By disclosing that he would likely retire following the 2025 season during a Tuesday appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Aaron Rodgers gave the Pittsburgh Steelers two gifts: clarity and time.
Each are luxuries the Steelers lacked the last two times they were led by an aging, Super Bowl-winning quarterback.
“I played 20 fricking years. It’s been a long run. I’ve enjoyed it, and no better place to finish than in one of the cornerstone franchises of the NFL with Mike Tomlin and a great group of leadership and great guys in the city that expects you to win,” Rodgers said.
With Rodgers’ intentions stated before the season even starts, the Steelers have every opportunity to make a strategic plan to secure the next franchise quarterback, one that’s eluded them since Ben Roethlisberger retired in 2021.
Not only do the Steelers have more than a year to continue their homework on a 2026 quarterback class that could include Clemson’s Cade Klubnik, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar and South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, but they’re also well-positioned to move up the draft board with a handful of compensatory picks from free agent departures. Those factors could lead to the Steelers selecting their next franchise quarterback in front of a hometown crowd when Pittsburgh hosts the 2026 NFL draft in April.
They could also go another route. Top-tier quarterbacks don’t often hit free agency, and 2026 isn’t an exception. Former first-round pick Daniel Jones, who signed a one-year deal in Indianapolis, is the best available free agent of the 2026 class so far. Other quarterbacks, though, could come available in releases or trades. Anthony Richardson Sr., Indianapolis’ other quarterback and their former first-round pick, is competing with Jones for the starting job. Whoever comes in second could be available.
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Trading for a starting quarterback is rarer these days and expensive, but not impossible. Earlier this offseason, Seattle pulled off a surprise trade that sent starter Geno Smith to Las Vegas. The Steelers could first look at former first-round picks who haven’t played up to their expected potential. Arizona’s Kyler Murray will have two years and a club option on his current contract after the 2025 season. His cap hits are significant — $53.2 million and $43.5 million — but they could be massaged and restructured. Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, who has one Pro Bowl berth since being drafted first overall in 2021, signed a five-year, $275 million contract prior to the 2024 season, but he could be worth an inquiry.
That’s the perk of signing Rodgers — and of him announcing his intentions prior to the season — the Steelers don’t have to scramble and can take the time to think strategically.
Pittsburgh didn’t have the same kind of luxury in their transition from Roethlisberger.
Two years removed from his season-ending elbow injury and resulting surgery, Roethlisberger agreed to a new, one-year contract prior to the 2021 season that reduced his salary and lowered his cap hit by more than $15 million. In opting to restructure the final year of his deal rather than extend him beyond 2021, the Steelers seemingly signaled that the 2021 season would be Roethlisberger’s last. But the quarterback didn’t state that clearly until January 2022.
Before that, though, he flirted with retirement a handful of times, including after a 2016 AFC Championship loss to the New England Patriots.
“I’m going to take this offseason to evaluate, to consider all options,” Roethlisberger, then 34, said in January 2017.
Coach Mike Tomlin said he took the retirement consideration “seriously” at the time and that the team would “plan accordingly.”
Roethlisberger, instead, continued to play and signed an extension in 2019. In the two years after first contemplating retirement, he threw for 4,251 yards with 28 touchdowns to 14 interceptions with a 12-3 record in 2017 and led the league in passing (5,129 yards), pass attempts (452) and completions (675) and yards per game (320.6).
He never won another playoff game after the 2016 divisional win against Kansas City, and the Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since his retirement.
As an aging Roethlisberger waffled and then resolved to return, the Steelers drafted two quarterbacks in his final five seasons: Josh Dobbs with a 2017 fourth-round pick and Mason Rudolph in the third round a year later. Roethlisberger, who told the team he intended to return for the 2018 season prior to the draft, was quick to voice his frustration over the Rudolph selection.
“I was surprised when they took a quarterback because I thought that maybe in the third round, you know you can get some really good football players that can help this team now,” Roethlisberger said in a radio interview in 2018. “Nothing against Mason. … I just don’t know how backing up or being a third [string] — well, who knows where he’s going to fall on the depth chart — helps us win now.”
The Steelers didn’t draft a quarterback with any of their 24 picks over the next three drafts until selecting Kenny Pickett with the No. 21 overall pick in 2022, months after Roethlisberger officially retired. Pickett, the first quarterback taken off the board in a weak class, struggled in two seasons and was eventually traded to the Philadelphia Eagles prior to the 2024 season.
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More recently, their 2024 experiment with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields created uncertainty at the position and made charting a long-term plan difficult. Wilson’s two-year tenure in Denver ended with a release, and he signed a one-year, vet-minimum deal in Pittsburgh in an effort to jumpstart his career. Shortly after that, the Steelers acquired Fields in a trade with Chicago on an expiring rookie deal. The Steelers thought they had their quarterback of the future in the building. Either Wilson, who said he felt like he found the fountain of youth upon signing in Pittsburgh, would play closer to his Super Bowl-winning form, or Fields would emerge as the future.
Neither happened.
Wilson, sidelined early on by a calf injury, started off hot, but he and the team fell apart with an 0-5 losing streak to end the season. Fields went 4-2 in six starts but was replaced once Wilson was healthy. The team’s top priority, general manager Omar Khan said prior to free agency, was signing either Wilson or Fields. But according to league sources, the team didn’t actively pursue signing Wilson, making their top priority Fields.
Fields, though, opted to sign a two-year, $40 million deal with the Jets. Beyond top overall pick Cam Ward, the 2025 quarterback draft class was unheralded, and the market of free agent and tradeable quarterbacks was relatively desolate.
Once again, the Steelers were in the lurch as a byproduct of a situation they created. Rodgers, willing to play at a bargain price and available without spending critical draft capital, was the team’s best option. And by expressing his intent to retire before he even steps on the field for training camp, he became even more valuable — even if the season ends without a playoff win or snaps Tomlin’s streak of non-losing seasons — because he allows them to thoughtfully prepare for the future.
