Aaron Rodgers has reportedly agreed to return as quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers on a one-year deal worth up to $25 million. The base salary is expected to land around $22 to $23 million, with incentives pushing the number higher.
At 42, Rodgers enters his 22nd NFL season and reunites with Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy, who coached him in Green Bay from 2006 through 2018 and helped guide the Packers to the Super Bowl XLV title. As US News and World Report illustrates, the coach and quarterback share a history.
Rodgers reunites with former Packers coach Mike McCarthy, hired to lead the Steelers in January after Mike Tomlin stepped down following 19 seasons.
Rodgers and McCarthy spent 13 years together in Green Bay, where Rodgers blossomed into one of the game’s biggest stars after becoming the starting quarterback in 2008. Green Bay won its fourth Super Bowl and Rodgers earned two of his four MVPs with McCarthy calling the plays.
The arrangement will be much the same with the Steelers, though both player and coach are in different phases of their respective careers. This figures to be Rodgers’ last ride, and the 64-year-old McCarthy is almost certainly ending his coaching journey a few miles from the Greenfield neighborhood where he grew up.
The Steelers made it clear they would welcome Rodgers back, though a couple of artificial deadlines — first the start of free agency in March, then the NFL draft last month in Pittsburgh — came and went with Rodgers unsigned.
For Packer fans, Rodgers started as a sympathetic figure. He grew up in Northern California, sat through the first day of the 2005 NFL draft while the San Francisco 49ers passed on him, and then landed in Green Bay behind Brett Favre.
Packer fans watched him wait, learn, and take the heat when Favre’s long goodbye finally opened the job. Rodgers earned his chance and then earned the devotion that followed. His arm talent was ridiculous, with accuracy that could make a tight window look like a barn door. The Super Bowl win bought him permanent real estate in Green Bay history.
Then the picture changed. The confidence that once looked like calm command began to look like vanity with a play clock. The celebrity orbit grew, the interviews grew stranger, and the retirement drama began to feel less like reflection and more like theater.
When the Packers drafted quarterback Jordan Love, Rodgers moved into full wounded-genius mode, and Packer fans got a sequel to the Favre drama they never asked to watch again.
As a lifelong Packers fan, I didn’t turn on Rodgers overnight. The affection wore down gradually, play by play, interview by interview, grievance by grievance. He seemed to need the chip on his shoulder even after the world handed him money, awards, applause, and a gold jacket waiting somewhere down the road.
A chip can drive greatness when a player has something to prove, and after a while, it also becomes a personality with cleats.
The 2020 NFC Championship game against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers still sticks in my craw. Green Bay lost 31-26 at Lambeau Field. Rodgers threw for 346 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception, so nobody can pretend he played poorly.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Packers reached the Tampa Bay 8-yard line. Rodgers threw three straight incompletions, and head coach Matt LaFleur chose a field goal instead of going for the tie on fourth down.
Sitting in the opposite end zone, I watched the third-down play unfold with a sick feeling. Rodgers appeared to have room to run, at least enough to improve the line of scrimmage and maybe allow for a better option on fourth down.
Instead, he passed up the run. I screamed like a bloody fool because I saw the hole open up, but the play died, and the Packers settled for three points in a game they should’ve won.
Rodgers had taken plenty of physical punishment in his career, including a broken collarbone, so the moment doesn’t erase his toughness. It does capture why the later Rodgers years became so exhausting.
Pittsburgh now gets the whole package; the arm still works, and the brain still sees defensive looks before most quarterbacks finish tying their shoes. Rodgers threw for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns, and seven interceptions for Pittsburgh last season, leading the Steelers to the playoffs before losing to the Houston Texans.
As the New York Post explains, Rodgers publicly admitted the 2026 season would be his last. So, Pittsburgh acted accordingly, drafting a quarterback in the recent NFL draft.
Upon signing a one-year, $13.65 million deal with the Steelers last June, Rodgers told “The Pat McAfee Show” that he believed the 2026 season would be his last.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is it,” Rodgers said then. “That’s why we just did a one-year deal. Steelers didn’t need to put any extra years on that or anything, so this was really about finishing with a lot of love and fun and peace for the career that I’ve had.
“I played 20 fricking years. It’s been a long run. I’ve enjoyed it, and no better place to finish than in one of the cornerstone franchises of the NFL with Mike Tomlin and a great group of leadership and great guys in the city that expects you to win.”
Talent remains the reason teams keep answering his calls. The baggage explains why so many former fans no longer wait by the phone.
Rodgers will always matter in Green Bay. He gave the Packers brilliant Sundays, impossible throws, and a championship. Still, gratitude doesn’t require pretending the act never got old.
Steeler fans can cheer the comeback, and they should. Packer fans can watch from a distance and remember the baggage that came with the brilliance.
Aaron Rodgers remains one of the most gifted quarterbacks football has ever seen, but longtime Packers fans know talent didn’t arrive alone.
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