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Brooke Pryor
Pittsburgh – The Pittsburgh Steelers are between A. Rodgers and a hard place.
The year of League 2025 has two weeks, and the steelers have two quarterbacks on their list while waiting for a decision of the four -time MVP of the NFL Aaron Rodgers.
However, Rodgers does not seem to be in a hurry to decide on the next step in his career. The free agent for the first time made a visit to Pittsburgh last week, spending six hours at the practice of the practice installation with coach Mike Tomlin, General Manager Omar Khan, the owner of the team and president Art Rooney II and several coaches, including the offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
Despite the washing of conversations, Rodgers left Pittsburgh without accepting an agreement. The old Jet and Packer is apparently operating without a deadline even as their options narrow. The giants, a Rodgers suitor, signed Russell Wilson for a one -year contract on Tuesday night, while the Vikings made it clear that the first round of 2024 JJ McCarthy is their priority in the future.
Apparently, leave Rodgers reflecting on three realistic options at this juncture: become a steeler, become a retiree or wait until a field marshal team is necessary that it arrives closer to the training camp. But Rodgers has never been one to let others dictate the rhythm of their decision making, giving it an indefinite deadline.
However, Steelers do not have the luxury of time. They met with the third round of 2018 Mason Rudolph, signing it for a two -year contract and giving a field marshal with an initial experience in a room that also includes the selection of the seventh round of the Dolphins in 2022, Skylar Thompson.
The longer the Rodgers decision, the less options available for Steelers. On the same day, Rodgers visited the Steelers, Jameis Winston, the selection of the first round of 2015, signed with the giants. Four days later, the giants added to Wilson, leaving a few veteran field marshals with an initial experience available in a free -impressive free agency class. The more they approach the Steelers, which begins in less than a month, the more urgent to discover a contingency plan.
Let’s talk about a world where Steelers don’t land Rodgers. Khan said that in the NFL he combines all field marshal options were on the table, but the configuration of the Steelers place is being quickly clarified by impatient buses. Let’s take a look at the two most likely remaining scenarios.
Add a new veteran QB to Pittsburgh with initial experience
Signing another veteran to match Rudolph would indicate that Steelers are firmly in hunting to write a 2026 field marshal. None of the options of options available to be more than bridge field marshal to a stronger draft class, and a veteran of this group could compete with Rudolph for the initial work through the training camp.
With Winston and Wilson to the New York giants, there are only a handful of available free agents field that played at least 25% of their team’s offensive snapshots for at least two seasons: Joe Flacco, Carson Wentz, Drew Lock, Case Keenum and Desmond Ridder. Teddy Bridgewater technically counts in that category, but did not retire to join the lions in December a season ago. There are no indications that you want to continue putting your flourishing career as a coach waiting to play another season.
The former Ravens and Dolphins Campo Marshal, Tyler Huntley, played 27.6% of the Dolphins offensive snapshots in 2024, and saw an action in the shadow of less than 25% of the snapshots of the Ravens in 2022.
Other available veterans who have started at least one game include Trey Lance, Josh Johnson and Jeff Driskel.
Of those potential options, the most realistic to match with Rudolph would seem to be Flacco and Wentz. Flacco, who turned 40 in January, has the most recent initial experience. In eight games for the colts last season, the first round of the 2008 Ravens completed 65.3% of the releases with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Of the free veteran agents available, Flacco is the most similar to Rudolph. While Rudolph, a decade of Flacco’s Junior, is more mobile, both are pocket passers -by with strong arms and have a similar stature. Signing Flacco would align with the preference that Rooney II expressed in his press conference at the end of the season to have a field marshal with players from a set of similar skills.
Although Wentz began only one game last season and tried only 20 passes, the first round of the Eagles of 2016 is an intriguing option if the Steelers renounce the Flacco route. The last season of Wentz as a starter arrived in 2022 with Washington, where it was 2-4 to start before breaking his finger, giving way to Taylor Heinicke, who continued starting even when Wentz was authorized to return. Wentz launched 11 touchdowns at nine interceptions in eight games that season, but since then, a season has passed with the Rams and the Kansas City bosses.
Field Marshal Draft
Detame if you have heard this before: choose at number 21, Steelers need a field marshal, but the upper level of the draft class lacks depth. The Steelers, of course, were in a similar position in 2022 after Ben Roethlisberger retired. That year, they signed Mitchell Trubisky and selected Kenny Pickett, the first quartback outside the board, with the general selection No. 20. But when the Steelers choose this year, at least two quarterbacks will probably have gone in Cam Ward de Miami and Shedeur Sanders of Colorado.
That means that steelers could try to orchestrate an unprecedented and successful trade to jump to the fields and giants of the field marshal that have a lot of time in the upper part of the draft, which is increasing Rudolph for the initial work.
“I think Jaxson Dart is at stake before [21]”Said ESPN Draft Mel Kiper Jr. Now if you are there, it would be really interesting. If they love him, you carry it. Tyler Shough of Louisville – Look at the size it is. He has the arm. He ran well in the harvester. I did not see that it always translates in the field. And he had those three years of injuries in Texas Tech. He will be 26 years old during the year, but he will play for the second [round]. Could you go in the first? Maybe. I would not be surprised now when you listen to all this positivity that comes out of the mouths of several people when I talk to friends of the league. “
They could also take a steering wheel in a more development perspective with a selection of middle or late round to join the team such as Rudolph’s backup. It is also worth noting that Steelers currently do not have a second round selection after sending it to Seattle as part of the DK Metcalf commercial compensation.
They could look at Jalen Milroe from Alabama, with whom Tomlin had dinner before the professional day of the field marshal, either with an exchange of return to the second round or perhaps in the third round. But for all the positive features of Milroe as an explosive mobile field marshal, its inconsistencies hinder the projection of its professional potential.
“It is so inconsistent in short and intermediate areas with passes,” Kiper said. “With passes that should be trays, [he] Only failures. … I had games in which one could say if that game was bottled or this game and has played that consistently, yes, you would have been talking about him in the middle of the first time, but it simply was not, it was the erratic game. The talent is there.
“Second round probably for Jalen Milroe. But but [the Steelers] Do not have two, so if you do not squeeze the trigger in the first round, you must wait until the third round, unless it goes up. “
Tomlin and the brass of the Steelers were also on the professional day of Texas, where, among other perspectives, they saw the field of Field Quinn Eweers.
The reality is that there are not many great options if Steelers cannot land Rodgers. The best case is to find a couple of field marshal to keep the team up to a 2026 class rich in talent. And that great commercial idea for 2025? It is much more realistic next year when Steelers appear to harvest the compensatory benefits of losing two quartbacks, an initial left backle and an initial corridor in the free agency, and a surplus of selections makes it much easier to ascend in the draft.
But just going with a field marshal room and the promise that next year is difficult to sell for an organization that faces the growing urgency of aged defensive stars and a playoff drought of playoffs that extends almost a decade. Rodgers may not be the answer to finish that streak, but there are also no other obvious solutions either.
