Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers says his 22nd NFL season will be his last.
Rodgers spoke with the media today for the first time since re-signing with the Steelers, and he assumed that the one-year deal he reached will be the last NFL contract he signs.
“This is it,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers will turn 43 in December and is the oldest player in the NFL. So it’s not exactly a shock that he doesn’t see himself playing beyond this season. But today’s statement was his most definitive yet that he will retire after one more year in Pittsburgh.
Rodgers spent 18 years with the Packers and two with the Jets and is now beginning his second year with the Steelers.
For whatever reason, quarterback Aaron Rodgers kept everyone in the dark as to his plans for 2026, until he signed with the Steelers over the weekend. And despite the claims that Rodgers was always returning to Pittsburgh, the team’s decision to use the unrestricted free agent tender on Rodgers proves that the Steelers truly didn’t know what he was going to do.
Here’s a possibility as to why he returned when he did. Rodgers may have been waiting for the 2026 schedule to be finalized before making it known to the league office that he’ll be playing this year.
The idea has merit in the NFL’s past practices. After Rodgers missed all but four snaps of the 2023 season due to a torn Achilles tendon, the league justified its decision to give the Jets six primetime games in the first 11 weeks of the 2024 season by saying that the Jets “kind of owe us one.”
Last year’s schedule was set before Rodgers committed to Pittsburgh. NFL V.P. of broadcast planning Mike North later said that, if the league had known Rodgers would be signing with the Steelers, the Steelers-Jets game from Week 1 would have landed in a national window.
Other tweaks to the schedule would have possibly been made, if Rodgers or the Steelers had shared with the world before the release of the 2025 schedule what they apparently knew. So it would have been very easy for the league to say, this year, that the Steelers and Rodgers “kind of owe us one” in setting the standalone games for 2026.
As it stands, the Steelers have one prime-time game before Week 10, and three thereafter. Surely, that decision wasn’t made to showcase Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, or Drew Allar. And the later games can be flexed, if 2026 doesn’t go well for the Steelers.
Would they have gotten more standalone games if the league had known Rodgers was returning? Maybe, maybe not. But there was no reason for Rodgers (who has a tendency to hold a grudge) to do the league any favors, not after what happened in 2024.
And the timeline worked out perfectly. The schedule release happened days before the start of the Steelers’ OTAs. He signed in the perfect window for both participating in the full slate of OTAs and keeping the schedule makers in the dark.
With Aaron Rodgers officially on the roster, the Steelers currently have four quarterbacks.
Veteran Mason Rudolph, second-year QB Will Howard, and rookie Drew Allar fill out the rest of the room.
Rodgers’ presence means there are now fewer reps to go around for the younger players, Howard and Allar. But offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio told reporters on Tuesday that is not an issue.
“You can never have enough quarterbacks,” Angelichio said, via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “With the system that’s in place here, it’s great that we have four quarterbacks. We have a plan on how all those guys are going to get reps.”
Angelichio is familiar with Rodgers from their shared time with the Packers, as Angelichio served as Green Bay’s tight ends coach from 2016-2018. With Rodgers potentially going into the final season of his career, Angelichio praised the QB for his willingness to help out his teammates.
“Aaron’s such a great mentor ... His feedback and the information he provides, you can’t beat that,” Angelichio said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “He is very willing to help the players … I think that certainly is a big plus for us.”
With Rodgers set for at least one more ride with the Steelers in 2026, we likely won’t see the effects of his mentorship on the crop of younger QBs until a while down the road.
The news broke over the weekend that quarterback Aaron Rodgers is back with the Steelers. As of Monday, that was apparently news to linebacker Payton Wilson.
Via Brooke Pryor of ESPN, Wilson was surprised to see Rodgers at the facility.
“I was walking in, and he was coming out, and it was good to see him,” Wilson said. “I was a little shocked, definitely.”
Unlike last year, when Rodgers showed up for the mandatory minicamp at the tail end of the offseason program, he signed and reported for the first day of OTAs. Which makes sense. There’s plenty of work to be done without long-time coach Mike Tomlin there, and there’s only so much time with which to get it done.
If this will be Rodgers’s last year (and it would be wise for everyone to assume that), he’ll want to savor every minute of it. And he’ll want to have it go as well as possible.
Showing up sends a message that he gives a shit. That he wants to help the Steelers do something they haven’t done in a decade — advance past the wild-card round of the playoffs.
The work now begins in earnest. While it hardly guarantees a good outcome, it’s a good sign that Rodgers is both signed and committed.
The Steelers have signed a pair of their draft picks on Monday.
Pittsburgh announced receiver Germie Bernard and running back/receiver Eli Heidenreich put pen to paper on their respective four-year rookie contracts.
Bernard was the No. 47 overall pick in the second round out of Alabama. He caught 64 passes for 862 yards with seven touchdowns in 2025. He played two seasons for the Crimson Tide after spending 2022 at Michigan State and 2023 at Washington.
Heidenreich was the club’s final selection of 2026 at No. 230 in the seventh round. He played his college ball at Navy, appearing in 38 total games. He registered 109 catches for 1,994 yards with 16 touchdowns as well as 1,157 yards rushing with seven TDs.
