Pittsburgh's Rodgers Problem

It is April Fools Day, and Rich is watching another former Packers quarterback run the will-he-or-won't-he offseason routine. Aaron Rodgers has not told Pittsburgh whether he is playing. Art Rooney admitted at the owners meetings he has not spoken to him recently. The Steelers are in the same position they were last year at this time, waiting on a quarterback decision from an aging legend. The Favre echoes write themselves.

Rich walks through the Favre years, the NBC New Year's Eve finale against the Bears, the hour-long postgame meeting with Mike Sherman, the Ted Thompson Mississippi trip where Favre thought he was being welcomed back and instead was asked if he wanted his locker shipped home. Rodgers replaced Favre. Now Rodgers is Favre. Jordan Love replaced Rodgers. And here is Mike McCarthy, the coach who once waited for Favre so he could get to Rodgers, now waiting on Rodgers at 42.

The case for Rodgers is in last year's numbers. 3,300 yards, 24 touchdowns, 7 picks, his best year in almost half a decade. The arm looked like the old Rodgers. The preseason lateral movement concerns never fully materialized. The Steelers made the playoffs. The offense faded late and was not good enough, but it was not a disaster.

The alternatives are thin. Will Howard hardly played last year. Drafting a rookie in a weak class means telling T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward the plan is to accept a 3-and-14 season for a generational pick, which Rich points out is the Lieutenant Weinberg scenario. Nobody wants to deliver that message to a veteran locker room.

Chris calls it the definition of insanity. Pittsburgh has been doing the same thing for nearly a decade, since the late Ben Roethlisberger years. The pushback is that McCarthy already knows the offense, Rodgers has better weapons with DK Metcalf in the building, and you can develop Howard quietly. Hope is not a strategy, but running it back with a Hall of Fame quarterback who can still throw is at least a plan.

Rich lands on the alternative scenario. Wait on Rodgers. Go into the draft. If Rodgers says no, go get Kirk Cousins. G is still out there too. The Steelers are not waiting until June unless they have to. And we are still sitting here talking about it on April 1st, which is exactly where everyone said we would be.