Quarterback Aaron Rodgers is returning to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a 22nd season in the NFL, according to multiple reports.
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Rodgers, 42, suggested last summer that the 2025 season could be his last. He then led the Steelers to the AFC North division title and a playoff berth in his first year with the team, where they lost, 30-6, on Jan. 12.
ESPN and the NFL Network both reported Saturday that Rodgers would re-sign with the Steelers to play for a familiar face: Mike McCarthy, who is entering his first season coaching Pittsburgh but coached Rodgers for 13 seasons in Green Bay until 2018.
By extending his career, Rodgers will continue to add to career totals that rank him among the most prolific quarterbacks in NFL history. A starter the last 18 years with Green Bay, the Jets and Pittsburgh, Rodgers has earned 10 Pro Bowl honors and his four NFL Most Valuable Player honors rank behind only Peyton Manning, all-time.
He ranks tied for first all-time in passer rating, fourth in passing touchdowns and fifth in passing yards.
His contract with Pittsburgh ran just one season, in anticipation that he might retire after the 2025 season, making him a free agent for the second consecutive offseason. Last year as Rodgers mulled whether to retire or continue playing, he was drawn to Pittsburgh in part because of his trust in Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. When Tomlin stepped away as coach in January, the team hired McCarthy, who first began coaching Rodgers in 2006. That familiarity made it seem possible the coach and quarterback might reunite again when, in March, Rodgers told ESPN that McCarthy was “one of the great guys in the league” and that, “deep down, there’s so much love and appreciation for the time we spent together.”
Still, at the same time, Rodgers maintained that he had not made a decision whether to continue playing.
One of his greatest strengths was how rarely he turned the ball over, relative to other high-usage quarterbacks of his era. Despite attempting 8,743 passes, sixth-most in league history, he threw interceptions on only 1.4% of them, a percentage that ties for the best all-time.
In 2020, Rodgers led the NFL with a career-high 48 touchdown passes and 70.7 completion percentage. That year he also courted controversy, and not for the first time. Asked whether he was vaccinated against Covid-19 during the 2020 season, Rodgers told reporters he had been “immunized”; when he later tested positive and was sidelined by the NFL, he was widely criticized. He later told a biographer, Ian O’Connor, that “if there’s one thing I wish could have gone different, it’s that, because that’s the only thing (that critics) could hit me with.”
Rodgers has also drawn attention and criticism for eccentricities including his use of psychedelics such as ayahuasca, and a 2023 sensory-deprivation retreat in near-total darkness in Oregon.
His 2023 exit from in Green Bay, which had drafted his successor at quarterback, led Rodgers to be traded to the Jets but he suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon in his debut drive with the team. After going 5-12 with the Jets in 2024, the team’s new leadership informed Rodgers he wouldn’t return, and he signed with Pittsburgh after deciding for months whether to retire or play a 21st season.
Rodgers signed with Pittsburgh as the league’s oldest active player — a distinction that was briefly usurped by the late-season return of 44-year-old Philip Rivers — and threw for 3,322 yards and 24 touchdowns, his fewest since injury-shortened years in 2020 and 2017. Still, his touchdown with a minute remaining in the regular-season finale helped Pittsburgh win its first division title since 2020, and Rodgers secure his his first postseason appearance since 2021.
Rodgers signed with Pittsburgh and threw for 3,322 yards and 24 touchdowns, his fewest since injury-shortened years in 2020 and 2017. Still, his touchdown with a minute remaining in the regular-season finale against Baltimore helped Pittsburgh win its first division title since 2020, and Rodgers to secure his first postseason appearance since 2021.
In October, Rodgers said he harbored no ill will toward Green Bay.
“I’ll retire a Packer and see what happens after that,” Rodgers said. “I’ve got a lot of love for the organization, my time there.”
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