With Aaron Rodgers’ return, Steelers now have a QB conundrum

PITTSBURGH — Aaron Rodgers‘ official return, marked by the quarterback expected to sign a one-year deal worth up to $25 million on Saturday, answers one question for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It also creates several others.

Who’s the odd man out in a four-person QB room? Does there have to be one? Do the Steelers prioritize a veteran with higher floors or youngsters with higher, yet unknown, ceilings? How will they juggle practice reps between a veteran relearning an offensive system and inexperienced signal-callers who are still in development?

The next couple of months will answer the bulk of those questions as the Steelers progress through their offseason training, to July’s training camp in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and ultimately to the August roster reduction from 90 players to 53 — plus up to 17 on the practice squad.

The work to solve the Steelers’ backup quarterback conundrum begins now.

After the second day of rookie minicamp on May 9, coach Mike McCarthy said that working with three quarterbacks is typical for his coaching style but having four would be “awesome.” However, a McCarthy-led team has never entered Week 1 with four quarterbacks on the team’s active roster, according to Elias Sports Bureau, and in 10 of 18 seasons as head coach, McCarthy’s teams have carried three quarterbacks into the season opener.

In addition to Rodgers, the Steelers have 2018 third-round pick Mason Rudolph, 2025 sixth-round pick Will Howard and 2026 third-rounder Drew Allar.

Neither Allar nor Howard has taken an NFL snap, and though Howard spent the 2025 season with the Steelers, most of his time was on injured reserve.

Rudolph has played in 19 games over his seven-year pro career and has completed 64.4% of his career attempts for 30 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. Last season, he filled in for Rodgers against the Chicago Bears in Week 12 as Rodgers recovered from a fractured wrist. Rudolph completed 77.4% of attempts with one touchdown, one interception and two sacks, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Bears on the road.

Armed with a reputation as a quarterback guru, McCarthy has embraced the challenge of developing two inexperienced QBs.

“I love the whole process,” McCarthy said at rookie minicamp about developing Allar from the very start of his NFL career. “I mean, it gives me unbelievable joy to work with [quarterbacks coach] Tom Arth every day. … I love the young guys, especially when you get them when they’re just starting out. I’ve always enjoyed the development of the quarterback position, and I’ve been so blessed to be around so many great veterans that I learned from.

“I don’t know if you probably can’t tell by the way I look, but I didn’t play quarterback, but it’s something I really enjoy.”

Not only does McCarthy usually carry three quarterbacks, but most of the time on his rosters, one of the backups has already spent multiple years in the NFL. The exceptions came in his first and last seasons in Green Bay. In 2006, McCarthy entered Week 1 with Brett Favre, Rodgers and Ingle Martin in the quarterbacks room. Prior to his second season in 2006, Rodgers had appeared in just three games as a rookie and completed nine of 16 attempts with one interception. Martin, meanwhile, was selected by the Packers in the fifth round of the 2006 draft. He appeared in just one game — Week 17 — to take two kneel-downs.

In 2018, Rodgers’ Week 1 backups were then-rookie Tim Boyle, an undrafted free agent, and DeShone Kizer, who went 0-15 as a starter in his rookie season in Cleveland the year before and threw 11 touchdowns and 22 interceptions.

If the Steelers enter Week 1 of the 2026 season in a home game against the Atlanta Falcons with a quarterback room of Rodgers, Howard and Allar, it would mark McCarthy’s least-experienced group of backups in his coaching career.

While Rudolph has a higher floor thanks to his game experience, he has a known ceiling. The Steelers could stick with Allar and Howard because of their potential — and because they invested recent draft picks to acquire them. Rudolph is set to enter the second year of a two-year, $7.5 million deal. Moving on from Rudolph would save the Steelers $3 million in salary cap space. The Steelers could also make Rudolph available on the trade market and fetch a late-round draft pick for the veteran.

But in going with a younger room, McCarthy would have the added challenge of developing a pair of young quarterbacks and reacclimating Rodgers to his offensive system with a limited number of practice reps to go around. In his first season with the Steelers, Rodgers rarely took practice days off, especially early in the season. He could, in theory, reduce his amount of practice to give Howard and Allar opportunities to work with the first-team offense and better prepare for game action in the event the 42-year-old has to miss time.

McCarthy could also keep Rudolph as one of six veterans on the practice squad if Rudolph would be amenable to accepting a role there instead of a spot on an active roster with another team looking for a veteran quarterback.

McCarthy, though, didn’t want to discuss hypotheticals when asked if he would be comfortable going into the season with such an inexperienced group behind Rodgers or if he would need to keep Rudolph around.

“I will coach the hell out of that room,” he said at the conclusion of the draft in April. “I have a lot of confidence. I have history and experience that I will give everything I can to any quarterback in that room. So we want to grow the quarterback room. We don’t want to just rely on one quarterback.”