For now, Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers are once again coworkers. McCarthy’s contract has just been signed; Rodgers’s contract has not yet expired.
The biggest question, given McCarthy’s arrival as the new Steelers’ head coach, is whether Rodgers will sign another contract.
In comments provided to the team’s website on Sunday, owner Art Rooney II left the door open for a Rodgers return, while also not ruling out the possibility of closing it.
“We don’t know what Aaron’s plans are right now, and that did not weigh heavily in the decision,” Rooney said. “We’ll see where Aaron is, and we’ve left the door open, but obviously we all have to sit down and see if that makes sense. So that’ll happen sometime in the next month or so. But the decision was made based on Mike being the coach we want, and it really had very little to do with whether Aaron is going to be back or not.”
It’s a delicate dance for the Steelers. Rodgers, who likely didn’t want to return to the Jets in 2025, seized on their decision to sever ties (and the way in which they communicated it) to complain publicly about the treatment he received. If the Steelers choose to go in a different direction, it will be better if Rodgers makes the first move — if he isn’t interested in a reunion with McCarthy.
McCarthy, as Rooney tells it, may be interested in seeing what 2025 sixth-rounder Will Howard can do.
“He likes Will Howard, thinks Will has tremendous upside and is looking forward to working with him,” Rooney said regarding McCarthy. “Obviously feels like Mason [Rudolph] can be a contributor. We’ll have to sit down and discuss where Aaron is, if he decides to come back, and whether that all makes sense. I think Mike was very comfortable with the quarterback room and the possibilities with the quarterback room. In particular, the fact we have a young quarterback on the roster in whom he sees some upside.”
Rodgers, who reads something into everything, may interpret that quote as an indication that McCarthy would prefer to try to develop Howard than to milk one more year out of Rodgers. Indeed, by Rooney saying “whether that all makes sense,” Rodgers may (accurately) conclude that, based on the Steelers’ communications to date with McCarthy, there’s a real question as to whether another year with Rodgers does make sense.
Of course, both could happen. Rodgers could be the starter in 2026, and McCarthy could work with Howard, in the hopes of making him the starter in 2027.
None of it matters if Rodgers doesn’t want to stay, now that Mike Tomlin is gone. Does Rodgers want to play for McCarthy again? Check out Tyler Dunne’s deep dive from 2019. Does the picture painted point to Rodgers-McCarthy II?
“Mike has a low football IQ, and that used to always bother Aaron,” an unnamed source told Dunne at the time. “He’d say Mike has one of the lowest IQs, if not the lowest IQ, of any coach he’s ever had.”
Whatever the Steelers do at quarterback, the pressure is on. Rooney’s extensive comments seemed to be a response to the immediate reaction from Steelers fans regarding the news of the McCarthy hire.
“The chatter throughout Steelers Nation in the immediate aftermath of this hire has been largely negative,” Bob Labriola of Steelers.com wrote in the article accompanying Rooney’s remarks.
The next chance to turn a negative into a positive comes on Tuesday, when McCarthy is introduced via a 2:00 p.m. ET press conference.
Steelers fans everywhere will hang on every word uttered. Aaron Rodgers will, too.
