Aaron Rodgers Rumors, Other NFL Storylines We Didn't Expect to Dominate During OTAs

When it comes to generating headlines and holding fans' attention, the NFL continues to reign supreme. Both the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Final have arrived, yet the National Football League is still managing to draw interest with organized team activities (OTAs).

Of course, there are reasons why the NFL continues to compete with other major sports, even in its offseason. For one, the global appetite for football is massive and only growing. Secondly, the NFL landscape is as unpredictable as it gets.

Seriously, who, at the start of the offseason, expected Mason Rudolph and Will Howard to be the top two quarterbacks in Pittsburgh with the Steelers waiting on Aaron Rodgers to make a decision just days ahead of mandatory minicamp?

And the continuing flood of Rodgers rumors might not even be the most unexpected storyline making the rounds during June OTAs.

Let's take a look at some of the league's most unforeseen developments, the latest buzz, what could lie ahead and what it could all mean for the 2025 NFL season.

Steelers 'Sick' of Hearing Rodgers Questions

AP

No one is truly surprised Rodgers is in the headlines right now. The New York Jets released him after a down year, he's the most prolific free agent still available, and the guy just loves to be in the spotlight.

What is surprising is the fact that the Steelers have been willing to essentially gamble their 2025 season on a 41-year-old quarterback who may or may not even play this year.

"I'm open to anything and attached to nothing," Rodgers told The Pat McAfee Show in April (h/t Lauren Campbell of MassLive).

It's surprising because A) Rodgers isn't a long-term answer for a Steelers franchise that needs one and B) his outspoken personality doesn't seem to mesh with a franchise whose face has been head coach Mike Tomlin.

The Steelers had other opportunities to add a quarterback and passed. They did bring back Rudolph and take a sixth-round flier on Howard, but they watched Sam Darnold sign with the Seattle Seahawks, allowed Justin Fields to sign with the Jets and eschewed signal-callers on the first two days of the draft.

Even more surprising is the fact that the Steelers seemed to expect a wager on Rodgers to yield a different summer result.

"They just wanna know what's going on,” NFL Network's Tom Pelissero told the Rich Eisen Show (h/t Campbell). “And they're sick of hearing about it, and they're sick of being asked about it."

We're talking about a player who (very publicly) went on a darkness retreat before deciding he wanted to play for the Jets in 2023 and who skipped their mandatory minicamp last offseason despite recovering from a torn Achilles.

That Rodgers remains undecided five days before minicamp and that reporters want to know what's going on is the most unsurprising aspect of this entire situation.

The Seahawks Defending New $100 Million QB Sam Darnold

AP Photo/John Froschauer

Sam Darnold

While we're on the subject of former Jets disappointments in unexpected situations, we have to mention Sam Darnold. The 2018 first-round pick was largely considered a bust before emerging as a Pro Bowler with the Minnesota Vikings last season.

It wasn't a shocker to see Minnesota turn the page to 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy this offseason or see Darnold land a three-year, $100.5 million contract in free agency.

What few could have seen coming back in early March was Darnold being the new face of the Seattle Seahawks and still having to be defended by head coach Mike Macdonald.

The first part of the situation was surprising enough. A few months ago, the Seahawks were discussing a contract extension for two-time Pro Bowler Geno Smith.

"He's got another year," GM John Schneider said in late February, per ESPN's Brady Henderson. "We expect him to be our guy, but we want to do what's right, too."

Only days later, Seattle announced it would trade Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders, reuniting him with former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll. A few days after that, the Seahawks added Darnold as a free agent.

Through one lens, the QB swap made sense. Smith will turn 35 in October, while Darnold is only 28. Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak spent time with Darnold as the San Francisco 49ers passing game coordinator in 2023, so there should be schematic familiarity.

On the other hand, it's a big risk. Darnold has just one season of above-average play on his resume and floundered in his last two starts of 2024. And if he doesn't rebound with his new team while the Seahawks struggle, Macdonald could be on the hot seat entering 2026.

