The Pittsburgh Steelers’ “Stairway to Seven” remains unfinished more than 16 years into its construction. Meanwhile, Aaron Rodgers has yet to reach what he desires on his – let’s call it a “Step Stool to Two”? – 14 years after capturing a ring in his lone Super Sunday appearance, ironically denying the Steelers their seventh Lombardi Trophy when his Green Bay Packers prevailed in Super Bowl 45.
But is a long-awaited shotgun marriage between one of the NFL’s flagship franchises and, arguably, one of the five best quarterbacks to ever play the game truly going to help both achieve the next step each party is so eager to take? Or should a 41-year-old player coming off what was probably the worst full season of his 20-year career and/or a franchise that’s been mired in mediocrity – at best – at the most important position in professional sports perhaps not show up at the altar?
Two months on since Rodgers reached free agency for the first time and since the Steelers began actively retooling their roster for 2025, it’s still not clear what either side will do – which has only engendered mounting questions.
“I don’t get it. Old guys, they don’t get better. They get worse. And all the headaches (Rodgers) brings?” former New York Giants vice president of player personnel Marc Ross told USA TODAY Sports when asked about the situation. “Now Pittsburgh, you’re just signing him for his name. You’re not even signing him for anything else. He gives you no chance to win, he gives you no chance to compete against the good teams. And he’s gonna be a pain in the ass – you’re dealing with drama right now with the guy, and he’s not even on your team.
“It just baffles me. It really absolutely baffles me.”
For their part, the Steelers have been patiently waiting on Rodgers, NFL Network reporting he already has the parameters of a contract in place with Pittsburgh. Rodgers revealed on “The Pat McAfee Show” last month that he’d spoken with the Steelers, Giants and Minnesota Vikings but that retirement remains on the table as he deals with serious matters – without providing details – in his personal life.
Maybe he should continue focusing on those given his apparent reluctance to commit to Pittsburgh – not to mention the likelihood he would only play another year or two at a time when his job options in the league have clearly diminished. And, unlike his last team, the New York Jets, Rodgers has little familiarity with the Steelers’ offense, players or coaches – yet that still hasn’t spurred him to get to Western Pennsylvania and become familiarized with them during the team’s offseason activities. And perhaps a more sensible landing spot arises for him in the coming months if a less-flawed contender suddenly finds itself with a serious problem due to an injury or other unforeseen quarterback circumstances.
As for the Steelers? I opined during preseason last summer that they would be best served to start Justin Fields while cultivating the 25-year-old’s development rather than spin their wheels with declining Russell Wilson. They belatedly saw the light, trying to re-sign Fields in March, per reports, but lost him to the Jets after ending the 2024 season on a five-game losing streak (playoffs included) – all but one of those defeats a blowout – with Wilson at the helm.
So why go down a similar road now?
Since the start of the 2017 season, the Steelers have lived just north of ordinary, averaging 10 wins over that period – but without a single playoff victory, that stretch coinciding with the marked decline and eventual retirement (after the 2021 season) of two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and an ongoing inability to sufficiently replace him. Longtime backup Mason Rudolph, who has 19 NFL starts – most coming in place of Big Ben – is the only quarterback currently on Pittsburgh’s roster with any semblance of NFL experience.
“It is a weird spot that they find themselves in. I think they obviously recognize, too, that they’re kinda like stuck between a rock and a hard place – otherwise known as purgatory in the NFL,” Louis Riddick, a former NFL personnel executive who’s now an analyst for ESPN, told USA TODAY Sports.
“This is why when you miss at that position, it can screw up everything – it has such a huge trickle-down effect. Such a huge trickle-down effect. … Where do you go from here? It’s really hard for them. Do they really want to go through a year with just Mason? Do you really think that (sixth-rounder) Will Howard is gonna become the find of the ’25 draft?
“It all starts from just not being able to find Ben’s successor. This is just an absolute, classic case of why it’s so important to have some stability and some success at quarterback – because when you don’t get it, you’re just ice skating uphill trying to get everything else to go right.”
And what could go wrong with Rodgers, whose Achilles gave out after four plays in 2023? Then the Jets were so disjointed last season, that they incrementally fired their coaches and GM Joe Douglas before dismissing Rodgers once their new regime was hired. And while he played better at the end of the 2024 campaign, is Rodgers really going to elevate Pittsburgh to a notably superior level that Rudolph or immediate predecessors like Wilson, Fields and now-departed 2022 first-rounder Kenny Pickett couldn’t?
