INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — With Aaron Rodgers undecided on whether to return for a 22nd season in the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers are anticipating quicker clarity about their quarterback situation this time.
General manager Omar Khan said he doesn't have a deadline in mind for determining if the team will need to look elsewhere. Though Rodgers put off retirement last year to play for coach Mike Tomlin, the hiring of Mike McCarthy as Tomlin's successor has increased the chance of Rodgers returning because of the 13 seasons he played for McCarthy with the Green Bay Packers.
“He knows how we feel, and we know how he feels about us,” Khan said at the league's scouting combine in Indianapolis. “There's a mutual respect there.”
After being released by the New York Jets, Rodgers had serious talks with the Minnesota Vikings before they decided to move ahead with J.J. McCarthy last year. Rodgers ultimately waited until June to join the Steelers. They won the AFC North with a 10-7 record but lost their seventh straight playoff game since the 2016 season.
“I think the circumstances are a little different, but just conversations that we had, I think neither side wants to have this drag on like we did last year,” Khan said.
The Steelers remain high on their 2025 sixth-round draft pick, Will Howard, who spent most of his rookie season on injured reserve.
“We’re all searching for the next franchise player, the guy who’s going to be our quarterback for the next 10 or 15 years. It might be Will. We don’t know. We’re excited to work with Will,” Khan said.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
FILE - Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers speaks during a press conference after an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Houston Texans,Jan. 12, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE - Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) throws during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Houston Texans, Jan. 12, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Justin Berl, File)
FILE - Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers looks on after defeating the Baltimore Ravens in an NFL football game, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams, File)
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing a grocery store owner during a robbery in Florida was set to be executed on Tuesday, which will make him the second person put to death in the state this year.
Melvin Trotter, 65, was initially convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1987. However, the state Supreme Court found the trial court had erred in handling aggravating factors in his case and ordered a new sentencing, and Trotter again drew the death penalty in 1993. He is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke.
Tuesday's planned execution and another earlier this month in Florida follow a record 19 executions in the state last year. In 2025, Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. The previous Florida record was eight executions in 2014.
According to court records, Trotter strangled and stabbed Virgie Langford at her store in Palmetto in 1986. A truck driver found Langford alive after the attack, and she was able to describe her attacker before eventually dying at a hospital.
Besides recalling Trotter's physical appearance, Langford said her attacker had a Tropicana employee badge with the name “Melvin” on it. According to court records, police later found a T-shirt with Langford's blood type at Trotter's home and the man's handprint on a meat cooler at the grocery store.
Last week, the Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Trotter. His attorneys had argued that Florida corrections officials had mismanaged its own death penalty protocols. Attorneys also argued that Trotter's advanced age of 65 should exempt him from execution.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Trotter's appeal on Tuesday afternoon. In a separate opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised questions about the state's administration of lethal drugs. In his appeal to the court, Trotter's attorneys noted that he does not challenge Florida's use of lethal injection or claim that the state's lethal injection protocol is unconstitutional. Instead he argues that Florida could “maladminister” the protocol in a way that increases the risk for a “mangled” execution that violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Sotomayor wrote that she hopes going forward the state and its courts “will recognize the paramount importance of ensuring that it conducts executions consistently” with the proper protocols.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each last year.
So far this year, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida have carried out one execution each.
On Feb. 10, a man convicted of killing a traveling salesperson who he and his brother had met at a bar become the first person executed in Florida this year. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.
Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for next month: Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on March 3, and Michael Lee King, 54, on March 17.
All Florida executions are carried out by injecting a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
FILE - Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla., Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Curt Anderson, File)
