Whether the Pittsburgh Steelers want to admit it or not, they’re once again stuck in the same cycle of quarterback uncertainty surrounding Aaron Rodgers. This year just feels like a repeat of what happened in the 2025 offseason, where the player made the franchise wait until June before he signed the contract. And when the most important position on the roster remains unresolved for this long, it wears players down from constantly having to answer the same questions.

Former Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch completely understands that frustration.

“It also helps with your teammates because they’re tired of answering these questions as well,” Batch said on Snap Count. “They want to know who this guy is, if it’s going to be a true quarterback battle, you know, when they’re watching it play out in real time. But if every day that you have to walk into the locker room and there’s a new report and new questions that you have to answer, players get tired of it. So I know everybody is looking for this deadline to quickly approach.”

The Steelers have had a busy offseason on the offensive side of the ball. They added wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr., running backs Travis Homer and Rico Dowdle, offensive linemen Jack Driscoll and Brock Hoffman, and also brought in center Ryan McCollum.

Now, the players who spent time with Rodgers last year already understand his schemes and tendencies. But when you’ve added multiple offensive playmakers and still don’t know who your starting quarterback will be in 2026, it not only becomes frustrating to answer media questions, but it also creates uncertainty about how everyone will align with a quarterback’s system and timing.

Take the 2025 offseason, for example. Rodgers arrived in June, and during the early stretch of the offseason, he struggled to build chemistry with teammates in practice. That was one of the reasons why, during the regular season, when DK Metcalf was off the field, Rodgers completed just 56.7% of his passes while averaging only 4.7 yards per attempt.

And what guarantees that won’t happen again this year?

General manager Omar Khan said this offseason wouldn’t resemble last year’s situation, when the Steelers waited until June 2025 for Rodgers to sign. He probably didn’t realize how familiar this would eventually start to feel, with the same story getting repeated this offseason.

Art Rooney II said he expected Rodgers to decide before the 2026 NFL Draft. During draft weekend, the Steelers’ quarterback room did gain another member, but that player was Drew Allar, not Rodgers. From there, Pittsburgh had no real choice except to keep waiting.

The next deadline now appears to be the start of OTAs on May 18. Will Rodgers sign before then? That’s something only Rodgers knows. But if he doesn’t, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Gerry Dulac believes frustration could finally start building inside the organization.

“After watching two of their ‘expected’ deadlines come and go — and insisting this isn’t the same situation as last year — the Steelers might not be so understanding if this drags on for two more weeks,” Dulac wrote. “If Rodgers hasn’t given them a decision by the start of organized team activities on May 18 — their latest deadline — their patience will start to turn into frustration, and maybe something more.”

But does that actually guarantee Rodgers signs before OTAs? After all, he has already ignored every soft deadline Pittsburgh has put in front of him. Why would this one suddenly be different? When Dulac was later asked what would happen if Rodgers misses yet another deadline, he answered pretty bluntly: “Nothing.”

“Personally, if I had to guess, based on what I’ve seen, nothing,” Dulac wrote. “I know a lot of people would want to see that. They want the Steelers to stand up to him and say enough is enough, even though that is not their stance, and I don’t expect that to happen.”

At the moment, there isn’t an obvious answer to what’s going on in Rodgers’ mind. At the same time, however, the quarterback has surely been linked to sign somewhere else.

Aaron Rodgers and the Cardinals are the new talk of the town

The Steelers placed an unrestricted free-agent tender on Aaron Rodgers as a precautionary move to ensure they would receive a compensatory draft pick if he ends up signing elsewhere. At this stage of his career, playing for a third different team in as many seasons is probably something Rodgers would prefer to avoid. But does that stop speculation about another chapter in his career from building? Absolutely not.

In fact, the 42-year-old quarterback has recently been linked to the Arizona Cardinals for a couple of specific reasons. For starters, Arizona hired Nathaniel Hackett as its new offensive coordinator. Hackett previously served as Rodgers’ OC during his MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021 with the Green Bay Packers, and later reunited with him again on the New York Jets.

The Cardinals currently have a quarterback room without a firmly established starter, featuring veteran journeymen Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew, along with rookie quarterback Carson Beck from the 2026 draft class. All of this contributed to the Rodgers-to-Arizona speculation, which didn’t exactly appear out of thin air. Even so, Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur has publicly shut down the rumors.

“Honestly, right now we’re focused on the guys that we got coming in. You got the unit that we have with Gardner and Jacoby and [Kedon] Slovis,” LaFleur said. “Then we drafted Carson Beck in the third round; he’ll be here Thursday, finally. We’re trying to do some Zoom stuff. So we got a room we’re excited to work with, and that’s solely where my focus is.”

And that’s essentially where things stand right now. Pittsburgh continues to wait on Rodgers. Arizona doesn’t appear interested in entertaining the rumors. And Rodgers himself still hasn’t made any official decision about his future.