Steelers' biggest Aaron Rodgers problem is completely out of their control

The Aaron Rodgers-Pittsburgh Steelers standoff continued on Thursday with the NFL Draft exactly one week away. What seemed like an inevitable marriage now looks more and more like it's careening towards an awkwardly forced betrothal.

Even so, the only one who seems to have any choice in the matter is Rodgers himself. Pittsburgh is the last of his potential suitors still standing but he's not making it easy on them. After multiple meetings and no signed contract, the four-time NFL MVP seemed more likely to retire than come back for one last ride.

Rodgers insisted he's just doing his "due diligence," while speaking to The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday, and that Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is well aware of his thought process. Translation: He'll be ready when he's ready.

Steelers biggest Aaron Rodgers problem is out of their control

Pundits and writers (including yours truly) have been taking every little development and putting it under a microscope to analyze. That's just what happens in this era of new sports media.

"The lines of communication are open [with Pittsburgh] and the people that need to know know what's going on... the people that don't just make up sh-t," Rodgers said Thursday.

That's entirely fair. But it doesn't make the Steelers' biggest problem about this whole situation go away. They don't know for sure if Rodgers wants to play still. If he were all in on next season, he'd already have put pen to paper. But like I said, he seems to be holding the cards.

He's made more than enough money and built an impressive enough resume to retire and be an automatic first-ballot Hall of Famer in a few years. That would leave Pittsburgh with no choice but to draft a rookie and scrape the barrel of free agent veteran signal callers.

But that risk of Pittsburgh drafting a rookie either way may be what's keeping Rodgers from signing altogether. He could wait until after next week to see what direction general manager Omar Khan goes in, and if he doesn't feel threatened by any of the picks (if any of them are QBs) then he'll be back. If he's not willing to compete for his starting role for an entire season or more, he'll call it a career as he's most definitely earned.

All of that to say, Pittsburgh has its hands tied. Only Khan and Tomlin know what Rodgers wants to do and perhaps their strategy next week in Green Bay will provide some insight.