The start of free agency came and went. The draft. Now organized team activities. Surely, Aaron Rodgers can\u2019t skip an entire offseason and just show up for Pittsburgh Steelers training camp.<\/p>\n
Right?<\/p>\n
Right?<\/p>\n
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Well, we\u2019re about to find out. But it\u2019s looking like we should have taken the message very seriously back in April, when just a few days before the start of the NFL Draft, both head coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Omar Khan suggested the quarterback room didn\u2019t need to be complete until late July.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go to camp with four quarterbacks,\u201d Khan told reporters on April 23. \u201cRight now we have two on the roster. All options are on the table in how we acquire those last two. I assure you we\u2019ll have four when we get to [training camp in] Latrobe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Tomlin in that same media conference: \u201cIn general, when you report to training camp, that\u2019s a line of demarcation for development of a group individually and collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a Rodgers signing seemingly nowhere on the radar<\/a> in the midst of Pittsburgh\u2019s organized team activities \u2014 and with a full squad minicamp just around the corner on June 10 \u2014 it may not have been a coincidence that both Khan and Tomlin pointed at training camp when it came to locking in the quarterback room. Indeed, that might have been the plan all along, with Rodgers having visited with the Steelers and presumably explained his offseason intentions on March 21.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Looking back now, it stands to reason that if a Rodgers signing and a planned attendance in the June minicamp were definitively on the table, both Tomlin and Khan would have pointed to that event as some kind of artificial deadline. Instead, both pointed at training camp. And in the process, they assured Rodgers all the wiggle room he desired when it came to actually getting onto a football field with the Steelers.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean Rodgers absolutely won\u2019t sign in the next few days and then show up for what is arguably the most important three days of chemistry building in the offseason. But what it absolutely does mean is that Pittsburgh freed Rodgers up to be Rodgers \u2014 free of deadlines and, to use his own words from this offseason, \u201copen to everything and not specifically attached to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Of course, when you take that kind of latitude into June, it can lead to some white-knuckling in the fan base, not to mention some critical commentary from some of the Steelers fraternity (see: Terry Bradshaw<\/a> and Ryan Clark). It also fuels some conspiracy theories that Rodgers is continuing to slow play a signing in a manner that allows the Minnesota Vikings get ample looks at J.J. McCarthy and potentially change their mind about their 2025 quarterback plans. If that sounds like league speculation, it\u2019s because that\u2019s exactly what it is. But that\u2019s what you get when the outside world is looking in and wondering what exactly is going on with Rodgers\u2019 commitment to playing another season.<\/p>\n Perhaps most interesting in all this? If Rodgers does indeed end up skipping everything until the start of training camp, his own words will once again come back to bite him. Because it was Rodgers who showed up for the New York Jets\u2019 organized team activities in the 2023 offseason, reasoning the decision as one necessary to let teammates know how he operates and communicates. That\u2019s all captured on a May 23, 2023 news conference that is still up on the Jets’ team website,<\/a> encapsulating a smiling, seemingly jovial Rodgers \u2014 blissfully unaware of being on the doorstep of the worst two-season span of his career.<\/p>\n Asked by a reporter why it was important for him to be in attendance and working with the team at Jets OTAs, Rodgers pointed definitively at the feeling-out-process that is natural with a new team and new offense.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cWith a new offense, being my first year here, I really wanted to be around for at least some of the beginning things to just let them know kind of how I like to do things,\u201d Rodgers told reporters. \u201cLike I said, some of the code words, some of the little adjustments, some of the ways I see the game \u2014 sparking that conversation. \u2026 Just being here with [the offensive coordinator] to help him put the offense in.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years later, Rodgers hasn\u2019t taken part in any of that with his presumed next NFL team \u2014 taking the time away to deal with some personal issues<\/a> in his life. Whether that will extend beyond minicamp is anyone\u2019s guess at this point. But given how Rodgers framed his first interactions with the Jets, skipping full squad minicamp would take the process of chemistry-building that he once thought was important enough to begin in May and move it all the way to late July.<\/p>\n As league standards go, that\u2019s pushing it \u2014 harkening back to the days when Brett Favre\u2019s retirement musings held the Green Bay Packers in limbo through parts of two offseasons, and in 2009, when Favre waited until Aug. 18 to sign with the Minnesota Vikings. It\u2019s hard to fathom the Steelers stomaching that kind of trek to get Rodgers under contract and then onto the field. Then again, the head coach and general manager have already opened the door to waiting until late July if it comes to it.<\/p>\n