Cameron Heyward, Pat Freiermuth open up about Aaron Rodgers joining Steelers

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers agreed to a team-friendly contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers ahead of this past weekend and then took part in Monday's "Irons for Impact" golf outing hosted by longtime Pittsburgh defensive lineman Cameron Heyward.

During the latest edition of his "Not Just Football with Cam Heyward" podcast, Heyward and Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth touched upon having Rodgers as their starting quarterback for at least the 2025 season. 

"He brings a lot of leadership," Heyward said about Rodgers, as shared by Josh Carney of Steelers Depot. "We were talking about this last night. Dude's a four-time MVP. That is nothing to look over. I got a chance to meet him. Very nice and approachable, and he is just excited to get down to business."

Heyward attracted attention when he said in March that his "pitch" to Rodgers at that time was: "Either you want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler or you don't. It's that simple." Rodgers remained unsigned through the end of Pittsburgh's voluntary springtime workouts, and Heyward eventually insisted that his original comments were "misconstrued." 

More recently, Steelers offensive tackle Broderick Jones poured cold water over concerns related to not being able to build chemistry with Rodgers during the voluntary portion of Pittsburgh's offseason program. It now seems that Jones and others in the locker room understood for some time that it was a matter of when and not if Rodgers would join the club. 

Heyward revealed during the podcast that he spoke with New York Jets defensive lineman Quinnen Williams about Rodgers before the 41-year-old put pen to paper on his Pittsburgh contract. Williams spent portions of the past two seasons with Rodgers when the future Hall of Famer wasn't away from the Jets recovering from the torn Achilles he suffered in September 2023. 

"Q spoke so highly of him, said he was a great teammate, really loved playing with him," Heyward said about his conversations with Williams about Rodgers. "And I think he was kind of disappointed that Aaron wasn't coming back there for another season."

Rodgers allegedly hasn't always had the best of relationships with teammates during the second half of his career. Specifically, one report claimed that he and Jets receiver Garrett Wilson "never saw eye-to-eye." Nevertheless, Freiermuth said that he heard from people "around the league" that Rodgers is "a great teammate" and also a "great guy to share a locker room with." 

Much has been said over the past handful of months about what Rodgers may or may not have left in the tank after he went 5-12 as the Jets starter last season. Freiermuth seems to believe Pittsburgh's new QB1 could turn the clock back with the Steelers, if only for a handful of months.

"We're watching some film on him," Freiermuth added about Rodgers. "He's still got some arm strength, and he's still an unbelievable quarterback, so I'm excited to get working with him."

Rodgers technically will begin working with Freiermuth and other Pittsburgh players during the club's mandatory minicamp that runs from Tuesday through Thursday. That said, the Steelers' preparations for the upcoming season won't get serious until players report for training camp later this summer.