(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) leaves the field after an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Houston Texans, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar,File)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Rodgers is still weighing whether he wants to play in 2026. The Pittsburgh Steelers are still willing to give him plenty of latitude to decide.

Pittsburgh general manager Omar Khan said Monday the team remains in regular communication with the four-time MVP, who guided the Steelers to the AFC North title in 2025.

“Nothing’s changed,” Khan said. “It’s all been positive and good. He knows how we feel about him and we know how he feels about us.”

It just hasn’t rendered any definitive answer from Rodgers, and none appears to be coming before the NFL draft descends on Pittsburgh on Thursday. The 42-year-old quarterback didn’t sign with Pittsburgh until just before the start of mandatory minicamp last June. Rodgers’ uncertain status, however, is unlikely to play a factor in what the Steelers plan to do with their 12 selections that begin with the 21st overall pick.

“That doesn’t change our evaluation process,” Khan said. “We’re still putting the guys up where they need to be and we’ll just see how it shakes out.”

What was once considered a quarterback-rich draft a year ago looks far different now, with no safe bets outside of Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza of Indiana going No. 1 to Las Vegas.

The Steelers currently only have two quarterbacks under contract in last year’s sixth-round pick Will Howard — whose rookie season a year ago was marred by a hand injury sustained early in training camp — and longtime backup Mason Rudolph.

Pittsburgh will almost certainly add to that depth in the draft. Penn State’s Drew Allar, Miami’s Carson Beck and North Dakota State’s Cole Payton have all been in for pre-draft visits, though all figure to be later-round selections whenever they hear their name called.

Mike McCarthy, a Pittsburgh native hired to replace Mike Tomlin in January, has a lengthy resume as quarterback whisperer of sorts. The list of players McCarthy has worked with in the past include Rodgers, Dallas’ Dak Prescott and former No. 1 overall pick Alex Smith, who spent a year with McCarthy in San Francisco in 2005.

“We speak on it as being the most important position in football,” McCarthy said. “And I think it’s important to always try to add to it if you can (but) it has to fit.”

The Steelers do have several needs outside of a young quarterback, including a versatile receiver to team with veterans DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr., and at offensive tackle, a position that’s in a state of flux as left tackle Broderick Jones — their first-round pick in 2023 — recovers from a neck injury that forced him to miss the last seven games of 2025.

There is no timetable on when Jones might be ready, though he was with his teammates on Monday as part of the “medical group” as the Steelers held informal workouts.

Khan said Jones was still “early in the process” and the injury means Pittsburgh will almost certainly decline Jones’ fifth-year option for 2027, meaning they might head into the draft eyeing a longer-term solution to protect whoever might end up being the franchise quarterback the club has been searching for since Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement in early 2022.

Pittsburgh’s dozen picks give Khan the option to use some of them as collateral if the team decides to trade up. There’s also the chance he could trade down early in the draft to accumulate more capital.

McCarthy seems fine either way. While he called the current roster a “nice mix” of older and younger players, the chance to add quality depth is never a bad thing.

“Being above 10 (picks) I think would be awesome personally,” McCarthy said. “I’ve always felt that the more players you have to develop, I think it definitely is, for the long term, a good process.”

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) leaves the field after an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Houston Texans, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) The Pittsburgh Steelers still do not know who will be their quarterback in 2026 as this year’s NFL draft will be hosted in the Steel City this Thursday through Saturday. According to Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the Steelers have not received word from Aaron Rodgers on his future and there is no expectation of a final decision prior to the 2026 NFL Draft. Will Howard is the starting quarterback for the Steelers’ bonus minicamp today.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds singles off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan to drive in two runs in the fifth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Bryan Reynolds drove in three runs, Mitch Keller pitched seven strong innings, and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 6-3 on Sunday.

Reynolds’ two-run single to left field capped a three-run fifth and put the Pirates ahead 4-2. The hit came after Nick Gonzales’ tying single drove in Joey Bart, who hit a leadoff double.

