PITTSBURGH — Probably the most influential particular person of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2025 NFL draft wasn’t sitting within the staff battle room. He wasn’t even on the opposite finish of any of the seven cellphone calls made by Mike Tomlin to his draftees over the three-day occasion.
As a substitute, he was elsewhere, maybe at his Malibu dwelling, sitting on his deck watching dolphins frolic within the Pacific. Or perhaps in a darkish cave pondering his future, and even at a Costa Rican retreat trying to find readability in holistic therapeutic rituals.
Aaron Rodgers is not a member of the Steelers, however the staff assembled its 2025 draft class as if he quickly can be.
“We’re nonetheless form of getting the identical indicators that we have been getting just lately,” staff proprietor and president Artwork Rooney II instructed Steelers Nation Radio, the staff’s flagship program, on Friday night time. “He does wish to come right here, so I do assume we could get phrase quickly.”
Regardless of the Steelers’ repeated insistence that Rodgers wouldn’t affect their draft technique, their actions within the 2025 draft converse louder than the phrases uttered by staff brass. Passing on a quarterback 4 instances earlier than lastly choosing 24-year-old developmental prospect Will Howard out of Ohio State within the sixth spherical suggests Rodgers was very a lot current of their decision-making course of.
“We didn’t think about whether or not Aaron is coming or not into that,” Rooney stated of the staff’s draft to that time. “If we do draft a quarterback — and we nonetheless would possibly — it is in all probability not going to be someone who’s going to start out for us this 12 months. It’ll be someone who’s growing and will play down the street.
“So far as I am involved, it is not someone who’s going to have a big effect [this year] if we draft a quarterback.”
On the time of Rooney’s interview, the staff was nonetheless 20 hours away from choosing Howard, however the proprietor’s phrases nonetheless appeared true with the decide. Although Howard has a nationwide championship pedigree and 4 years of FBS soccer on his résumé, he would not challenge as a day one starter. Regardless of finishing a formidable 73% of his go makes an attempt at Ohio State, Howard nonetheless wants work to appropriate the inconsistent throwing mechanics on show in his mix efficiency and enhance his processing velocity to adapt to NFL defenses. The Steelers had loads of alternatives to draft higher-rated prospects, but every time, they elected to handle areas they considered as extra urgent.
That means that both the Steelers are extremely assured Rodgers will register Pittsburgh or they strongly consider — way over these exterior the group — that Mason Rudolph is a succesful Week 1 starter. Or maybe the Steelers are engaged on a 3rd choice: buying a quarterback through commerce. Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins is the priciest of these choices, however the staff may additionally wait to see which signal-callers shake free from crowded rooms in Cleveland and New York.
“That is definitely a chance,” Tomlin instructed NFL Community’s Wealthy Eisen on Saturday afternoon of Rodgers becoming a member of the staff. “I am not going to forecast the ifs and whens relating to not solely him however another potential free agent. We have had actually productive talks with him, and I’ve loved having productive talks with him and attending to know him.”
Within the first spherical, after all, the Steelers chosen Oregon defensive deal with Derrick Harmon whereas each quarterback remained on the board aside from No. 1 decide Cam Ward.
“We have been on the clock,” common supervisor Omar Khan stated, requested whether or not he was tempted by a quarterback with the decide. “We received the participant that we needed.”
By the point the Steelers have been again on the clock with the No. 83 choice Friday night time, solely three quarterbacks have been unavailable: Ward, Jaxson Dart and Tyler Shough.
As soon as once more, the staff spurned the place and stuffed one other gap, this time with Iowa working again Kaleb Johnson. 9 picks later, the Seattle Seahawks took Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, whom the Steelers met and dined with at his professional day.
Nonetheless with out a quarterback because the draft rolled into Day 3, the Steelers bypassed signal-callers with their subsequent two picks within the fourth and fifth rounds regardless of Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, whom the staff hosted on a top-30 go to, nonetheless being accessible. The Steelers even used their fourth-round decide on Ohio State edge rusher Jack Sawyer, including a participant to an already flush place somewhat than Sanders, whom Tomlin had praised for his aggressive spirit and toughness lower than per week earlier.
Lastly, the staff went with Howard, ranked seventh amongst quarterbacks in Mel Kiper’s predraft Huge Board, within the sixth spherical. Howard, predicted as excessive because the third spherical in some mock drafts, was a very good worth pickup within the sixth spherical — particularly as a developmental prospect who may have the chance to be taught behind Rodgers.
“It is not a matter of what occurs out on the sphere or if I play instantly, it is about getting higher and it is about studying and whoever is within the room with me, whoever is there competing with us,” Howard stated. “I simply can’t wait to delve into this case and to essentially give my all to this staff as a result of that is how I do issues, man. I do not do issues half in. I am going all-in, and I’ve each expectation that this subsequent step with the Pittsburgh Steelers goes to be superb for me.”
But when the Steelers do not spherical out their quarterback room with Rodgers, the following steps won’t be so superb for the staff.
