PITTSBURGH — In one thing of an insurance coverage transfer, the Pittsburgh Steelers positioned the hardly ever used UFA tender on Aaron Rodgers earlier than Monday’s postdraft deadline.
The UFA tender preserves the Steelers’ proper to obtain a compensatory draft choose within the occasion Rodgers indicators with one other group whereas additionally limiting his means to signal with one other group as soon as coaching camp begins. The Steelers may have unique negotiating rights for Rodgers if he doesn’t signal with one other group by July 22 or the primary day of Pittsburgh’s coaching camp, whichever is later.
One other situation of the tender is that Rodgers may also settle for a ten% increase off final 12 months’s wage, which might pay him about $15 million this season.
Regardless of utilizing the tender on him, the Steelers stay assured Rodgers will finally signal with them, and the transfer is taken into account a “procedural” one, one group supply advised ESPN. The tag isn’t used as a result of there aren’t typically unrestricted free brokers of Rodgers’ caliber — ones able to having a major impression on a group’s compensatory picks — obtainable at this level within the league 12 months.
A 12 months in the past, Rodgers waited to signal till early June, signing his one-year cope with the Steelers simply earlier than necessary minicamp. On the NFL scouting mix in February, Pittsburgh common supervisor Omar Khan was assured this 12 months’s saga would not be a repeat of the 2025 offseason.
With new head coach Mike McCarthy, the Steelers’ offseason schedule is completely different from a 12 months in the past. The Steelers are set to have their first voluntary OTA session on Might 18, whereas necessary minicamp is slated for June 2-4 with extra voluntary OTAs scheduled afterward.
As they await Rodgers’ resolution, the Steelers proactively added to their quarterbacks room by drafting Penn State product Drew Allar within the third spherical. McCarthy, although, mentioned including Allar to a room that additionally consists of Will Howard and Mason Rudolph had no bearing on their scenario with Rodgers.
“No, by no means,” McCarthy mentioned Saturday. “That is about creating the room and attempting to make the room as deep as we presumably can.”
ESPN’s Adam Schefter contributed to this report.