Keller (2-1) allowed two runs — on Hunter Feduccia’s single in the fifth — and five hits while striking out five.

Reynolds also drove in the game’s first run on a fielder’s choice in the first that scored Jake Mangum, who led off the inning with a double.

Home runs by pinch-hitter Spencer Horwitz in the sixth and Nick Yorke in the eighth extended the Pirates’ lead to 6-2.

Shane McClanahan (1-2) gave up four runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. He had five strikeouts and no walks.

Junior Caminero homered leading off the ninth for the Rays, connecting off Wilber Dotel, who was making his major league debut. Dotel retired the next three batters to end the game.

Mangum, Gonzales, and Reynolds — the top three hitters in the lineup — each had two of the Pirates’ 12 hits.

The Rays lost two of three in the series after entering on a six-game winning streak. The Pirates finished their homestand 4-3.

Up next

Rays: Open a three-game series against Cincinnati on Monday night. Tampa Bay has not announced its starting pitcher. LHP Rhett Lowder (2-1, 3.52 ERA) takes the ball for the Reds.

Pirates: Off on Monday before opening a three-game series on Tuesday at Texas, where they will see former teammate Andrew McCutchen.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Tampa Bay Rays’ Cedric Mullins, right, celebrates on his way back to the dugout with Jonny DeLuca after his two run home run off of Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Yohan Ramírez thirteenth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Cedric Mullins led off the 13th inning with a two-run home run and the Tampa Bay Rays outlasted the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-7 on a rainy Saturday night.

Mullins’ blast to right field off Yohan Ramirez scored automatic runner Jonny DeLuca. Mullins entered the day hitting just .129 after signing with Tampa Bay in the offseason as a free agent.

Griffin Jax (1-2) pitched a scoreless 12th. Yoendrys Gomez allowed a run-scoring single to rookie Konnor Griffin in the bottom of the 13th, then struck out Joey Bart with runners on second and third to end it.

Both teams scored a run in the 11th. The Rays’ Taylor Walls came around from first on a wild pickoff throw by Ramirez (2-1). The Pirates countered with Griffin’s run-scoring fielder’s choice.

Pittsburgh tied it at 5 in the eighth on rookie Nick Yorke’s RBI single.

The first pitch was moved up 30 minutes in hopes that the teams could beat the rain. However, play was stopped for 2 hours, 27 minutes, with the Pirates leading 4-0.

The Rays then scored five runs in the fifth to take a 5-4 lead. Junior Caminero doubled in the first run and scored on Jonathan Aranda’s single. Two batters later, pinch-hitter DeLuca lined a two-run single to center field, and Mullins followed with a go-ahead single.

Pirates ace Paul Skenes pitched four scoreless innings on his bobblehead day, including escaping a bases-loaded jam with none out in the second. The 2025 NL Cy Young Award did not return after the delay.

Rays starter Drew Rasmussen gave up two-run home runs to Ryan O’Hearn in the first inning and Marcell Ozuna in the fourth, but the Pirates couldn’t hold the 4-0 lead.

Up next

Rays LHP Shane McClanahan (1-1, 3.95 ERA) was set to face RHP Mitch Keller (1-1, 2.86) on Sunday in the series finale.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Pittsburgh Pirates’ Brandon Lowe follows through on his swing driving in two runs with a double off of Tampa Bay Rays’ pitcher Yoendrys Gómez eighth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Oneil Cruz hit a two-run home run, Brandon Lowe went 3 for 5 with two doubles and two RBIs, and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat Tampa Bay 5-1 on Friday night to snap the Ray’s six-game win streak.

Bubba Chandler (1-1) allowed a run and three hits over six innings. Mason Montgomery, Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana each pitched an inning of scoreless relief.

Marcell Ozuna and Spencer Horwitz each had three hits.

