{"id":852076,"date":"2026-04-03T22:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852076\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:12:17","slug":"you-get-a-mike-tomlin-season-analyst-predicts-steelers-will-go-9-8-if-they-bring-aaron-rodgers-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852076\/","title":{"rendered":"‘You Get A Mike Tomlin Season’: Analyst Predicts Steelers Will Go 9-8 If They Bring Aaron Rodgers Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 options at quarterback, aside from Aaron Rodgers, are dwindling by the week. The latest possible Plan B to land elsewhere was Kirk Cousins, heading to Las Vegas this week<\/a>. At this point, ESPN\u2019s Kevin Clark thinks the Steelers have backed themselves into a corner. And even if their Plan A does sign with the Steelers, Clark doesn\u2019t have high expectations for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re backed into a corner. They can\u2019t sign Kirk Cousins. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re gonna be a Ty Simpson candidate. All of the guys that they maybe would target, a Carson Beck, a Nussmeier, the names that she said, those aren\u2019t day-one starters. So you\u2019re looking at Will Howard or Aaron Rodgers. But all of those give you limited offensive options,\u201d Clark said Friday on ESPN\u2019s NFL Live<\/a>. \u201cSo, I\u2019m confused as to the plan, if it\u2019s not Rodgers. But even if it is Rodgers, guess what Mike McCarthy? You get a Mike Tomlin season, 9-8.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar to last year with Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart, Ty Simpson has been mocked to the Steelers plenty at No. 21 overall. But like those other two quarterbacks, Simpson has some risk involved. Most of it has to do with his lack of experience. Simpson started just one season at Alabama, got off to a flaming hot start, then struggled toward the end of the year while dealing with injuries. There\u2019s a lot of promise, but some beat writers think his lack of experience is a turn off for the Steelers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh has, on the other hand, been connected to mid-round names<\/a> like Carson Beck, Drew Allar and Garrett Nussmeier. But given their respective draft stocks, they probably aren\u2019t going to start right away. If Aaron Rodgers doesn\u2019t come back to Pittsburgh, the chances of Will Howard and Mason Rudolph competing for the starting job are only growing.<\/p>\n

The latter has plenty of experience for the franchise, but none with the new coaching staff. He\u2019s been reliable at times as a backup, but has proven limited as a starter in his career. Howard brings a lot more promise. He\u2019s quickly gained a ton of support from the fan base. Mike McCarthy and Omar Khan have only piled onto that each time they speak to the media. Howard is the only young quarterback currently in Pittsburgh, a city that has desperately wanted its own franchise quarterback for years now.<\/p>\n

If Aaron Rodgers does come back, we saw his limitations last year. But the Steelers were able to give him another receiving threat in Michael Pittman Jr. Pittsburgh has plenty of chances to add another receiver in the first two days of the draft.<\/p>\n

It should be a better supporting cast if Rodgers does come back. But Clark is still expecting a season similar to what the Steelers just went through in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 options at quarterback, aside from Aaron Rodgers, are dwindling by the week. The latest possible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,12,7875,7,15710,560,1255,6,520,57,2360,426,20708,2183],"class_list":{"0":"post-852076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-espn-nfl-live","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-kevin-clark","13":"tag-mason-rudolph","14":"tag-mike-tomlin","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-pittsburgh","17":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","18":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","19":"tag-steelers","20":"tag-ty-simpson","21":"tag-will-howard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116343075726031855","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852076","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=852076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}