After what will be 86 days – though it felt much longer – Aaron Rodgers’ first experience as an NFL free agent will apparently end, black and gold smoke finally emanating from Pittsburgh as reports surfaced Thursday that he will sign with the Steelers Friday and become their quarterback of the (very immediate) future.
Even at 41, Rodgers could bring a level of stability behind center the Steelers haven’t enjoyed since well before Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement in 2022 – which occurred five years after Pittsburgh’s most recent postseason victory. Yet, depending on how the circumstances unfold, Rodgers might be anything but a calming presence. Either way, the 2025 season should be a compelling one in the Steel City, which could experience a whole host of winners and losers – we think, hence the question marks? – with its latest quarterback coming to town:
They’d had something of a long-distance bro-mance years before they officially team up … and before Tomlin, always one to turn a phrase, exclaimed “there's no substitute for intimacy” following Rodgers’ visit to the Steelers’ facility in March. It remains to be seen how their transition from mutual admirers to direct collaborators goes, but what has either got to lose? Neither has appeared in a Super Bowl since the 2010 season, when Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers barely got the better of Tomlin’s Steelers – and they could certainly be mutually supporting the other’s protracted quest to secure a second ring (if we don’t count the one Tomlin won as an assistant with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002). But Rodgers was about as good a veteran option as Tomlin could have hoped for following the Russell Wilson Experience in 2024, while the Steelers were probably Rodgers’ best hope all along – given the Vikings never swiped right – to allow him to conclude his career in a manner he deems fitting after getting unceremoniously dumped by the New York Jets.
