So much of free agency happens in a flash, but roughly three weeks into the new league year, the Steelers are content to wait on adding to the quarterback room.
Asked by reporters Sunday at the Annual League Meeting if Pittsburgh was operating with an internal deadline to sign or pass on Aaron Rodgers, who visited with the team on March 21, head coach Mike Tomlin replied there isn't one.
"Not to my knowledge," Tomlin said, per ESPN. "I don't know that we've approached it from a deadline perspective. Certainly, as I mentioned, you'd like to have settled circumstances, but deadlines don't often bring that to a head."
So far this offseason, the Steelers have seen their two starters from last year, Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, catch on with new squads. Wilson signed with the Giants, who also had been looking at Rodgers, while Fields inked a deal with the Jets to join Rodgers' former squad.
Pittsburgh, meanwhile, signed Mason Rudolph after he spent a year away in Tennessee, and currently rosters only one other QB -- Skylar Thompson.
As Rodgers' apparent options have dwindled, so, too, have the Steelers', but Tomlin didn't question Rodgers about a timeline during the aforementioned free-agent visit. Instead, he opted to become more acquainted with a longtime opponent on a personal level.
"It's been reported that he spent a day with us, and it was a really good day," Tomlin said. "Specifically, he and I obviously have known of each other for some time, and so it was really good to spend some time together, man, and get to know each other more intimately, but it is free agency. It is a process."
Tomlin added: "I really wanted to spend more of our time just getting to know him better and things that he values as a player and a man, and what he might be looking for with his next stop."
But what if Rodgers' next stop is ultimately not with the Black and Gold?
Pittsburgh apparently has no concrete order of operations, rather Tomlin shared the club will "continue to explore all our options in terms of rounding that room out."
"I don't know if we are identifying anything as Plan A, Plan B or Plan C," he said. "We're just simply looking at the field of available people, whether it's free agency or the draft and making decisions and gathering information accordingly."
When it comes to the upcoming draft, the Steelers hold the No. 21 overall pick. It's not exactly prime real estate for landing one of the top projected signal-callers like Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward, nor does Pittsburgh possess a ton of capital to catapult itself too far forward. The Seattle Seahawks own their second-round pick thanks to the trade for wide receiver DK Metcalf.
However, there are still prospects with plenty of talent likely to be available when the Steelers are on the clock. If someone like Jaxson Dart falls there, Daniel Jeremiah, Bucky Brooks and Charles Davis all sent the Ole Miss product to the Steel City in their most recent mock drafts.
Such a move still wouldn't necessarily preclude the Steelers from signing Rodgers. At 41, he could help elevate the Steelers over the wild-card hurdle that's plagued them in recent years while serving as a mentor, but Pittsburgh having a first-round QB in its back pocket would also allow a lax deadline.
No matter what direction or directions the Steelers go, Tomlin has earned the trust he'll steer them well.
They haven't experienced a losing season during the entirety of his 18-year tenure, and the roster is equipped to keep on winning once the Steelers finalize their QB room -- whenever that may be.
