Terry Bradshaw Calls Steelers Pursuit of Aaron Rodgers ‘a Joke’

Aaron Rodgers is still not on any NFL roster, nearly three months following his formal release from the Jets. The 41-year-old, however, remains a dominant storyline surrounding the Steelers, prompting one of the franchise’s all-time greats to offer a rare rebuke of his former team.

Terry Bradshaw slammed the Steelers during a Tuesday interview with KABZ-FM in Arkansas, calling the team’s protracted pursuit of the mercurial four-time Most Valuable Player “a joke.”

“What are you going to do? Bring him in for one year, are you kidding me?” Bradshaw said. “That guy needs to stay in California, go somewhere and chew on bark, and whisper to the gods out there.”

Bradshaw continued, saying the Steelers also failed in their development of former first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett, now part of the Browns’ crowded quarterback room after a brief stay with the Eagles. 

“When they got him to Pittsburgh, here’s what they didn’t do: They didn’t protect him, they didn’t get him an offensive line,” Bradshaw said of Pickett. “He wasn’t a failure. The Steelers were a failure.”

While Bradshaw, a fixture on the Fox NFL Sunday studio crew, has long been known to be outspoken, the latest comments marked a particularly pointed assessment of the team he led to four Super Bowl titles. 

The ongoing situation is also a rare departure for a Pittsburgh team that has long valued stability and minimizing drama wherever possible. Team owner Art Rooney II, however, has said the team will wait “a little while longer” for Rodgers to decide on his 2025 plans. 

The Steelers currently have Mason Rudolph, Skylar Thompson, and 2025 sixth-round draft pick Will Howard on their roster as quarterbacks, extending a period of transition and uncertainty at the critical position since Ben Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season. Rudolph, who started 13 games in a prior stint in Pittsburgh and recently returned after one season with the Titans, said he is simply trying to block out any distractions—including Rodgers.

“That’s nothing new to me. There’s been constant noise,” Rudolph said. “That is the nature of the NFL. So I have been used to that for a long time now. [I can] do nothing but be the best I can be and help our team get better.”