A Monday report indicated that some people within the Pittsburgh Steelers may be starting to lose patience regarding whether or not Aaron Rodgers will be the club’s starting quarterback for the 2026 season.
Steelers insider Mark Kaboly of “The Pat McAfee Show” is among those who previously suggested that Rodgers will re-sign with the club before the organized team practice activity portion of Pittsburgh’s offseason program begins on May 18. Hours after Monday’s update surfaced, Kaboly once again addressed the Rodgers situation via a mailbag posted on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Either way, Aaron Rodgers is doing this?
“Keep an eye on May 20th as well,” Kaboly wrote about when Rodgers may re-sign with Pittsburgh. “The worst-case scenario would be June 2. Either way, he’s coming back, and you don’t want him to take reps away from [2026 third-round draft pick Drew Allar] or [2025 rookie Will Howard] in the spring anyway, so why does anybody care?”
Pittsburgh’s mandatory minicamp is scheduled to run from June 2-4. It’s currently unclear if Allar, Howard or longtime backup Mason Rudolph would serve as Pittsburgh’s QB1 if Rodgers isn’t with the club for those minicamp sessions. Kaboly hinted that the Steelers will “go with Howard and Allar, with the outside possibility of (wink/nod) one of those two can get a minor injury that they could then stash on the IR for the season.”
Howard picked up a hand injury last August and ultimately took no regular-season snaps as a rookie.
Why the Steelers continue to wait for Aaron Rodgers
“Rodgers gives them the best chance to win this year,” Kaboly added about how the Steelers are handling the ongoing uncertainty regarding the future Hall of Famer’s status for the 2026 season. “Period.”
Kaboly also said that “there is a reason for optimism” now that the Steelers have offensive guru Mike McCarthy serving as their head coach. McCarthy was Rodgers’ head coach when the two were with the Green Bay Packers from 2006 through a portion of the 2018 season.
While their history together seemingly doesn’t guarantee that Rodgers will re-sign with the Steelers before May 18, Kaboly still seems confident that the 42-year-old will be Pittsburgh’s starter in September. Of course, Rodgers has a long history of appearing on editions of McAfee’s program.