Washington (United States) (AFP) – Future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers said Wednesday that 2026 will be his last NFL season. “Yes, this is it,” Rodgers told reporters when asked if the upcoming campaign would be his last. The four-time NFL Most Valuable Player this week signed a one-year contract to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team he joined last year under then head coach Mike Tomlin.
The deal reunites him with his former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy, who joined the Steelers in January after Tomlin stepped down in the wake of Pittsburgh’s playoff exit in the wild card round. “There’s definitely a full-circle aspect to it that piqued my interest,” the 42-year-old Rodgers said of playing for McCarthy again.
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Rodgers acknowledged that there was “some doubt for sure” as to whether he would return for a 22nd season. “But I had a good conversation with Mike going back to when he was hired and it’s nice to come back. It felt different than last year, because I knew some of the guys and some of the people who work here and stuff, so it felt good coming in.” Rodgers spent the bulk of his career working with McCarthy in Green Bay, where the duo won a Super Bowl together in 2011 — ironically against the Steelers.
Rodgers’s future had been in question ever since the Steelers’ playoff exit in January, when the veteran quarterback was sacked four times and was held to just 17 completions in a bruising 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans. However, speculation he would return increased after the Steelers opted to hire McCarthy, who made no secret of his desire to see Rodgers keep playing.
On Wednesday, McCarthy said everyone around the Steelers was “extremely excited” when Rodgers’s return became official. “I think that speaks for itself and speaks volumes of what he’s established in just his short time here,” the coach said. Rodgers, who won MVP honors in 2011, 2014, 2020, and 2021 with the Packers, had joined the Steelers on a one-year deal in June of 2025 after a disappointing season with the New York Jets.
– ‘I wanted to play’ – Shortly after inking that deal, Rodgers told ESPN’s “Pat McAfee Show” that he was “pretty sure” that the 2025 season would be his last, one “really about finishing with a lot of love and fun and peace for the career that I’ve had.” Rodgers had said in January after the Steelers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Houston Texans, that he wouldn’t make any “emotional decisions” on his future.
He said the departure of Tomlin strengthened his belief that he wouldn’t be returning, at least not to the Steelers, but the chance to team up again with McCarthy was too great a lure to resist, Rodgers said. “I love Mike (Tomlin), man,” Rodgers said. “I really appreciated the opportunity to come in last year and loved my experience with him. I thought, when he said he was stepping away… that was probably it for me in Pittsburgh.”
“But when the decision came in to hire (McCarthy), I started opening my mind back up to coming back,” added Rodgers — who said he encouraged Steelers general manager Omar Khan to interview McCarthy for the job not really expecting that he would. Rodgers said he made his final decision to return after conversations with McCarthy, Khan, and his wife, and after last month’s NFL draft. “I came to the conclusion that I wanted to play, I wanted to come back.”
© 2024 AFP
