{"id":186909,"date":"2026-05-08T05:47:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186909\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T05:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:47:26","slug":"local-insider-reveals-detail-confirming-aaron-rodgers-always-intended-to-return-to-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186909\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Insider Reveals Detail Confirming Aaron Rodgers Always Intended To Return To Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Aaron Rodgers returns to the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room, it\u2019ll be like he never left. Despite another prolonged offseason wait for Rodgers to finally provide an answer, one that seems inevitable and soon, the PPG\u2019s Gerry Dulac provided one detail<\/a> that signaled Rodgers always planned to return.<\/p>\n

In an article reiterating 93.7 The Fan\u2019s initial report t<\/a>hat Rodgers would meet with Pittsburgh this weekend, Dulac shared this piece of information.<\/p>\n

\u201cRodgers never cleaned out his locker at the team\u2019s South Side practice facility, indicating it was more likely than not he was planning to return,\u201d Dulac wrote.<\/p>\n

A small but obvious sign that Rodgers did not plan to retire. It\u2019s all the more revealing knowing that locker room cleanup day happened after Mike Tomlin announced his resignation,<\/a>\u00a0long before Mike McCarthy was hired. At the time, Rodgers didn\u2019t even know that he could return to Pittsburgh without learning a brand-new system or scheme, as would have been the case had anyone other than McCarthy gotten the job.<\/p>\n

Locker room cleanouts happen quickly. One day, the Steelers are playing for the chance to advance to the Divisional Round. The next, their season ends, their coach resigns, and their offseason begins. But Rodgers doesn\u2019t live in Pittsburgh, nor does he regularly return to visit the city. The fact that he opted to keep his locker intact represented his mindset even as he told reporters he needed to mull over his future.<\/p>\n

Why the long wait? That\u2019s for Rodgers to answer once he speaks to the media. But it\u2019s likely because he can. As was the case in 2025, Rodgers hasn\u2019t shown urgency to resolve these situations. He loathes the offseason program, and though he seems poised to sign before May 18\u2019s voluntary sessions, there\u2019s no guarantee he attends them all. Rodgers knew Pittsburgh was willing to wait for him and had no issue enjoying his life untethered from a team and contract for the first few months of the offseason.<\/p>\n

But the seemingly inevitable answer is the one most suspected all along. Rodgers is poised to return, with news potentially becoming official within days. Details like Dulac\u2019s nugget, information that would\u2019ve been useful months ago instead of now, confirm those suspicions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Aaron Rodgers returns to the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room, it\u2019ll be like he never left. Despite another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3269,41057,73,75,74,1833,995],"class_list":["post-186909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-gerry-dulac","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186909","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=186909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}