Aaron Rodgers Recruited to Cardinals by Kendrick Bourne as WR Reacts to NFL Rumors

As the Pittsburgh Steelers await an answer from quarterback Aaron Rodgers regarding whether he plans to play in 2026, a player from another team made an overture toward the future Hall of Famer on Tuesday.

Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Kendrick Bourne tagged Rodgers in a post on X, writing, "Come on we waiting on you."

Bourne's post comes one day after Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (h/t Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio) wrote that the Steelers' "patience could be starting to wear thin," with the Rodgers waiting game.

Last offseason, as the game of quarterback musical chairs wound down, it became clear that Pittsburgh was the only viable option for Rodgers if he wanted to be a starter in 2025.

As a result, Rodgers finally signed with the Steelers in June, and the 42-year-old went on to start 16 games for the Steelers, going 10-6 and completing 65.7 percent of his passes for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions, as Pittsburgh won the AFC North and reached the playoffs.

After the Steelers were outclassed by the Houston Texans in the AFC Wild Card Round of the playoffs, it was unclear what they planned to do at quarterback this offseason.

The answer thus far has been "not much," as they retained Will Howard and Mason Rudolph, while selecting Drew Allar in the third round of the 2026 NFL draft.

That would seem to indicate that the Steelers expect or at least hope Rodgers will re-sign with them.

In an attempt to protect against the possibility of Rodgers' signing elsewhere, though, the Steelers placed the unrestricted free-agent tender on him last month.

That means the Steelers would receive draft compensation if Rodgers signs with another team, and if he does not sign by July 22 or the first day of Pittsburgh's training camp, the Steelers will have exclusive negotiating rights with him.

While there has been no indication that another team plans to explore signing the four-time NFL MVP, Bourne's post suggests that Rodgers does at least have some support within other organizations.

The Cardinals have a pair of journeyman quarterbacks in Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew, and they selected Carson Beck in the third round of the 2026 NFL draft.

Brissett did not attend the Cards' offseason program last month due to his desire for a new contract, per NFL Network (h/t ESPN's Josh Weinfuss).

Even so, Brissett is still expected to be the Cardinals' starter in 2026, and despite Bourne's post, it is difficult to envision Arizona adding a third veteran QB, especially after using a Day 2 draft pick on Beck.