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Aaron Rodgers To Sign With Steelers By End Of May?

May 18th, 2025 at 10:27pm CST by Rory Parks

It has long seemed like a foregone conclusion that, assuming Aaron Rodgers chooses to play in 2025, he will suit up for the Steelers. A report from earlier this week indicated Pittsburgh was still optimistic it would get a deal done with the future Hall of Famer, and signs continue to point in that direction.

Rodgers’ biographer, Ian O’Connor, recently appeared on 93.7 The Fan’s The PM Team and predicted the 41-year-old would put pen to paper by the end of May (h/t Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk). Although he declined to disclose the personal issues that Rodgers himself has cited for his delay in signing with a club, O’Connor does not believe those issues – which pertain to a member of Rodgers’ inner circle – would preclude him from playing football.

Florio previously expressed his belief, supported by a source who knows Rodgers but who has no specific knowledge of the current situation, that the eccentric signal-caller may have wanted to avoid being a distraction by signing a contract with the Steelers but remaining away from the team for the early stages of the club’s offseason program as he sorts out his personal matter. Of course, given Rodgers’ status and the coverage that constantly surrounds him, the fact that he has not signed a contract at all is its own form of distraction. Still, it is fair to conclude that officially joining Pittsburgh and not reporting during the first phases of the offseason – which Rodgers has openly opposed anyway – would have invited even more scrutiny.

“I just think verbally, behind the scenes, not that he guaranteed it, but he’s told [the Steelers], ‘Listen, I’m gonna play for you. I just don’t want to go there and then miss part of mandatory minicamp because of my personal issues. I’m pretty sure they’re gonna be solved by the end of May, at least in my satisfaction where I can give you my all,'” O’Connor said (via Ross McCorkle of SteelersDepot.com).

Florio believes O’Connor was referring to the offseason program in general and not mandatory minicamp specifically, as mandatory minicamp does not take place until June 10. Florio also believes there is a good chance Rodgers will have signed with Pittsburgh by next week, as OTAs get underway on May 27.

Outside of the quarterback position, the Steelers have a playoff-worthy roster and did not select a signal-caller in this year’s draft until they added Ohio State’s Will Howard in the sixth round. As such, the runway is very much clear for Rodgers to come aboard and supplant Mason Rudolph as Pittsburgh’s QB1.

O’Connor, who interviewed 250 people for his book Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers, believes Pittsburgh is the “perfect place” for Rodgers to finish his playing career.

“It may be me as an optimist, but I think this is gonna work out,” O’Connor said. “Do I think the Steelers will win the Super Bowl next year? No. But if you told me 11-6 with at least one playoff victory … I think that’s realistic.”

Rodgers has never been linked in any meaningful way to the Saints this offseason, and that did not change after it became clear Derek Carr would retire, per NOLA.com’s Jeff Duncan. New Orleans will conduct an open competition between second-round rookie Tyler Shough and holdovers Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener as it seeks its starting quarterback for 2025.

NFL Trade Rumors: New Orleans SaintsPittsburgh SteelersAaron Rodgers

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