The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offseason quarterback situation showed no signs of resolution on Friday, as the team’s general manager acknowledged he does not know where Aaron Rodgers is while a reporter who covers the team said no meeting between the two sides is scheduled or expected.
Steelers general manager Omar Khan, appearing on a morning radio program, said he was uncertain about Rodgers’ whereabouts and downplayed any notion that a meeting was imminent. Khan chose his words carefully, stopping short of an outright denial, but the tone of his comments indicated that no face-to-face session with the 42-year-old free-agent quarterback was on the immediate horizon.
Shortly after Khan’s comments emerged, a Pittsburgh-based Steelers correspondent posted that from everything he could gather, no meeting had been placed on the calendar and no one inside the Steelers’ facility had spotted Rodgers. The reporter added that a meeting later in the day or the following day remained possible, but that nothing was certain and Rodgers had not yet appeared at the team’s facility.
The backdrop is a prolonged offseason saga that has tested the patience of a fanbase stretching well beyond Pittsburgh. The Steelers, who finished the 2025 season with Rodgers as their starting quarterback on a one-year, $13.65 million contract, have spent most of this year’s offseason sending positive public signals about a return while waiting for the veteran signal-caller to commit. Rodgers, who turns 43 in December, expressed appreciation for the organization at season’s end before indicating he would once again take time before deciding whether to suit up for a 22nd NFL campaign.
The story carries weight across the Carolinas, where Pittsburgh’s fan following ranks among the most loyal outside of Pennsylvania. South Carolina has long been home to a substantial Steelers contingent — an affinity rooted in decades of black-and-gold success and amplified by the state’s lack of a home NFL franchise. For football fans in Spartanburg, Greenville, and throughout the Upstate, the question of whether Rodgers returns is not an abstract league matter but a topic that shapes expectations heading into the fall.
The Steelers placed what is known as a right-of-first-refusal tender on Rodgers in late April, a rarely used mechanism that provides the organization with several protections. Under the tender, Pittsburgh is entitled to match any contract offer that another team extends to Rodgers. If he were to sign elsewhere, the Steelers would receive a compensatory draft pick. Additionally, if Rodgers remains unsigned when training camp opens in late July, Pittsburgh gains exclusive negotiating rights. The tender figure amounts to roughly $15 million, a number that Rodgers is unlikely to accept as a final contract value, meaning the two sides still need to negotiate a new agreement.
Earlier Thursday, league sources had reported on Thursday that Rodgers was expected to visit Pittsburgh on Friday and that the most likely scenario was for him to re-sign with the team. A Pittsburgh radio station had been among the first to report the anticipated visit, and additional sources confirmed it. By Friday, however, those expectations had not been borne out by any confirmed activity. The Steelers kicked off their rookie minicamp that same day, with media access scheduled for Saturday.
Team president Art Rooney II expressed confidence as recently as last week that the situation would resolve itself in the coming weeks. Head coach Mike McCarthy, who worked with Rodgers during their overlapping years in Green Bay, has maintained regular communication with the quarterback throughout the offseason and said publicly that those conversations cover life as well as football. McCarthy was hired in part because of that familiarity, though Rooney was careful to say the hire was not made solely to facilitate a reunion.
The Steelers had informally expected an answer from Rodgers around mid-February, then around the start of free agency, then before the NFL Draft — none of those informal windows produced a decision. The organization has reportedly set a soft deadline of May 18, the start of organized team activities, as the next meaningful target. If Rodgers has not committed by then, sources familiar with the situation suggested the team’s patience could shift toward frustration.
Should Rodgers not return, Pittsburgh would turn to its young quarterback room. Will Howard, the former Ohio State starter who was drafted by the Steelers, along with Mason Rudolph and Drew Allar would compete for the starting role under that scenario. Most league observers, however, still consider a Rodgers return to be the more probable outcome — the current impasse is largely seen as a matter of timing rather than a fundamental disagreement between the two sides.
For South Carolina’s sizable Pittsburgh following, the waiting game is a familiar one. Rodgers took until June of last year to sign with the Steelers, arriving just before mandatory minicamp. That delayed start did not prevent him from settling quickly into McCarthy’s offense and leading Pittsburgh through a competitive season. Whether the 2026 version of that offseason process concludes on a similar timeline — or ahead of schedule with a deal done before OTAs — remains the open question as the weekend begins with no confirmed meeting on the books.
