The Pittsburgh Steelers’ wait for Aaron Rodgers reaches two months this week. There also doesn’t appear to be an end in sight.
NFL insider Adam Schefter, though, projected while appearing on ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike on Tuesday that the Steelers might finally get a Rodgers resolution just before mandatory minicamp in June.
“I think the Steelers’ mandatory minicamp is next month. Forget the exact date, roughly June 10th,” Schefter said on the radio show, via Steelers Depot’s Ross McCorkle. “I would think that we would get a decision from Aaron Rodgers shortly before then about whether or not he should play.
“To me, you can’t miss that mandatory minicamp where you start gearing up. I guess you can, but it’s not ideal.”
Schefter’s memory served him correctly. The Steelers will begin mandatory minicamp on June 10.
The team’s voluntary offseason workouts, though, begin prior to that on May 27.
Schefter’s update comes during NFL schedule release week, which is notable, because the Steelers will play Rodgers’ former team, the Green Bay Packers, in 2025.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter Projects Aaron Rodgers Timeline for Steelers
Schefter is one of the most plugged in NFL insiders. That’s why any update he gives on Rodgers is going to be news.
But it’s important to note that this update is not a report. Because minicamp is considered mandatory, Schefter’s opinion is that Rodgers wouldn’t miss those workouts with his new team.
Rodgers and the Steelers could have a different opinion about the quarterback’s minicamp participation. Rodgers made it rather clear during an appearance on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show on April 17 that he has people in his inner circle dealing with personal issues that are his current priority.
Now this is my opinion, but Rodgers didn’t sound like a man willing to let “mandatory” minicamp impact his timeline.
“This entire time I haven’t felt like I owed anybody some sort of decision at any point,” Rodgers told McAfee, via NFL.com’s Eric Edholm. “This is my life. I said things are different now. My personal life is different. I have stuff in the inner circle, that I’m intimately close to, that’s really important to me.
“I’ve been upfront with them about that, and said, ‘Listen, if you need to move on. If you need to do something, by all means. By all means.’ Nothing but love and respect if that’s the decision that needs to be made. There’s been no deadline. I’ve talked to [Steelers head coach] Mike [Tomlin] many times.’”
Rodgers missed mandatory minicamp with the New York Jets last season for a trip to Egypt. For most of his career with the Packers, though, Rodgers fully participated in offseason workouts.
Speaking of the Packers, Steelers-Packers were rumored this offseason to be the NFL’s matchup for Dublin in Week 4. But on Tuesday, the league announced the Steelers will face the Minnesota Vikings in Dublin.
It’s possible the NFL either knows or is holding out hope Rodgers will sign with Pittsburgh to make the Steelers-Packers matchup a primetime affair at Acrisure Stadium.
Rodgers has never played the Packers in his NFL career.
How Long Will Steelers Wait for Rodgers?
After failing to sign a couple of the top free agent quarterbacks, the Steelers gave Rodgers a contract offer. When it grew clear Rodgers wasn’t going to make a decision immediately, Pittsburgh’s offer became open ended.
Head coach Mike Tomlin declined to give a deadline for Rodgers while speaking to reporters at the league’s annual spring meetings on March 30. The quarterback confirmed to McAfee that the team hasn’t given him a deadline.
The closest the Steelers have come to giving Rodgers a deadline is when team president Art Rooney II said on April 1 the organization wouldn’t “wait forever” for the quarterback.
But other than that, Rooney has used vague phrasing with the quarterback’s decision. On April 25, Rooney said the team “may get word soon” from Rodgers.
With 20 years of NFL experience, Rodgers doesn’t need the offseason workouts for himself. But the Steelers offense needs to build chemistry with whichever new quarterback the team starts in 2025.
For that reason, it makes a lot of sense for Rodgers to follow Schefter’s timeline and make a decision before Steelers minicamp. But the quarterback has clearly made no guarantees.
“I’m open to anything,” Rodgers said on April 17, “and attached to nothing.”
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