{"id":247048,"date":"2026-06-06T21:34:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/06\/steelers-best-move-of-the-offseason-wasnt-re-signing-aaron-rodgers\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T21:34:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:34:43","slug":"steelers-best-move-of-the-offseason-wasnt-re-signing-aaron-rodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/06\/steelers-best-move-of-the-offseason-wasnt-re-signing-aaron-rodgers\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers&#8217; best move of the offseason wasn&#8217;t re-signing Aaron Rodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/teams\/pittsburgh_steelers\/44\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> made headlines when they were able to come to a deal with quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/players\/aaron_rodgers\/3258\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aaron Rodgers<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/articles\/steelers_teammates_react_to_aaron_rodgers_return\/s1_13132_43858243\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">return to the franchise<\/a> for another season. It was good news for Pittsburgh, seeing that Rodgers led the team to a 10-7 record and the top spot in the AFC North during the 2025 season and could go even further in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>But, perhaps that wasn&#8217;t the best move of the Steelers&#8217; offseason. Maybe there&#8217;s another move that means more.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7309904\/2026\/05\/27\/nfl-offseason-draft-free-agency-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mike Sando of The Athletic<\/a> has released a list of his favorite moves for each NFL franchise during the offseason. Even though the Rodgers move got all the press, he highlights a different Steelers move as his favorite.<\/p>\n<h2>Aaron Rodgers doesn&#8217;t highlight best-of tally for Steelers (but it&#8217;s still a great move)<\/h2>\n<p>Sando loves the decision to hire Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The Steelers dipped to No. 19 in defensive EPA per play last season, making this an apt time to change a scheme that critics felt had gone stale under longtime coach Mike Tomlin,&#8221; he states in the piece. &#8220;Graham, constrained by Pete Carroll\u2019s defensive philosophy in Las Vegas last season, should enjoy greater autonomy under his new offense-minded boss, Mike McCarthy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s certainly the case that hiring Graham was a solid move, and it flew a little under the radar amid the Mike McCarthy hire and Rodgers re-signing. Even though much of the focus has been getting a stronger offense to help Rodgers, in the end, it may be the Steelers defense that wins games.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n    !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n    {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n    n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n    if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n    n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n    t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n    'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n    fbq('init', '1324276914788316');\n    fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nfl\/articles\/steelers_best_move_of_the_offseason_wasnt_re_signing_aaron_rodgers\/s1_13132_43922031\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Steelers made headlines when they were able to come to a deal with quarterback Aaron Rodgers to return to the franchise for another season. It was good news for Pittsburgh, seeing that Rodgers led the team to a 10-7 record and the top spot in the AFC North during the 2025 season and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-247048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}