Two days later, the Steelers’ decision to apply the unrestricted free agency tender to quarterback Aaron Rodgers makes no sense.
The explanation from owner Art Rooney II didn’t help it make sense. He downplayed it as something that helps them preserve the ability to get a compensatory draft pick, if Rodgers signs with another team.
There’s currently no reason to think that will happen. And the fact that the Steelers don’t know with sufficient certainty that it will be them or no one shows how little they actually know about Rodgers’s plans for 2026.
The most significant consequence of the UFA tender, in our view, is the part Rooney didn’t mention. As of July 22, the Steelers acquire exclusive negotiation rights to Rodgers, if he has yet to sign a contract with the Steelers or any other team. That takes away his option to play the waiting game, remaining a free agent for as much of the season as he chooses before joining a team wherever and whenever he chooses.
And that’s the wrinkle that shows how different 2026 is from 2025 for the Steelers and Rodgers.
Last year, it wasn’t about the articles and sections of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It was about Rodgers wanting to play for the Steelers and the Steelers wanting Rodgers, with Rodgers taking less than he could have gotten to play where he wanted to play. He could have easily expected $30 million or more. He took $13.65 million. It was a favor to the Steelers.
This year, the Steelers opted to do him no favors. They elected not to allow him to retain full freedom as it relates to his future. It shows that, in hindsight, he should have insisted on a structure that would have forced the Steelers to terminate the contract, which would have blocked them from putting him in checkmate — if he was indeed considering the possibility of joining another team during the season.
That’s reason enough for Rodgers to be upset with the situation. He didn’t play games with them in 2025. Now, they’re suddenly playing games with him.
It reinforces the possibility that the Steelers are trying to get Rodgers to be the one to choose not to continue the relationship. If the Steelers cut the cord, who knows what Rodgers will say about the Steelers the next time he dials up Pat McAfee and company?
For now, they’ve given Rodgers something he can use, if he so chooses to eventually put the Steelers on blast. He could say it wasn’t supposed to go like this. That Mike Tomlin wouldn’t have pulled something like this. That Tomlin would have given Rodgers full flexibility to do whatever he ultimately decided to do.
While it’s less potent than the grievances Rodgers was able to air about the Jets in 2025, there’s still a way that he can bemoan the fact that he never wanted the relationship with the Steelers to be about business leverage. And that, if he’d known that this is what they’d do, he would have both asked for more money in 2025 along with a structure that would have prevented them from playing CBA “gotcha” in 2026.
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