The Pittsburgh Steelers made a lot of moves this offseason, but one of the biggest storylines of the offseason revolved around one of the moves they didn’t make. Despite having a gaping hole at quarterback during the 2025 NFL Draft, the Steelers didn’t address the position until they selected Will Howard in the sixth round.
Throughout the offseason, Pittsburgh had been heavily linked to Aaron Rodgers after he was released by the New York Jets. He eventually signed a one-year, $13.65 million contract with the team, but at the time, Rodgers’ future was still up in the air, which made the decision to continually pass on quarterbacks seem like a risky one.
According to head coach Mike Tomlin, though, the team knew what they were doing. While the Steelers were bashed for continually passing on Shedeur Sanders during his highly publicized fall down the board, Tomlin revealed that he knew Rodgers was going to eventually sign with Pittsburgh, which is why they waited so long to draft a quarterback.
“You’re right. I knew something,” Tomlin said when asked whether he knew something about Rodgers’ future that the public did not know during the 2025 draft.
The selection of Howard in the sixth round doesn’t necessarily solve the Steelers’ quarterback problems for the future, which is prevalent since this is likely going to be Rodgers’ final season in the NFL. However, Pittsburgh has made it clear they are going all-in on the 2025 campaign, and that involved not using one of their earlier draft picks on a quarterback.
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The end result has seen the Steelers construct one of their most talented rosters on paper in recent memory. There’s a clear sense of excitement surrounding this team, and while it seemed like Pittsburgh was making a big gamble at the quarterback position during the draft, Tomlin and company knew exactly what they were doing.
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