Mike Florio of NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk is urging Aaron Rodgers to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers... but not right away. Instead, Florio believes Rodgers shouldn't even hint that he's coming to The Steel City until after the 2025 NFL schedule officially drops.
This is an odd proposition, but Florio's reasoning does make some sense.
Every year, the NFL looks to get marquee matchups in primetime windows. We can assume that the Steelers will have more primetime games if they know Rodgers, not Mason Rudolph, will be the starting quarterback for the 2025 season. This goes without saying.
"This year, Rodgers has yet to sign with the Steelers," Florio writes on Pro Football Talk. "If he does it before the schedule is released on May 14, the league will know it’s getting a marquee team and a marquee quarterback for a slew of standalone games. If he waits, maybe the schedule won’t have as many prime-time appearances from (checks depth chart) Mason Rudolph."
So what does that have to do with the NFL schedule?
The more primetime games a team plays, the more quick turnarounds they will have to prepare for their next contest. For instance, playing Monday Night Football or Thursday Night Football automatically leads to a short week, sometimes even as short as five days to prepare for their next game. Even going from Sunday Night Football to an early Sunday slate the following week robs a team of hours of recovery time.
This all may seem insignificant, but in a violent game like football, players' bodies need as much time as possible to heal in between games, especially if you're a quarterback who will turn 42 years old during the 2025 season, like Rodgers.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Aaron Rodgers should agree to Mike Florio's master plan
For revenue purposes, the Pittsburgh Steelers probably wouldn't sign up for this. But if they want to ensure they snap their ugly eight-year streak without a playoff win, agreeing to sign Aaron Rodgers after the NFL schedule release would be the best way to do this.
While the Steelers typically perform well in primetime action, nothing is more important than having a healthy roster (and a fresh quarterback) entering the postseason. If getting an appropriate ammount of time to recover between games means that the Steelers will be even a small percent healthy entering the playoffs, it will be worth it in the end.
Perhaps we're thinking too deeply into this. The Eagles and Chiefs played a bunch of primetime games last year, and those were the two teams in the Super Bowl. But the Pittsburgh Steelers need every advantage they can get for the 2025 season—even if it's minuscule.