Steelers Owner Gives Honest Assessment of Timeline on Aaron Rodgers Decision

Art Rooney didn't mince words when discussing how long Pittsburgh is willing to wait on the mercurial quarterback.
Rodgers remains undecided on his home for 2025
Rodgers remains undecided on his home for 2025 / Barry Reeger-Imagn Images
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The NFL offseason is moving quickly, with owners gathering in Florida this week for the annual league meetings and the draft rapidly approaching. Yet Aaron Rodgers remains unsigned.

The veteran free agent is taking his sweet, sweet time deciding where to play in 2025, which is confusing on the surface because he doesn't have many choices. In fact, with the New York Giants' signing of Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, there appears only one team willing to sign Rodgers at this stage: the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Owner Art Rooney II spoke to media about the Rodgers situation on Tuesday and acknowledged the team is optimistic about eventually signing the future Hall of Fame quarterback. However, he was also honest about just how long the Steelers would be willing to wait for Rodgers to make his final decision.

"Not forever, but a little while longer," Rooney said, per ESPN's Brook Pryor when asked if he was "content" to wait on Rodgers.

The Steelers' current depth chart at quarterback is not great, with both Wilson and Justin Fields departing for different pastures this offseason. If the season started today career backup Mason Rudolph would be under center, which head coach Mike Tomlin claims he's "comfortable" with. Be that as it may, it's undeniably far from optimal and Pittsburgh will almost certainly add more depth at the position.

Whether that's Rodgers or someone else, if Rooney's patience wears thins.


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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.