Ozuna led off the second inning with a single and opened the scoring when Horwitz doubled. Konnor Griffin followed with a single, but left fielder Chandler Simpson’s throw home, though off line, gave catcher Nick Fortes enough time to apply the tag as Horwitz tried to score from second.

The Pirates have outscored their opponents 23-1 in the second inning this season, the best run differential in any inning by an MLB team this season. Pittsburgh’s best run differential during any inning in 2025 was a plus-19 (71-52), also in the second inning.

Rays starter Nick Martinez (0-1), who went winless with a 2.41 ERA in his first four starts this season, gave up two runs in 5 1/3 innings. He allowed eight hits, walked three and had three strikeouts.

Simpson singled with two out, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Chandler and scored the Rays’ only run when Junior Caminero singled.

Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes received his 2025 National League Cy Young award, which was presented by Doug Drabek, before the game. Skenes had a major league-best 1.97 ERA and 216 strikeouts in 187 2/3 innings last season. Skenes, Drabek (1990) and Vernon Law (1960) are the only Pirates players to win the award.

Up next

Skenes (3-1, 4.00 ERA) is set to start Saturday against Drew Rasmussen (1-0, 1.13) in the second of a three-game series.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) skates with the puck against Washington Capitals left wing Ilya Protas (62) during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby, his face cleanly shaven for now, settled into the bench inside the Pittsburgh Penguins dressing room on Thursday and pulled a black baseball cap over his head.

For the first time in what felt like a long time, Crosby didn’t have to spend part of a mid-April afternoon cleaning out his locker and answering questions about how another season got away from the Penguins or wonder what might lie ahead during another uncomfortably long summer.

Not after a team that began the season with modest expectations — externally anyway — morphed into one of the NHL’s biggest surprises by finishing a strong second in the Metropolitan Division to return to the playoffs following a three-year absence that at times felt far longer.

Jokingly asked if he liked talking about the postseason more than whatever murky future might lie ahead, the 38-year-old Crosby — free to let his patchy playoff beard return after an extended break — just smiled.

“Way better,” the only player in NHL history to average at least a point in 21 straight seasons said. “This is what you play for, to compete for the Stanley Cup. And I think after some years not being able to do it, I think we appreciate it even more.”

Perhaps because it was so unexpected.

Pittsburgh began the season with a largely unknown first-year coach in Dan Muse and a slew of new faces to play alongside Crosby and fellow franchise fixtures Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. The Penguins ended it as the NHL’s third-highest scoring team while showcasing the mix of flash and resilience that served as the club’s trademarks during a string of 16 consecutive playoff appearances from 2007-22, three of which culminated with a Stanley Cup parade through downtown Pittsburgh in the early days of summer.

Reaching those giddy heights again would take some doing. Yet the Penguins are in the mix, and after spending three years watching the postseason go on without them, they will take it.

“The potential has always been there,” said defenseman Erik Karlsson, whose third season in Pittsburgh might be among the finest of his 17-year career. “And this year we really found a way to bring it out of everybody and be where we are today.”

A destination that long felt like a rite of spring for the better part of two decades until Pittsburgh’s playoff streak came to an abrupt end in 2023. Yet as one missed appearance turned into two and then three, there was a real sense from Crosby, Malkin, and Letang that the clock was ticking on their historic partnership.

“I think there may have been, ‘We got to get back to the playoffs’ or, you know, during the time when we were out, how much we missed being in, and having conversations like that,” Crosby said.

Yet, even with Malkin’s contract status beyond this season very much up in the air, they didn’t try to think of this year as one last ride. There was too much going on with the arrival of Muse — a longtime NHL assistant with a reputation for helping young players develop — to get sentimental.

As understated as former Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was forceful, Muse brought to Pittsburgh a detailed, workmanlike approach that preached accountability on both ends of the ice. Not one for “rah rah” speeches or soaring oratory, Muse instead focused on preparation and transparency.

“He’s a good communicator,” Crosby said, who added Muse makes it a point to make sure “everyone understands what’s expected of their role.”

