How Aaron Rodgers influenced the Steelers’ draft technique

PITTSBURGH — Probably the most influential individual of the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ 2025 NFL draft wasn’t sitting within the crew struggle 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 residence, 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 crew assembled its 2025 draft class as if he quickly can be.

“We’re nonetheless sort of getting the identical indicators that we have been getting just lately,” crew proprietor and president Artwork Rooney II advised Steelers Nation Radio, the crew’s flagship program, on Friday evening. “He does wish to come right here, so I do assume we might get phrase quickly.”

Regardless of the Steelers’ repeated insistence that Rodgers wouldn’t affect their draft technique, their actions within the 2025 draft communicate louder than the phrases uttered by crew brass. Passing on a quarterback 4 occasions earlier than lastly deciding on 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 crew’s draft to that time. “If we do draft a quarterback — and we nonetheless may — it is in all probability not going to be someone who’s going to begin for us this 12 months. It may be someone who’s creating 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 crew was nonetheless 20 hours away from deciding on 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 does 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 right 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 implies that both the Steelers are extremely assured Rodgers will check in 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 crew may additionally wait to see which signal-callers shake unfastened from crowded rooms in Cleveland and New York.

“That is definitely a chance,” Tomlin advised NFL Community’s Wealthy Eisen on Saturday afternoon of Rodgers becoming a member of the crew. “I am not going to forecast the ifs and whens concerning 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, in fact, the Steelers chosen Oregon defensive sort out 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 acquired the participant that we wished.”

By the point the Steelers have been again on the clock with the No. 83 choice Friday evening, solely three quarterbacks have been unavailable: Ward, Jaxson Dart and Tyler Shough.

As soon as once more, the crew spurned the place and crammed 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 and not using 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 crew hosted on a top-30 go to, nonetheless being out there. The Steelers even used their fourth-round decide on Ohio State edge rusher Jack Sawyer, including a participant to an already flush place relatively than Sanders, whom Tomlin had praised for his aggressive spirit and toughness lower than every week earlier.

Lastly, the crew 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 superb worth pickup within the sixth spherical — particularly as a developmental prospect who may have the chance to study behind Rodgers.

“It isn’t a matter of what occurs out on the sphere or if I play immediately, 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 actually give my all to this crew as a result of that is how I do issues, man. I do not do issues half in. I’m 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 may not be so superb for the crew.