Aaron Rodgers biographer thinks he'll be joining the Steelers soon

The clock keeps ticking on the potential if not inevitable decision of quarterback Aaron Rodgers to join forces with the Steelers.

And the clock apparently will be striking Threat Level Midnight soon.

Appearing with our friends on 93.7 The Fan’s The PM Team, Rodgers biographer Ian O’Connor expressed confidence that Rodgers will be a Steeler by the end of the month.

“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.’ So that’s where I think he is,” O’Connor said, via SteelersDepot.com.

O’Connor presumably was referring to the offseason program generally, not mandatory minicamp specifically. The 2025 mandatory session caps the offseason program in June.

This explanation from O’Connor meshes with something we recently explained. It’s possible, if not likely, that Rodgers picked the lesser of two distractions by not signing with the Steelers versus signing and being absent for most if not all of the first two phases of the offseason program, which he doesn’t like anyway.

Rodgers, in his only public comments this offseason, cited personal issues relating to a member of his inner circle as the main reason for his delay in picking a new team. O’Connor (who interviewed 250 people for his 2024 book) seems to know what the personal issues are, but he prudently opted not to disclose them.

“The sense I got was, I think I have a pretty good sense of what it is, and I don’t think it’s something that would prevent him from playing football,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor otherwise believes Pittsburgh is the “perfect place” for Rodgers to end his career.

“He knows it was an embarrassment in New York largely, and he’s the face of that embarrassment,” O’Connor said. “Whether that’s fair or not, that’s the case. It may be me as an optimist, but I think this is gonna work out. 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.”

It definitely is. The Steelers have not had high-end quarterback play for several years. Rodgers will instantly make them much better at the most important position on the field.

Rodgers doesn’t need to get back to the Super Bowl for the second time to flush the stench of his tenure with the Jets. While the Week 1 2023 Achilles tendon tear was a fluke, last year’s 5-12 record was Rodgers’s worst season as a full-time starter.

Few Hall of Famers walk into the sunset with a Super Bowl trophy under their arm. For Rodgers, it’s all about authoring a final chapter that makes Act II look like an aberration, not a limp to the finish line.

Either way, his offseason of mostly silence seems to be moving toward its finish line. Waiting until after the schedule came out seemed to help the Steelers have fewer standalone games. With OTAs starting in only eight days, there’s a very good chance that, by next Sunday, the Steelers will be having a press conference.

Click here to read article