I'm starting to see why Aaron Rodgers always makes things about himself: because so does everyone else.
In case you missed it this morning because you do not wake up at 515 in the morning, the Pittsburgh Steelers traded wide receiver George Pickens to the Cowboys. It's the kind of deal that feels like a much bigger deal than it actually is, but that's not going to stop the impending rush of GRADES and TAKES and PANIC. The Cowboys were duped! The Steelers are suckers! Everyone is EMOTING.
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But, like all things in life, this has found it way back to Aaron Rodgers. You may have noticed he's still very much not on the Steelers' roster. Because of that, each move the Steelers make inherently becomes a referendum on Rodgers, because BOY does that name do well in headlines. Do you think he knows how good his SEO is? I hope so. ESPN knows, as evidenced by ending their trade evaluation with a very random nugget about how this affects a QB who is actually not on the team.
ESPN thinks that the George Pickens trade has major ramifications for Aaron Rodgers
"The last piece of the puzzle is how this relates to Aaron Rodgers. Without a second receiver next to Metcalf, Pittsburgh is that much farther away from being an immediate contender. That makes bringing in Rodgers a little harder to justify -- even if the Steelers' options at QB are extremely limited with the draft in the rearview mirror. Perhaps Kirk Cousins could be another route?"
And they found a way to get Kirk Cousins in there? That's why they're the worldwide leader in sports. No one does it like them. I'm not even going to waste time arguing the football side of this argument, because I don't care, and you don't care, and ESPN certainly does not care.
I don't think there's anything that can stop Rodgers from joining the Steelers besides Rodgers himself – it's not like there's a bunch of teams waiting for him to say no to Pittsburgh. Maybe this will be the moment that makes him retire, and we can all finally breathe a sigh of relief and turn our attention to [checks notes] Kirk Cousins.