same mindset every week, same approach. Just expect greatness, and when it doesn't happen, you don't shift up the plan. You just keep on keep on going and trust the process."
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