Ray Fittipaldo

Good morning, Joe.

How are you?

You got me?

Joe, I have not heard that, but I did find it a little bit odd that when he went on McAfee,

He made it a point to mention that he hadn't had an offer yet from the Steelers.

I think everyone, and I'm not going to speak for the Steelers, but I think a lot of people thought it was going to operate the way it did last season.

Do you want to play when you make that decision?

Yes.

Okay, then here's the contract.

And he was very amenable to the Steelers having more –

dollars to spend elsewhere on his roster like money was not a big deal for him last year so I don't know maybe I'd have a hard time believing that he would want to jump from 15 to 30 million um but I think everyone thought that yeah I mean if he's going to come back they might have to pay him 18 or 20 but 30 I I don't know if the Steelers would go to 30 to be honest with you

I don't know about that, Joe.

I think the Steelers, you know, from the front office on down, I think they understand that they have to get their future franchise quarterback at some point anyway.

And whether you start the clock on that,

you know, in April of 2026, or, you know, in January of 2027, I think they've come to the realization that it's not going to be perfect whenever it does happen.

So listen, if Aaron wants to come back, great, they can get on with that, you know, as planned in 2027.

But if it happens this year, you just sort of have to rip off the bandaid.

And, you know, Will Howard would compete with

Mason Rudolph and probably another veteran, and their intent would be to get Will Howard ready at some point in 2026 where they could judge him in games.

I'm not saying it would be the opener, but week four, week eight, week ten, at some point they would want to evaluate him in games and see if he is indeed a future franchise guy.