The most expeditious way to sift through the cumbersome language surrounding the UFA tag the Steelers placed on quarterback Aaron Rodgers this week is to simply call it “a paper move.”

It’s just procedural. It’s insurance so the Steelers can extend the compensation formula window. It has closed for any other free agents who haven’t received that kind of tag.

But that paper still has words on it, and those words mean something.

The words mean that the Steelers still aren’t sure Rodgers will be back.

They think they are sure. They are telling us they are sure on the record. They’ve told some of us the same thing off the record.

But they won’t be sure until Rodgers signs a different piece of paper: A real NFL contract for 2026.

Wake me up when that happens.

Anything else the Steelers say publicly or privately about how confident they are that Rodgers will eventually sign means nothing until he actually does. They won’t know until that ink is dry.

Which is why Mike Tomlin’s performative theater routine with Ryan Clark in August last year was just empty bravado.

That was just 20-20 hindsight. Tomlin didn’t know anything besides what Rodgers told him. Nothing prevented Rodgers from changing his mind or going elsewhere for a better option if one presented itself.

Just like now.

For instance, if the Steelers could’ve used this same tag on Rodgers last year, they would have.

If nothing else, it was a way to cover their backside between the end of the draft and when he eventually showed up in early June. There’s no reason to avoid using the tag.

As an example, as I write this column, I can see the National Aviary on the North Side through my window. I’m 99.9% sure that if I visit the aviary today, I’m not going to get attacked and injured by one of those giant condors or eagles that are housed there.

But if some guy was standing at the building’s entrance, handing out “bird attack insurance” for free — no strings attached — and all I had to do was sign the paper, I’m going to do it.

Not to mention, I trust those birds behind glass enclosures much more than I do Rodgers.

ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio has suggested that Rodgers will be upset by being tagged. But he also points out that there really isn’t any reason for Rodgers to be. He’s not negatively impacted by this move. Rodgers would just be getting mad for the sake of getting mad.

The Steelers don’t have any right of first refusal, and they aren’t granted the ability to match an offer. This is just protection against Rodgers pulling a fake retirement and screwing them over. Now Rodgers can’t become the 2026 version of Philip Rivers for free in Baltimore or Cincinnati midway through the year if Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow gets hurt.

Rodgers doesn’t like rules, even if the rules in question don’t directly impact him. So, yeah, I guess he could grumble about this technicality. That strikes me as being offended just because he wants to be offended.

Come to think of it, that is part of Rodgers’ personality. This is the same guy who complained about unnecessary attention surrounding his personal life on “The Pat McAfee Show” last month, and in the same interview, brought up the topic of his sex life with his wife.

No. I didn’t get that either.

But that speaks to the bigger issue, doesn’t it? The bigger question is, why are the Steelers still working this hard to carry a $15.1 million question mark around with them for a guy who ranked 27th in passing success rate and was barely good enough to scratch the team into the playoffs before getting blown out at home?

Then again, isn’t that what we were debating long before yesterday?

Perhaps we should be debating it even more now that the Steelers just drafted another quarterback.

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