Fortunately, the Seahawks didn't go all-in on Darnold, despite what his contract—and the Smith trade—might suggest. Seattle brought back Drew Lock in free agency and used a third-round pick on Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. This is what leads us to Macdonald defending Darnold as his starter.

"You guys are crazy," he told Seattle Sports 710 AM when asked if there's any chance Darnold wouldn't be the Week 1 starter. "I respect that you've got to ask it, but it's just a crazy question."

It's not a crazy question, considering how Darnold's career went before joining the Vikings last season. It would have seemed crazy a few months ago, however, for Macdonald to be fielding questions about the USC product holding off Lock and Milroe in Seattle this offseason.

Shedeur Sanders Trying to Win a 4-Way QB Battle as a 5th-Round Pick

AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

Shedeur Sanders

The only thing unsurprising about the Cleveland Browns' quarterback situation is that it doesn't have a clear-cut solution.

Barring an extremely unforeseen development, Deshaun Watson won't be in the mix this season. He tore his Achilles twice in the past calendar year and hasn't played well when healthy for Cleveland.

The Browns, however, did trade for Kenny Pickett, sign Joe Flacco and draft Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.

Sanders was the last one added to the QB room, drafted two rounds after Gabriel, but some in the Cleveland organization reportedly believe he can win the offseason quarterback competition.

"Listen, in that building, there are people who believe that Shedeur can 100 percent be the starter of this football team," ESPN's Kimberley A. Martin told Get Up (h/t USA Today's Nick Brinkerhoff). "...talking to people in that building, they've said he is soaking up everything like a sponge."

What would have seemed most shocking about the entire scenario a few months ago is the fact that Sanders was the second QB drafted by Cleveland and lasted until the fifth round. While he wasn't viewed as a "can't-miss quarterback," many believed he was worthy of a first-round selection.

The Bleacher Report Scouting Department ranked the Colorado product as its 23rd overall prospect on its final draft board. ESPN's Field Yates had the Browns trading back into Round 1 to take him 29th overall in his final mock draft.

Since the draft, plenty in the media have tried to paint the idea that Sanders' slide wasn't unexpected.

"A few evaluators, so put off by the way the player carried himself, gave him a late-round to undraftable grade," Mike Jones of The Athletic wrote after the draft.

Even if Sanders was never a true first-round talent, though, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in March who believed he'd be the sixth quarterback off the board on draft weekend. You'd probably have an even harder time finding someone to predict he'd soon be competing with a 2022 first-round pick and one of five rookie QBs drafted ahead of him.

Caleb Williams Having to Convince Anyone He's Happy to Be in Chicago

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Caleb Williams

While Sanders wasn't considered a sure-fire first-round selection, Caleb Williams was widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick heading into the 2024 draft. He ultimately was, as the Chicago Bears made him the first player off the board.

While Williams' rookie season wasn't as successful as most expected, Matt Eberflus never seemed to have a functional plan for his rookie QB. The offensive line wasn't good, the former Bears head coach repeatedly appeared ill-prepared, and coordinator Shane Waldron rarely highlighted Williams' strengths.

Early in the 2025 offseason, though, positivity was high in Chicago. The Bears had a new head coach in former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, and general manager Ryan Poles rebuilt the line by adding Joe Thuney, Drew Dalman and Jonah Jackson to its interior.

That was before Chicago used a first-round pick on tight end Colston Loveland and a second-round selection on wide receiver Luther Burden III.

Williams' supporting cast, and his entire situation, are considerably better than it was a year ago. Instead of seeing it translate into some offseason positivity, however, we've seen the 23-year-old having to convince the media and fans he's happy to be in his current situation.

This is because details from Seth Wickersham's forthcoming book American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback suggest Williams initially made a concerted effort to avoid the Bears in the 2024 draft.