It certainly helped that Muse took over a roster masterfully remade by general manager Kyle Dubas, who deftly retooled around his Hall-of-Fame-bound core by bringing in players designed to not make the Penguins so top-heavy.

Far too often in recent years, Pittsburgh went as Crosby and Malkin went, with little around them to pitch in. Not so much in 2026.

The offseason additions of forwards Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha (both of whom set career highs in goals and points), the precociousness of teenager Ben Kindel — who turns 19 on Sunday — and the chemistry of perhaps the best fourth line in the league in Blake Lizotte, Connor Dewar and Noel Acciari helped the Penguins survive this season even with Crosby and Malkin both missing significant time due to injuries.

Brazeau could sense the urgency when training camp started in September. It has rarely wavered over the last seven months.

“I knew we had a lot of guys that were hungry to prove something in this league,” Brazeau said. “I think that can be a good recipe.”

It certainly has looked that way. The Penguins played perhaps some of their best hockey down the stretch, emerging from a crowded field to reach the postseason with room to spare.

Each time it seemed things were teetering — notably in December when Malkin was lost for a month with an upper-body injury and again when Crosby was forced to miss several weeks while recovering from a knee injury sustained at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics or during any of its 16 overtime/shootout losses that cost them valuable points — the Penguins would right themselves.

Karlsson, who returned to form after a couple of shaky first years in Pittsburgh, led the way. The three-time Norris Trophy winner brushed off the idea that he is enjoying a late-career renaissance and played some sort of outsized role in Pittsburgh’s rise, instead directing the spotlight to a team that spent an 82-game grind defying the odds.

Why stop now?

“I think that the belief in here is very high,” he said. “What I think, unfortunately, is there’s another 15 teams that are in the same situation. So we’re just excited to be able to dance.”

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – In this April 25, 2019, file photo, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks ahead of the first round at the NFL football draft in Nashville, Tenn. In a memo sent to the 32 teams Monday, April 6, 2020, and obtained by The Associated Press, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell outlined procedures for the April 23-25 draft. The guidelines include no group gatherings. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, FIle)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Three Beaver County natives will take the 2026 NFL Draft theater stage in Pittsburgh to make picks for several NFL teams in the second and third rounds. Jimbo Covert, a Conway native, will be announcing one of the Chicago Bears’ three selections on day two of the draft. Hopewell graduate Tony Dorsett will announce the Dallas Cowboys’ third-round pick and fellow Hopewell graduate Paul Posluszny will be announcing one of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ four selections. Former Pittsburgh Steelers Jerome Bettis, Joey Porter, Sr. and John Stallworth, as well as Steelers cornerback Joey Porter, Jr., will announce the hometown team’s second and third round selections. The draft will take place on the North Shore from April 23rd-25th.

(Credit for Photo: Photo Courtesy of Visit Pittsburgh)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) The Football Town, the first-ever immersive format documentary produced by NFL Films, will be free for attendees of the 2026 NFL Draft presented by Bud Light, from April 23rd-25th, expanding access to a signature experience that captures the Pittsburgh region’s deep-rooted football tradition. The film is playing at the Kamin Science Center’s Rangos Giant Cinema. The Football Town is a 50-minute film that explores the storied football tradition of the region and its unique place in the history of the sport and is produced by NFL Films in partnership with VisitPITTSBURGH, the Pittsburgh Steelers and U. S. Steel. It is narrated by Pittsburgh native Pat McAfee and it includes appearances from many Steelers legends including Jerome Bettis, Bill Cowher, James Harrison, and Joey Porter Sr., who will talk about how football is woven into the cultural identity of the region. The film also features the football traditions of the region like Friday night lights, Pop Warner youth football, college programs and the Steelers on Sundays. The Football Town will be offered free of charge with multiple daily showings on a first-come, first-served basis from April 23rd-25th as part of NFL Draft week programming at the following times:

• Thursday, April 23rd and Friday, April 24th: 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
• Saturday, April 25th: 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.