PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Pittsburgh Steelers don’t get off the quarterback carousel anytime quickly. Amid a public courtship of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, coach Mike Tomlin stated Sunday that the staff is analyzing its choices so as to add to the quarterback room.
“We’re nonetheless evaluating the acquisition of a man on the place, whether or not it is free company and/or the draft, and so we’re doing our due diligence speaking with some free brokers. Additionally making ready for the draft,” Tomlin stated from the NFL’s annual league assembly in his first public feedback since a season-ending information convention in January.
“We’re optimistic concerning the room that we’re establishing. Clearly, we’re enthusiastic about having Mason Rudolph again.
“However definitely we will proceed to discover all our choices when it comes to rounding that room out.”
Tomlin was coy on the specifics of the Steelers’ pursuit of the 41-year-old Rodgers, who visited the staff facility for practically six hours on March 21.
“It has been reported that he spent a day with us, and it was a very good day,” Tomlin stated. “Particularly, he and I clearly have recognized of one another for a while, and so it was actually good to spend a while collectively, man, and get to know one another extra intimately, however it’s free company. It’s a course of. I’ve nothing of any extra significance so as to add apart from that.”
Tomlin stated there wasn’t an inner Steelers deadline to resolve the scenario with Rodgers.
“To not my information,” he stated. “I do not know that we have approached it from a deadline perspective. Definitely, as I discussed, you’d prefer to have settled circumstances, however deadlines do not usually convey that to a head.”
The Steelers’ coach added he additionally did not ask Rodgers about his timeline throughout their go to.
“I actually wished to spend extra of our time simply attending to know him higher and issues that he values as a participant and a person, and what he could be on the lookout for together with his subsequent cease,” he stated.
Requested a couple of potential Plan B if Rodgers elects to go elsewhere or retire, Tomlin stated the staff hasn’t essentially recognized a desire.
“I do not know if we’re figuring out something as Plan A, Plan B or Plan C,” he stated. “We’re simply merely wanting on the subject of obtainable individuals, whether or not it is free company or the draft and making choices and gathering data accordingly.”
Tomlin additionally stated he hadn’t “thought loads” about settling the Rodgers scenario earlier than the draft and that the unresolved quarterback place hasn’t hindered the staff’s free company plans. The Steelers traded for huge receiver DK Metcalf on the eve of the negotiating interval and signed free agent cornerback Darius Slay Jr. and working again Kenneth Gainwell, amongst others.
Although the Steelers aren’t setting a deadline on the Rodgers choice, Tomlin acknowledged that coming into coaching camp with an incomplete quarterback room may negatively impression staff improvement.
“Within the spring, it is about instructing and studying and getting aware of gamers and ensuring they’re getting aware of among the issues that we worth,” he stated. “It isn’t an analysis time of the yr for us. It is definitely not a time of the yr the place we’re centered on readying ourselves for the sport motion. Definitely, coaching camp would type of be a line of demarcation when it comes to that dialogue; the spring’s about instructing and studying.”
Downplaying the importance of getting a whole quarterback place within the spring is one thing of a departure from Tomlin’s phrases a yr in the past, when he stated it was necessary to position Russell Wilson in “pole place” for the beginning job over Justin Fields due to his expertise and veteran management.
“Throughout this time the place we aren’t formally working, man, I simply suppose it is helpful,” Tomlin stated on the 2024 assembly. “It simply creates a synergy that I feel is nice for this time of yr.”
Although the quarterback place is a piece in progress, Tomlin acknowledged that Rudolph’s expertise with the staff — and Pittsburgh’s view of him as a possible starter — led to the Steelers signing him to a two-year deal.
“I feel that is why we reacquired him, man,” Tomlin stated, requested if Rudolph could possibly be “the man.” “We like Mason Rudolph, however that is no secret.”
