Mar 11, 2022 5 min read

No, the Steelers never had an offer in with the Green Bay Packers for Aaron Rodgers as was reported on one website. And they were never in the mix to trade a bunch of draft picks and players to Seattle for Russell Wilson.

And they’re not interested in trading for Houston’s Deshaun Watson and his $35-million base salary in 2022, let alone all of the sexual assault lawsuits.

This is the silly season. And when you no longer have a franchise quarterback, it gets more silly than usual, especially in today’s world of social media.

It gets old. But there’s a difference between a rumor and a report.

A rumor is something you read on some random site, typically run by fans who want to speculate who might look good on their favorite team. It’s often fantasy.

A report, meanwhile, was like the one produced by Pro Football Talk that said the Steelers had an offer in place with the Packers for Rodgers, if he chose to leave that team.

It was quickly debunked.

But those things often come from agents or someone else who stands to benefit from more than one team being interested in acquiring a player.

In this case, Pro Football Talk got played. It happens, especially in today’s get-the-story-up-now society.

But, boy, do they sure get the fans talking. Even if they’re not based in reality.

• What will the Steelers do at quarterback?

They’ll make a strong run at former Chicago Bears starter Mitch Trubisky in free agency.

Whether they get him or not will be largely dependent on what Trubisky wants in his landing spot.

The New York Giants and others are interested. And the Giants can offer him his former offensive coordinator as their new head coach. The Giants hired former Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who worked with Trubisky last season when he was a backup in Buffalo, as their new head coach.

That could be attractive to Trubisky. Competing for a starting job under the intense scrutiny that comes with playing in New York? That might not be as attractive.

• If not Trubisky or one of the other veteran quarterbacks on the market – Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota or Teddy Bridgewater – the Steelers still have a chance to add a quarterback in the draft.

And since we’ve already seen Denver and Washington – two of the teams that pick ahead of the Steelers – make trades for Wilson and Carson Wentz, that takes two potential landing spots off the table for a rookie quarterback.

The Steelers are still picking 20th in next month’s draft. And that’s not a prime spot to land a quarterback. But as the music continues to play during this year’s edition of quarterback musical chairs, there are still some seats available.

At least for now.

• So, we’ll have a baseball season after all. But there still is no salary cap in Major League Baseball.

That can only mean that fans in Pittsburgh had better be prepared for Bryan Reynolds to be traded at some point.

• Former New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels famously accepted the head coaching job with the Indianapolis Colts and then backed out of the deal a couple of days later.

He was hired last month as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. After seeing the Broncos trade for Wilson and then the Los Angeles Chargers add All-Pro outside linebacker Khalil Mack earlier this week, McDaniels might be rethinking his latest move, as well.

• The NFL’s legal tampering period – the dumbest term ever – begins Monday. Full-fledged free agency starts at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

More than 40 percent of the NFL’s players are headed for free agency, a big total. That’s largely because so many players signed one-year contracts last season because the salary cap actually decreased from the 2020 to 2021 seasons.

The cap went back up this year by $20 million to $208.2 million.

The Steelers are one of the teams with much more salary cap space than they had a year ago. In fact, last year, they had to cut players and reduce Ben Roethlisberger’s salary just to be in compliance with the cap.

This year, they have $30 million in cap space.

But don’t expect them to spend like drunken sailors on leave. They might sign a player or two early in the process. But the prudent move will be to wait for the big spenders to blow their money and then swoop in and pick out the bargains.

With so many players available this year, it will be a buyer’s market.