All of the buzz generated by Wickersham's book led to the USC product taking questions about the pre-draft process in the middle of OTAs.

"All of those were thoughts and after I came for my visit here it was a deliberate and determined answer that I had, that I wanted to come here," he told reporters.

Now, Williams was always going to face scrutiny this offseason. He was viewed as a "sure thing" entering the draft and was outperformed by fellow rookies Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix and Drake Maye last season. However, seeing him explain to reporters that he wanted to come to Chicago, over a year after he was drafted, was not on our OTA bingo card.

Tyler Shough Trending as QB1 in New Orleans

AP Photo/Ella Hall

Tyler Shough

Tyler Shough was one of the five quarterbacks selected ahead of Sanders, taken in the second round by the New Orleans Saints.

Now, the Louisville product may already be the front-runner to be the Week 1 starter.

"The rookie can absolutely spin it," Luke Johnson of NOLA.com wrote after the Saints' early OTAs. "Given about 15 plays in a seven-on-seven period, Shough made several attention-grabbing throws that showed off a varied skill set as a thrower."

There are a couple of reasons why Shough potentially being QB1 in New Orleans would have seemed surprising a few months ago. For one, he didn't get a ton of pre-draft attention until late in the process.

The 26-year-old was the 113th-ranked prospect on the B/R Scouting Department's final draft board.

"The talent and potential are there, but he needs more consistency," B/R analyst Dame Parson wrote.

New Orleans used a 2023 fourth-round pick on Jake Haener and a 2024 fifth-round selection on Spencer Rattler, which means Shough is the most highly drafted QB on the roster—which might not have been expected heading into the event.

Secondly, the Saints didn't seem like a team that would have an open competition heading into the offseason. Derek Carr was the presumed QB1 until early April, when NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported a shoulder injury could threaten his 2025 season.

The four-time Pro Bowler, of course, then announced his retirement roughly two weeks after the draft.

This leaves New Orleans with a three-way quarterback competition between Shough, Rattler and Haener that could be one of the more fun battles of the offseason but one few anticipated dominating Saints camp in 2025.

Micah Parsons Still Doesn't Have a New Contract

AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Micah Parsons

The Dallas Cowboys have a habit of waiting to sign contract extensions that has cost them millions in the past.

They waited until after CeeDee Lamb's fourth season to give him an extension instead of giving him a deal as soon as he was extension-eligible after Year 3. He ended up coming in just behind Justin Jefferson's then-market-leading $35 million annual salary with a receiver-record $38 million signing bonus.

Dallas also waited until Jared Goff, Tua Tagovailoa, Jordan Love and Trevor Lawrence signed 2024 extensions before giving Dak Prescott a deal worth $60 million annually. That's the highest annual salary in NFL history and $5 million per year more than any other NFL quarterback currently makes.

Pass-rusher Micah Parsons has been extension-eligible since last offseason, but surely the Cowboys wouldn't repeat their mistake and wait too long to pay him, would they?

Indeed, Dallas sat idly by as, first, Maxx Crosby, and then Myles Garrett took turns becoming the highest-paid pass-rushers and non-quarterbacks in NFL history. Then, the Cincinnati Bengals made wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase the highest-paid non-QB in league history by topping Garrett's $40 million annual salary with a $40.3 million-per-year contract.

Heading into mandatory minicamp, it doesn't appear that an agreement is imminent with Parsons.

"I’ll let you know when it happens," executive vice president Stephen Jones said, per The Athletic's Jon Machota.

With Detroit Lions pass-rusher Aidan Hutchinson also extension-eligible, Parsons' price point could go up even higher before Dallas finally puts pen to paper—assuming it does in time to avoid a holdout or a hard-line stance that sees the four-time Pro Bowler hitting free agency in 2026.

Parsons, 26, has promised he'll attend minicamp, but he's entering the final year of his rookie contract and is deserving of a new market-leading extension. We'd have expected him to have it by now.