The Steelers are barely into camp, and already the conversation has jumped all the way to the trade deadline.
That’s what happens when Aaron Rodgers is involved. The veteran quarterback has said this will be his final NFL season, and Pittsburgh is clearly acting like a team with a real shot at another Super Bowl run. But not everyone sees the road staying smooth from here to January.
On a recent appearance on Pardon My Take, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio floated a scenario that would have a lot of people around the league doing a double take: if Pittsburgh’s season goes sideways, Rodgers could wind up being the one on the move.
“There's a chance this thing goes sideways,” he warned. “You get to the trade deadline, you can have Aaron Rodgers maybe asking to go somewhere that may need a quarterback.
Some contender that may need a quarterback because 'Get me the hell outta here, this is my last year. I want to have a chance to play into the postseason.'”
Florio pushed that idea even further by pointing to a rough deadline timeline, imagining the Steelers looking up around Thanksgiving and realizing they’re not where they expected to be.
“If we're (the Steelers) not contending by Thanksgiving,” he stated. “Why do we want to play out the string with Aaron Rodgers?”
It’s a dramatic theory, but the Steelers themselves are operating from a very different place. Their preparation in training camp suggests an organization that believes it has the pieces to chase the Vince Lombardi Trophy, not one already bracing for a collapse.
Still, the national view isn’t nearly as optimistic. Florio’s point is that if Pittsburgh drifts out of the race, the team could be boxed in by Rodgers’ situation and his desire to keep playing for a postseason shot.
Even then, the Steelers have no plans to move him. The organization believes Rodgers can help push them back to the Promised Land one more time.
And if he ever did become available? Florio suggested the likeliest destination would be a contender that suddenly needed help at quarterback. The problem is that, as things stand now, there doesn’t appear to be a real fit anywhere outside Pittsburgh.
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