Two games into Aaron Rodgers' farewell tour, one may be already asking the question nobody wanted to ask in September: how bad would it have to get for Pittsburgh to bench him?
The honest answer is probably "really, really bad." But if it ever gets there, I have strong feelings about who may be taking the next snap. It should NOT be Mason Rudolph!
The Offense Is Already Sputtering
Some context first. Rodgers, now 42 and entering his 22nd season, has announced this year as his last rodeo. Pittsburgh brought him back and paired him again with Mike McCarthy, his longtime head coach from their Green Bay days.
The Steelers got pummeled 20-3 in New England in Week 2, dropping to 1-1 with just 235 yards of offense. They went 2-for-12 on third down, gave up four sacks, and never found the end zone. Rodgers threw for 187 yards with a pick and lost a fourth-quarter fumble that the Patriots took back for the touchdown that sealed it. Rodgers himself didn't sugarcoat it. He pointed out that the defense has been holding opponents to 13 points a game while the offense is putting up eight, and said that's "not winning football."
He's right. And if that stays the story, the benching conversation gets louder.
The Magic Number
The Steelers' bye is in Week 9, so Week 8 is the natural checkpoint. If Pittsburgh walks into that bye at 2-6, or even 3-5, with an offense that still can't get out of its own way, it's time to talk and the Steelers would have the bye week to implement any changes. At that point you're not protecting a playoff push. You're figuring out what comes next.
Would McCarthy actually take Rodgers out of the starting lineup? I don't see it happening. For the sake of the exercise, let's discuss.
The Mysterious Injury Playbook
If it did happen, they won't frame it as a benching. It'd look like an injury.
Look at what's going on with Joey Porter Jr. right now. He sat out the first two games citing a back injury, and the timing lines up a little too neatly with his contract situation. He and the Steelers couldn't agree on a long-term deal this summer, and with the team's policy against in-season negotiations, he looks set to play out his rookie contract unless he's traded. Either way, the Steelers have let the back injury be the story, and that keeps the peace.
Pittsburgh has a history of getting creative with injury designations to manage a roster. Last year, a lot of people questioned how hurt Will Howard really was. The rookie broke his right pinky in camp, missed the whole preseason, and went on IR on Aug. 28. He wasn't activated until Nov. 12, the last possible day, after sitting out the first 10 weeks. He never took a regular-season snap.
So would they hand Rodgers a "sore shoulder" and let him ride out his final year on the sideline? I wouldn't rule it out.
Why Mason Rudolph Makes No Sense
If you're going to do something as drastic as benching a future Hall of Famer in his final season, you don't do it to give Mason Rudolph reps. If you pull that trigger, it's for one reason: to get one of your young quarterbacks on the field.
Pittsburgh kept four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, and Howard has been the inactive emergency QB3 behind Rodgers and Rudolph. Rookie third-rounder Drew Allar was a healthy scratch in street clothes for the opener. The Steelers could head into the offseason with Allar and Howard having zero NFL game experience, walking into a draft class stacked with top college quarterbacks, and not knowing whether they already have their guy. That's a disaster.
Which Young QB Gets the Nod?
That's the next debate, and it deserves its own article, honestly. Howard has the extra year, while Allar has the draft capital and the arm. Whichever way they lean, eight or nine games of real football would tell the front office more than any practice ever could.
There's also a clean way to open the door: move Rudolph. Quarterback-needy teams are popping up all over the league.
Week 2 was brutal for young QBs. Caleb Williams got carted off in Chicago, Jayden Daniels dislocated his non-throwing elbow, and Jaxson Dart suffered a nasty-looking knee injury on Monday night. Dart may be done for the regular season after imaging showed his knee was worse than first feared. Williams turned out to be day-to-day with a hamstring, but for now Chicago is turning to Tyler Bagent, the Giants to Jameis Winston, and Washington to Marcus Mariota.
Out in Seattle, Sam Darnold went down with a glute injury five snaps into the season opener, and the Seahawks have gone 2-0 with Drew Lock under center.
A contender that loses its starter midseason would absolutely take a call on a veteran backup who knows how to manage a game. That's a REAL market for Rudolph, and it's a path for a rookie to take over.
The Future Can't Wait on a Farewell Tour
Nobody's rooting for this. Two games is too early to panic, and the Bengals are next up this Sunday with a chance to change the narrative. But if the offense doesn't turn things around and the Steelers limp into the bye at 2-6 or 3-5, sticking with Rodgers just to stay on the good side of a quarterback who's already announced he's leaving would be close to asinine, if not flat-out asinine.
The 2026 season will be over for Rodgers either way. For Allar or Howard, it could be the start of something. Pittsburgh needs to know who it has at the QB position before we are on the clock next April.