{"id":108579,"date":"2026-02-08T18:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T18:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/108579\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T18:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T18:19:18","slug":"former-pro-bowl-quarterback-emerges-as-option-for-pittsburgh-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/108579\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Pro Bowl quarterback emerges as option for Pittsburgh Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"4U2HJEVLS5H7NK3UVPQGLNCOK4\">The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pennlive.com\/steelers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.pennlive.com\/steelers\/\"> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> have questions at quarterback heading into this offseason. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pennlive.com\/steelers\/2026\/02\/odds-increasing-for-aaron-rodgers-return-to-pittsburgh-steelers-insider-says.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.pennlive.com\/steelers\/2026\/02\/odds-increasing-for-aaron-rodgers-return-to-pittsburgh-steelers-insider-says.html\">Aaron Rodgers <\/a>is the first order of business, and if he decides to return to the Steelers, but if he does not, Kirk Cousins has suddenly emerged as an option.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"TFND4ZMB2RDYXOPQVXG3YTULPE\">Cousins is expected to be released in March, which will allow him to find a new team after staying in Atlanta the last two years. This past year, he was Michael Penix\u2019s backup until the young quarterback suffered a knee injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"LNK35LE4LZCXTPKSCDOQIQVD2M\">The Steelers showed interest in Cousins in 2025 before the Falcons decided to hold onto the former Pro Bowler since his contract had huge cap space implications if traded or cut. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"OWVDRXSQBRDIRJF372CA4GFTCE\">Coming off a torn Achilles in 2023, Cousins never fully looked like himself after surgery and a return. Still, the Falcons signed him to a four-year, $180 million contract that made him a highly compensated quarterback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"KXIRK4THVVDMZHV3DXDKEEAPYE\">They re-worked that contract to start this offseason, allowing the team and Cousins to get a fresh start. He will add to a free agent crop of quarterbacks that is wholly underwhelming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"DM5WBTO7KBEGXOSU47OGNBAMGQ\">The Steelers seem likely to put in legwork on all options until they get a certain answer from Rodgers, though the momentum seems to be pushing in the direction of a return for the four-time MVP. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have questions at quarterback heading into this offseason. Aaron Rodgers is the first order of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7685,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-108579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-isolated","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}