Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw isn’t rooting for his old team to land Aaron Rodgers, the biggest-name free agent QB on the market.
Rodgers and the Steelers reportedly have discussed a deal since the end of last season, but he remains on the market.
“That’s a joke. That to me is just a joke,” Bradshaw said in a radio interview on 103.7 The Buzz in Little Rock, Ark. “What are you gonna do? Bring (Rodgers) in for one year, are you kidding me? That guy needs to stay in California. Go somewhere and chew on bark and whisper to the gods out there.”
The Steelers’ current quarterback corps consists of Mason Rudolph (9-8-1 as an NFL starter), sixth-round rookie draft choice Will Howard and Skylar Thompson (1-2 as a starter; 138 career passing attempts).
Last year, Pittsburgh used Russell Wilson (6-5 as a starter) and Justin Fields (4-2), who are now with the New York Giants and New York Jets, respectively.
The Steelers’ primary QB in 2022 and 2023 was Kenny Pickett, who produced 7-5 records as a starter in each of those seasons. Pittsburgh swapped him to the Philadelphia Eagles in March 2024.
“I liked Kenny Pickett,” Bradshaw said. “I liked him at (the University of Pittsburgh). I know him, I know what he’s like. When they got him to (the Steelers), they didn’t protect him, they didn’t get him an offensive line. They wanted to run the football, but they didn’t have an offensive line that could protect and they didn’t have weapons. He had no wide receivers to speak of.
“Then they throw a kid in there for two years, and you’ve got an offense that doesn’t fit and doesn’t work, and they can’t run because their offensive line’s not even good enough for a run-blocking team. Now, they’re saying Kenny Pickett is a failure. He wasn’t a failure, the Steelers were a failure.”
Rodgers, 41, was a four-time NFL Most Valuable Player across his 18-season run with Green Bay, and he led the Packers to the Super Bowl title after the 2010 season. He moved to the Jets in 2023 and sustained a season-ending Achilles injury early in the opener. Rodgers returned to go 5-12 as a starter for the Jets last year.
–Field Level Media
