Aaron Rodgers, still deciding whether he’ll play in the 2026 season, has been working out to stay in shape likely in preparation for the season, per a source, and that seems like good news for the Pittsburgh Steelers because the NFL team is holding a spot for him as their starting quarterback.
But here’s the sobering news for the club: Rodgers, who has been speaking regularly with Steelers coach Mike McCarthy, has not yet definitively committed to playing in 2026 for the Steelers.
Or anyone else.
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“We’ve had some great communication with Aaron and nothing’s changed, but it’s always positive and good,” General manager Omar Khan said Monday. “I said this to you guys in March when we met, he knows how we feel about him and we know how he feels about us.”
Now searching for that sentence in which Khan says Rodgers is definitely playing for the Steelers ….
Nope, not there.
The best way to describe the affinity each party “feels” currently is a long-distance romance because Rodgers has been traveling and not in Pittsburgh, while the Steelers on Monday opened a voluntary minicamp where Rodgers was not present.
Second-year quarterback Will Howard was expected to take a majority of the first-team repetitions with the offense during the camp that runs until Wednesday.
And suddenly the excitement that Rodgers would possibly make his commitment to the Steelers at the NFL draft, which is being held in Pittsburgh starting on Thursday evening, is losing steam.
It should be noted it was the Steelers who led everyone to believe a Rodgers decision could be made by this week. Club owner Art Rooney II told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at the NFL annual meetings that he expected certainty by now.
Steelers ownership hopes for clarity on Aaron Rodgers’ future ‘in the next month or so’
“I expect we’ll get an answer before the draft,” Rooney said.
Khan, noting that Rodgers took until June to certify his decision to play the 2025 season for the Steelers, said at the NFL Combine in February that the process would not be so drawn out this year.
“I think neither side wants to have this drag on like it did last year,” Khan said.
And yet, here we are.
Rodgers, by the way, has two choices to pick from:
Play for the Steelers.
Or retire.
There is no option C because the only NFL team that hasn’t already made other plans for its starting quarterback job is the Arizona Cardinals and joining a rebuilding program wouldn’t be enticing to Rodgers.
It is possible, depending on what Steelers talent evaluators and Khan decided, that the Steelers take a hard look at drafting Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson.
Simpson is the only QB prospect not named Fernando Mendoza with a serious hope of being selected in the first round. So it might be smart for the Steelers to take that long look at him as an investment with their No. 21 overall selection, regardless of whether they have Rodgers or not.
If Rodgers takes the off ramp on playing and retires in the next couple of days, the Steelers might want a player such as Simpson as a possible addition to their quarterback room.
Even if Rodgers tells the Steelers he’s coming back, it might behoove the club to still consider Simpson in the draft because Rodgers is 42 years old and will turn 43 during the season.
Khan said the club’s decision on a quarterback in the draft will have nothing to do with Rodgers.
“Yeah, we will evaluate it,” Khan said. “That doesn’t change our evaluation process. We’re still putting the guys up (on the draft board), where they need to be, and, you know, we’ll just see how it shakes out.”
