Ahead of his first season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the sense is Aaron Rodgers won’t play in the preseason, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported. However, the veteran quarterback is working to ease concerns about possible “rust.” Since Rodgers signed with the Steelers so late in the free agency process, he was not part of the offseason […]
Ahead of his first season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the sense is Aaron Rodgers won’t play in the preseason, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported. However, the veteran quarterback is working to ease concerns about possible “rust.”
Since Rodgers signed with the Steelers so late in the free agency process, he was not part of the offseason program. In the time since, though, Fowler said he is making sure to maximize practice work to make sure he stays up to speed.
Rodgers is not expected to play this week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he might also miss next week’s game against the Carolina Panthers. Mike Tomlin’s goal is to make sure Rodgers is available for the full season, which is why working with D.K. Metcalf and other weapons is so important.
“The plan is to rest him at least in preseason game action,” Fowler said Saturday on SportsCenter. “He is not playing this weekend. Next week against Carolina, he might sit, as well. Mike Tomlin could simply err on the side of caution here. He wants to preserve Rodgers for a 17-game season. He’s got a quarterback in his 40s, he knows he has to do that to some extent. But there are some questions about how much work Rodgers needs because he wasn’t around for the offseason program. You couple that with no preseason game action, he’s going into the season relatively rusty.
“But luckily for Rodgers, from what I’ve been told, he has really tried to be involved in all the practice action, not taking a lot of rest days. He’s been getting a lot of reps with D.K. Metcalf, those two tight ends that you’re going to see a lot of in this offense – Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith. So they feel like the offense is in a good place despite some of the inactivity on game day.”
Rodgers suffered an injury scare this week in practice, though. He got stepped on at one point and was later seen with ice around his calf. However, Tomlin said it was “nothing of significance” and the QB didn’t miss a rep.
The Steelers pursued Aaron Rodgers for much of the offseason before he ultimately signed a one-year contract ahead of mandatory minicamp. The deal is worth $13.65 million and $10 million guaranteed, but he has incentives in the deal that could take it up to $19.5 million.
Rodgers spent the last two years with the New York Jets after coming over from the Green Bay Packers, though his first season in New York ended on his first drive due to an Achilles injury. He threw for 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2024, marking two straight full seasons with at least 10 picks.
Category: Football