Sportsnaut
The Pittsburgh Steelers have seemed to be banking all offseason on future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers eventually signing with the team to start in 2025. With mandatory veteran minicamp approaching, Rodgers is still considering retirement, thus leaving Pittsburgh with uncertainty.
Sports Illustrated‘s Albert Breer wrote this past week that the Steelers continue to signal a degree of confidence that Rodgers will still play for them. However, with retirement still under consideration, he does believe the team would explore a Kirk Cousins trade if Rodgers walked away.
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Pittsburgh has done everything it can at this point to appease Rodgers’ patient decision-making process. The club didn’t take a quarterback early in the 2025 NFL Draft and outside of signing Mason Rudolph, the team has left its starting job wide open for Rodgers to step in and take it whenever he wants.
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At some point, though, the organization can’t keep waiting. The team’s patience has already cost it a chance of landing most of the starting-caliber quarterbacks in NFL free agency. If Rodgers retires, a trade with the Atlanta Falcons would be the only viable option remaining.
It would also make for an interesting negotiation between the two clubs. Realistically, Atlanta doesn’t have any remaining suitors for Cousins, but the club has made it clear they are very willing to roster him in 2025. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is realistically out of reasonable options, but it would be the one team willing to take Cousins’ contract off the Falcons’ hands.
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The Steelers have still publicly expressed a willingness to roll with Rudolph as their starting quarterback in 2025, but that sentiment isn’t being taken seriously around the league. Once the Rodgers’ domino falls, we’ll also likely know Cousins’ fate for the start of the 2025 season.
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