Aaron Rodgers updates: Steelers being held captive again, showing bigger problem

Speaking March 31 at the NFL’s league meetings, Steelers owner and team president Art Rooney II told reporters, “I would say by the draft, I expect an answer,” regarding Aaron Rodgers’ future.

Here it is, April 20, three days before the draft, and the Steelers have no answers from Rodgers and no expectation of getting them before the draft begins, per NFL Media. Remember, Rodgers dragged things all the way out until June last year before ultimately signing a one-year deal with Pittsburgh.

What’s that saying? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice …

The thing is, the Steelers are allowing themselves to be fooled. That makes sense considering they’ve fooled themselves for years. And all for what? Another non-losing season followed by a first-round playoff exit? Who wants to hang a banner for that?

The Steelers have been stuck in a rut for nearly a decade, and apparently, their aim is to remain in that rut. Here’s why they’re stuck — again — with the draft looming and why a big change is long overdue … but still might not be on the horizon.

The Steelers aren’t going anywhere with Aaron Rodgers

No one has ever stood at the foot of Mount Everest and said, “I can’t wait to make it halfway up!”

Everest is the perfect comparison for the NFL mountain. You need the baseline, obviously: the physical ability to do it. In the NFL, that’s the players themselves. But you also need expert guidance, all the supporting pieces, strong judgment and a ton of luck.

The Steelers lacked in all of those areas for a long time. They have not only decided to climb halfway up Everest — without any prospects of getting much higher — but also to stay there for almost a decade. Pittsburgh’s last playoff win came in the 2016 season. They are 0-6 in the playoffs since then and have been outscored by a combined 87 points in those six games.

Sure, that was the end of the Ben Roethlisberger era, and we can give some grace there. But if we zoom in on the post-Roethlisberger era, it’s even more damning. In 2022, months after Big Ben’s retirement, Pittsburgh made local product Kenny Pickett the lone first-rounder in the underwhelming 2022 quarterback draft class. He failed, and the Steelers decided to go back to — you guessed it — the middle: Mitchell Trubisky, Mason Rudolph, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Rodgers all started since then. Since 2022, the Steelers are 0-3 in the playoffs with opponents outscoring them by a combined 52 points. Again, not close.

The idea that Rodgers was the one to lift them out of the middle was erroneous. They should have seen that in 2023, when he tore his Achilles, and in 2024, when he was a quick-fire guy whose limited mobility and unwillingness to hang in dirty pockets were on full display. Last year, Rodgers was …

• 31st in first downs per attempt
• 27th in yards per attempt
• 21st in expected points added per play

He threw the ball, on average, shorter than everyone else and, with the exception of Tua Tagovailoa, faster than everyone else.

Is this your king, Pittsburgh? The one holding your entire franchise in his palm? Make no mistake, Rodgers at the height of his powers was king. No one threw the ball better, no one made more ridiculous high-difficulty passes, and no one combined movement, creativity and pinpoint accuracy at a level close to Rodgers. But that Rodgers hasn’t been on display in half a decade at least.

The Steelers had a prime opportunity to get out of this loop, and it looked like they would when Mike Tomlin resigned. Instead, they fell back into modus operandi.

After Tomlin resigned, Rooney dismissed even the notion of rebuilding: “I’m not sure why you waste a year of your life not trying to contend,” Rooney said — a laughable statement considering the Steelers have now wasted nearly a decade pretending they’re contenders. Then he hired Rodgers’ old coach, Mike McCarthy, who immediately said he’d “definitely” want Rodgers on the team.

The McCarthy hire is defensible, and my colleague Bryan DeArdo defended it well earlier this offseason. But bringing back Rodgers, especially when there are so many other enticing paths? The Steelers won the AFC North by one game in a year Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow missed a ton of time with injury. They then got dominated by the Texans. Is this year really going to be better? Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

Steelers’ draft plans: Ty Simpson on the table? Options in later rounds?

To reiterate, the fact that the Steelers are going into a second straight draft with their quarterback situation a complete mystery is bonkers. Every other team has had its plan for weeks.

It’s fitting that the Steelers began their three-day voluntary minicamp today, the same day the latest Rodgers update (or lack thereof) arrived. Rudolph and Will Howard are the only quarterbacks on the team. The Steelers hold the No. 21 pick in the draft, which, again, is three days away. If the Steelers could at least know what Rodgers is doing, it would help immensely. Instead, they’re flying blind.

Is taking Ty Simpson on the table at No. 21 overall? In the second round, if he’s there? Or what if the Steelers aren’t high on Simpson relative to cost, a totally fair place to be? ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the Steelers are looking to select a quarterback at some point, and John Breech connected Drew Allar to Pittsburgh in the fourth round:

If Rodgers retires, they likely need to draft a QB, and that’s where Allar would come in. On the other hand, if the four-time MVP returns for another season in Pittsburgh, then Allar can sit behind him for a year and soak up everything Rodgers has to offer. With the draft in Pittsburgh, this pick would probably draw the biggest cheer of the weekend with the Steelers taking the former Penn State quarterback.

If Aaron Rodgers doesn’t return, can the Steelers scramble?

The Rodgers uncertainty not only makes draft plans difficult, but roster plans difficult, too. If the Steelers knew he wasn’t returning, perhaps they could actually get off this path to nowhere. Perhaps Rooney could backtrack on his no-gap-years approach and finally realize a rebuild is in order.

The Steelers have a roster that is at once talented but not talented enough to win a Super Bowl. It is aging, but not old enough to be worthless. Pittsburgh could, hypothetically, shop T.J. Watt (32 years old), Jalen Ramsey (32), Alex Highsmith (29) or even Cameron Heyward (37) to win-now teams and at long last stop deluding themselves that they are a win-now team. They could get draft capital. They could actually rebuild, with younger talents such as Joey Porter Jr., Derrick Harmon, Troy Fautanu, Mason McCormick, Zach Frazier and Nick Herbig as potential holdovers. And that 2027 quarterback class sure looks enticing, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t a fresh start be a relief?

If Rodgers doesn’t return, the Steelers still have a ton of pricy, old players on a non-contender. Other teams will have filled their biggest needs in the draft. Could Pittsburgh offload its stars and reel in 2027 draft picks later this offseason? Maybe, but the return would have been much higher a few weeks ago, and a long-overdue rebuild could have started earlier and been better-equipped.

Think of the other team in Pennsylvania, the Eagles —  a team that actually competed for (and won!) championships. On the same day the Rodgers non-update arrived, news arrived that A.J. Brown appears New England-bound this summer.

Would you look at that?! The Eagles actually have a plan! What a nice thing to have entering such a crucial part of roster construction!

Make no mistake, the Steelers have been a solid team for a while. The rut they’ve been in is very different from the rut the Browns or the Jets have been in. But, again, isn’t the standard competing for championships, not “not being the Browns or the Jets”?

Of course, what the Steelers could do and what they should do to actually return to competing for championships have long been at odds. The Rodgers waiting game shows it’s not getting any better.