As Aaron Rodgers ponders his NFL future, the Steelers protected their rights in the event that he decides to play football this year by extended the UFA tender to Rodgers. The UFA tender is a one year contract that is worth 110% of his prior year salary- about $15 million in this case- and does not impact Rodgers ability, for now, to sign with another team. The tender does ensure that the Steelers would receive a compensatory pick for Rodgers if he did sign with another team during the next two and a half months. Their ability to receive a compensatory pick would have expired had they not extended the tender to Rodgers.

The tender also blocks Rodgers ability to simply wait and see as other situations arise around the NFL. While Rodgers is still free to sign anywhere, the tender will lock Rodgers into only playing with the Steelers if he fails to sign a contract by the start of NFL training camps. If he still does not sign by the end of the 10th week of the season his season will be over.

While this tender is not used often, it has been used for lower cost contracts (for a starting QB Rodgers has a very low salary) where a player still fits a need (obviously they can use a QB). Last year it was used on two players- RB JK Dobbins and WR Elijah Moore. Moore quickly signed with the Bills after receiving the tender from the Browns while Dobbins wound up leaving the Chargers to sign with the Broncos. Neither ended up impacting the compensatory draft selections despite maintaining the UFA status.

Rodgers will count on the Steelers salary cap now that he has been tendered. The Steelers currently have in the ballpark of $11 million in cap room.