“He doesn’t make them better than what the Justin Fields-Russell Wilson combination gave them last year,” said Ross, now an NFL Network analyst. “And for what he’s gonna bring as far as the distractions?”
Adds Riddick: “I really do think the grand plan all along was for them to have this Aaron Rodgers thing sewn up long ago. … Now it’s just kinda like, ‘What the hell are they trying to do? What is the plan?’
“It takes away from the team-building aspect in a very significant way. … His not signing is screwing up everything they’re trying to get done.”
My advice to the Steelers? Move on – and don’t start mortgaging assets to acquire Kirk Cousins from the Atlanta Falcons, either. Pittsburgh is already in the midst of a muddled offseason, making an aggressive trade with the Seattle Seahawks for wideout DK Metcalf before exporting receiver George Pickens earlier this week – a move that oddly came after the 2025 draft, meaning the Steelers won’t get players in return that can help them for at least a year.
Like every other NFL team, the Steelers also passed multiple times on former University of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the draft, even though he probably has a much better chance to become a long-term NFL starter than Howard. Additionally, Pittsburgh must address the contract of four-time All-Pro pass rusher T.J. Watt, 30, who’s in a walk year.
Yet even if Watt re-ups … and Rodgers joins up and sustains his late-season momentum from 2024 … and maybe a veteran like Keenan Allen signs up and proves an upgrade – from schematic and chemistry perspectives – over Pickens, this team still projects as one that would win nine or 10 games (head coach Mike Tomlin has never had a losing record in 18 seasons), finish behind the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North, perhaps return to the playoffs … and little else. Why make a similar mistake with Rodgers as they did with Wilson, another former Super Bowl winner past his prime, and wind up picking 20th or so in the draft again – a spot where teams sift through quarterback choices like Pickett or Paxton Lynch or Johnny Manziel or EJ Manuel or J.P. Losman or Tim Tebow or Brady Quinn, all NFL washouts (except for Pickett, who’s already on his third team) forced to play before they were ready … if they ever would have been.
Tanking isn’t really a viable route in the NFL. Players who average roughly four seasons in the league can’t afford to put half-hearted efforts on their résumés. Tomlin might be an exception, but almost no coach has that kind of luxury, either. And given there’s no such thing as a can’t-miss draft prospect, even a successful tank wouldn’t necessarily result in the desired dividend.
But being merely decent of late hasn’t satisfied Pittsburgh’s fans nor gotten the Steelers off that “Stairway to Seven,” the clever, Led Zeppelin-inspired slogan applied to the organization’s quest to be the first to win seven Super Bowls. Would it perhaps be best to let the levee break with a new approach? Allow Rudolph, who sparked the club’s late-season surge to the 2023 postseason be the starter? Maybe even consider shipping Watt to a contender and accruing significantly more capital for the 2026 draft – which will be held in Pittsburgh, incidentally – and give yourself a better shot at potentially drafting Texas’ Arch Manning or LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier at a time when there are expected to be more superior quarterback prospects available than there were this year?
“(I)f you’re gonna suck, suck all the way. Let’s go get Arch, or let’s go get Nussmeier,” ex-Steelers safety Ryan Clark said on ESPN following the departure of Pickens, a volatile player who wasn’t served well by the quarterback instability and likely wouldn’t have jelled with Rodgers, either. (‘That would have been a disaster,’ said Ross.)
But Riddick, for one, doesn’t know if the Rooney family would be willing to allow their team to chart such a course.
“That doesn’t even feel like the Steeler Way, for them to ever feel like there’s a throwaway year. I just don’t believe that,” he said.
“I can’t imagine ownership in Pittsburgh giving that directive. … For (Tomlin), too, being there as long as he’s been there and as proud of a dude as he is and the kind of résumé that he’s built? I think he would have a hard time stomaching that, too.”
But you know what they say about the definition of insanity – using the same approach, hoping for different results, etc.
“It’s sad that the Steelers are at this point. They’ve botched this for a while – they just have not been able to get it right since the end of Ben’s time, and they held on to him too long,” said Ross. “They’ve been terrible at quarterback evaluation since they drafted Big Ben (in 2004). … At one point, the Steelers were the standard. But that’s just not there anymore. They’ve gotta evolve, and they just have not.
“For as great as Mike Tomlin does for making the most out of nothing, at some point you’ve got to get something. … They used to never miss in the draft, they just miss a lot now – more than they hit. It’s just something that’s kinda passed them by, and they need to adapt and adjust and move forward.”
Just difficult to envision how Rodgers facilitates that.