After watching Russell Wilson sign with the New York Giants and Justin Fields land with the New York Jets, the Pittsburgh Steelers seemed content with entering the 2025 season with Mason Rudolph, Skylar Thompson and rookie sixth-round pick Will Howard as the three quarterbacks on their depth chart.
However, last week, the Steelers officially signed Aaron Rodgers to a one-year deal with a $13.65 million base salary and a $10 million signing bonus.
Rodgers joins Pittsburgh after 18 years with the Green Bay Packers, where he won a Super Bowl, a Super Bowl MVP and four NFL MVP Awards, and two seasons with the New York Jets, where he missed most of the first due to injury and led his team to a 5-12 record in the second.
In his 20 seasons in the NFL, Rodgers has also made 10 Pro Bowls and earned All-Pro honors five times, completing 65.1% of his passes for 62,952 yards, 503 touchdowns and 116 interceptions.
Now that he’s with the Steelers, his new teammates are thrilled to have him on their team, including defensive lineman Cameron Heyward and tight end Pat Freiermuth.
“I think it’s good,” Heyward said on his “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward” podcast. “We didn’t have a lot of quarterbacks to begin with, but he brings a lot of leadership. We were talking about this last night, dude’s a four-time MVP. That is nothing to look over. I got a chance to meet him. Very nice and approachable, and he is just excited to get down to business.”
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“I’m excited, man,” Freiermuth said on the same podcast. “Obviously, I think he’s gonna help us win. He is obviously a Hall of Fame quarterback for a reason. “We’re watching some film on him. He’s still got some arm strength, and he’s still an unbelievable quarterback, so I’m excited to get work with him.”
While there have certainly been storylines about Rodgers away from the field, his new tight end says he’s heard positive reviews of his quarterback from trusted sources.
“Yeah, I’ve heard nothing but great thing about him,” Freiermuth said. “Every person that I’ve talked to from Penn State or I know from around the league that’s played with him says nothing but great things. He’s a great teammate, great guy to share a locker room with and stuff. So, I’m excited. I’m excited calling him my quarterback, calling him my teammate and get this thing going.”
Pittsburgh hasn’t exactly had the best quarterback play since Ben Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season, so if Rodgers, at 41, can be better than Wilson, Fields, Rudolph, Mitch Trubisky or Kenny Pickett, Steelers players and fans will probably be happy.
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