It's almost crazy to say that Drew Allar, the Penn State quarterback star who will find out his fate during the NFL Draft in a few days, could be impacting what Aaron Rodgers decides to do with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
While there's no debate that even at this point, Rodgers is probably the better option, as he's one of the greatest ever and a guaranteed future Hall of Famer, his decision to return or hang it up will likely have an impact on what the Steelers plan to do in a few days.
There have been some conflicting reports about what the Steelers want to do, and while the expectation was for Rodgers to give them an answer a while ago, the Steelers now have to be careful with what they do in the draft, as Allar was one of the players they met with, showing that he could be impacted by Rodgers' decision.
“As for quarterback, Aaron Rodgers was originally going to give the Steelers an answer on whether he would play in 2026 about a month after the 2025 season ended, but that has now stretched far into the offseason. If Rodgers has not informed the team by Thursday night that he does in fact intend to return, Pittsburgh will need to have conversations about whether Simpson is in play with the No. 21 pick. But either way, the team is looking at taking a QB somewhere over the course of seven rounds.
“The Steelers met with three QBs at the combine: Simpson, Penn State's Drew Allar and Miami's Carson Beck (who also went to Pittsburgh for a top-30 visit). But the longer the Steelers go without an answer from the quarterback they want, the more they will have to consider using a higher pick at the position,” Adam Schefter of ESPN wrote.
Unless something changes over the next 48 hours, it seems a given that Rodgers won't announce whether he plans to return. Perhaps the Steelers already know whether it's a yes or no, and they'll make their decisions based on that, but publicly, there hasn't been anything yet.