{"id":37834,"date":"2025-05-10T01:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T01:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/37834\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T01:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T01:30:10","slug":"fittipaldo-steelers-wouldnt-have-their-hearts-broken-if-aaron-rodgers-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/37834\/","title":{"rendered":"Fittipaldo: Steelers ‘Wouldn’t Have Their Hearts Broken If Aaron Rodgers Retires’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Steelers wouldn\u2019t lose a ton of sleep if Aaron Rodgers opted to retire<\/a> instead of signing with them, beat writer Ray Fittipaldo contends. Discussing their quarterback predicament on 93.7 The Fan<\/a>, he tried to explain their pursuit of the four-time NFL MVP. The Steelers have faced considerable public resistance to that, on multiple fronts, not the least of which being\u2026his absence.<\/p>\n

How do the Steelers, such a storied franchise, justify their passivity in waiting for Aaron Rodgers? Sure, they brought back Mason Rudolph\u2026to be his backup. And yes, they drafted a quarterback\u2026in the sixth round. But are we overthinking what we\u2019re actually seeing, injecting motives that aren\u2019t there?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best option available, and their only other option right now is Mason Rudolph\u201d, Fittipaldo said of the Steelers waiting for Rodgers. \u201cI honestly think it\u2019s that simple. Believe me, they wouldn\u2019t have their hearts broken if Aaron Rodgers retires, because they like Mason Rudolph\u201d.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m inclined to agree with this. It\u2019s not so much that Aaron Rodgers is the secret sauce that makes him worth the Steelers\u2019 while. It\u2019s the fact that they don\u2019t have anything to lose by waiting, because they believe they\u2019re fine as things stand<\/a>. As incredulous as this might sound to some, they are willing to move ahead with Rudolph. And if Rodgers signs, wonderful; if not, it\u2019s onward and upward.<\/p>\n

The Steelers \u201calso believe that Aaron Rodgers is an upgrade over Mason Rudolph. That\u2019s why they\u2019re doing it\u201d, Fittipaldo added. \u201cThey\u2019re not gonna pay a lot of money for him, and they\u2019re gonna see if they can contend for the playoffs one more time with their core guys. That\u2019s basically what this is all about\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as some question why the Steelers are waiting on Aaron Rodgers, others are doing the opposite. Following the George Pickens trade, some have asked why Rodgers would want to sign<\/a> with the Steelers. But he would still have DK Metcalf and Pat Freiermuth, if nothing else. And great quarterbacks make average wide receivers look good, or are supposed to.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to hear a beat writer so explicitly vocalize the idea that the Steelers would be fine with the possibility of Rodgers not signing. I do buy it, at least its plausibility. And I also don\u2019t think they would have necessarily done anything differently had Rodgers never been in the cards. They drafted the way they wanted to, and with an eye toward 2026.<\/p>\n

Frankly, this is the most forward-looking offseason I\u2019ve seen them engage in during my lifetime. It seems rather clear this is a Steelers team playing for 2026 without tanking\u2014hence the Aaron Rodgers pursuit. They know Rodgers would give them their best chance of chasing a title. They also know the chances aren\u2019t very high, so they\u2019re not going all in to make it happen. It is, I think, that simple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steelers wouldn\u2019t lose a ton of sleep if Aaron Rodgers opted to retire instead of signing with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8740,1586,7,560,6,57,7827,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-37834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-93-7-the-fan","9":"tag-aaron-rodgers","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-mason-rudolph","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-ray-fittipaldo","15":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114480954578418765","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}