New Orleans Saints News & Rumors

Despite not having a deal for the 2025 season in place – along with no timeline for an agreement to be reached – Aaron Rodgers remains the focus of considerable offseason attention. His latest public remarks on his future point further in the direction it has been heading in for quite some time.

During a recent question-and-answer session while appearing on stage at an event hosted by rapper Mike Stud, Rodgers was asked about his plans for next season. Notably (albeit to no surprise), the 41-year-old confirmed he will not sign with the Saints. In the wake of Derek Carr‘s retirement, it became clear New Orleans would hold an open competition amongst the team’s remaining passers for the starting gig.

That leaves the Steelers as a logical Rodgers landing spot. The four-time MVP has been linked to Pittsburgh throughout the offseason, one in which Russell Wilson and Justin Fields departed in free agency. Steelers owner Art Rooney II has repeatedly expressed confidence that a deal will get done, and in the wake of the draft the team remained optimistic Rodgers will be in place for 2025. The latest indication that will indeed be the case came when the longtime Packers star was asked if he would be willing to ever play for the Bears.

“No, but I believe there’s a team that might play in Chicago this year on a road trip,” Rodgers said (video link). “I don’t know, not sure. Got to check it out.”

The Steelers’ 2025 schedule includes a road game against the Bears (Week 12), so that remark can be interpreted as another sign a Pittsburgh deal will be coming. The end of May was recently floated as the time at which an agreement could be in place, and the Steelers would no doubt prefer to have Rodgers in the fold as soon as possible. At the recent owners meetings, Rooney stated he and the team would remain patient “a little while longer” (h/t ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler) on the Rodgers front.

As a result, it remains to be seen when exactly the two parties – which met during a lengthy free agent visit and have discussed at least one contract offer – will come to a formal arrangement. Rodgers’ preferred destination this spring was the Vikings, but in the absence of a Minnesota deal being possible a short-term Pittsburgh pact has represented a fallback plan. That is clearly still the case at this point.

Mason Rudolph (brought back after spending 2024 with the Titans) is atop the depth chart for now, but the veteran was informed of Pittsburgh’s QB plans before he agreed to return during free agency. Skylar Thompson and sixth-round rookie Will Howard will be present for training camp this summer, but the Steelers are expected to add a fourth signal-caller, per usual. Rodgers remains atop the list of the likeliest candidates to be added at some point before camp begins in July.

It has long seemed like a foregone conclusion that, assuming Aaron Rodgers chooses to play in 2025, he will suit up for the Steelers. A report from earlier this week indicated Pittsburgh was still optimistic it would get a deal done with the future Hall of Famer, and signs continue to point in that direction.

Rodgers’ biographer, Ian O’Connor, recently appeared on 93.7 The Fan’s The PM Team and predicted the 41-year-old would put pen to paper by the end of May (h/t Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk). Although he declined to disclose the personal issues that Rodgers himself has cited for his delay in signing with a club, O’Connor does not believe those issues – which pertain to a member of Rodgers’ inner circle – would preclude him from playing football.

Florio previously expressed his belief, supported by a source who knows Rodgers but who has no specific knowledge of the current situation, that the eccentric signal-caller may have wanted to avoid being a distraction by signing a contract with the Steelers but remaining away from the team for the early stages of the club’s offseason program as he sorts out his personal matter. Of course, given Rodgers’ status and the coverage that constantly surrounds him, the fact that he has not signed a contract at all is its own form of distraction. Still, it is fair to conclude that officially joining Pittsburgh and not reporting during the first phases of the offseason – which Rodgers has openly opposed anyway – would have invited even more scrutiny.

“I just think verbally, behind the scenes, not that he guaranteed it, but he’s told [the Steelers], ‘Listen, I’m gonna play for you. I just don’t want to go there and then miss part of mandatory minicamp because of my personal issues. I’m pretty sure they’re gonna be solved by the end of May, at least in my satisfaction where I can give you my all,'” O’Connor said (via Ross McCorkle of SteelersDepot.com).

Florio believes O’Connor was referring to the offseason program in general and not mandatory minicamp specifically, as mandatory minicamp does not take place until June 10. Florio also believes there is a good chance Rodgers will have signed with Pittsburgh by next week, as OTAs get underway on May 27.

Outside of the quarterback position, the Steelers have a playoff-worthy roster and did not select a signal-caller in this year’s draft until they added Ohio State’s Will Howard in the sixth round. As such, the runway is very much clear for Rodgers to come aboard and supplant Mason Rudolph as Pittsburgh’s QB1.

O’Connor, who interviewed 250 people for his book Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers, believes Pittsburgh is the “perfect place” for Rodgers to finish his playing career.

“It may be me as an optimist, but I think this is gonna work out,” O’Connor said. “Do I think the Steelers will win the Super Bowl next year? No. But if you told me 11-6 with at least one playoff victory … I think that’s realistic.”

Rodgers has never been linked in any meaningful way to the Saints this offseason, and that did not change after it became clear Derek Carr would retire, per NOLA.com’s Jeff Duncan. New Orleans will conduct an open competition between second-round rookie Tyler Shough and holdovers Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener as it seeks its starting quarterback for 2025.