{"id":872320,"date":"2026-04-23T01:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T01:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872320\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T01:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T01:15:19","slug":"steelers-get-aaron-rodgers-welcome-back-present-in-latest-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872320\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers get Aaron Rodgers welcome back present in latest mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

We still don’t know if Aaron Rodgers will return in 2026 to be the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>‘ starting quarterback, and the NFL Draft is nearly upon us.<\/p>\n

With Mike McCarthy heading into his first draft in the black-and-yellow chair, how the franchise approaches it makes for interesting viewing.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen the offensive line, quarterback, and receiver mentioned as needs for the Steelers, but it isn’t clear which way the franchise is leaning.<\/p>\n

But ESPN’s Peter Schrager thinks he has an idea, and in his latest mock draft, Pittsburgh takes Georgia tackle Monroe Freeling.<\/p>\n

“The expectation is Aaron Rodgers will be back,” Schrager wrote<\/a>. “Pittsburgh has to make sure the protection is right with a 42-year-old quarterback, even if Rodgers gets the ball out quickly again. Freeling started for only a season and a half in college, but he’s athletic and has a lot of starter-level traits.”<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0Analyst drops thought-provoking update on Rashee Rice’s Chiefs future<\/a><\/p>\n

Rodgers gets boosted protection<\/p>\n

As we saw last season, Rodgers doesn’t want to be running for his life to avoid the pass rush. At 42 years old, that is only going to end one way…No. 8 getting hunted down.<\/p>\n

So it makes sense for the Steelers to fortify his protection, because, despite his age, giving Rodgers a clean pocket is nightmare fuel for a defense.<\/p>\n

Yes, receiver could also be a need, but with DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr. on the roster, that might be seen as a later round sort of pick.<\/p>\n

If Rodgers does return, which Schrager thinks is now the expectation, having him protected feels like the smart move here.<\/p>\n

More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We still don’t know if Aaron Rodgers will return in 2026 to be the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ starting quarterback,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-872320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","12":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","13":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116451378762078476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872320","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=872320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}