When Mike Tomlin first announced that he would be stepping away from the Pittsburgh Steelers, there was certainly no shortage of guesses as to what the future might hold for the franchise. Some argued that they would finally slip into irrelevancy after losing the most-winning head coach in history. Others suggested that they would prioritize a more offensive-minded play caller this time around. But almost no one expected them to announce their successor within the same month.
Advertisement
On Saturday afternoon, the franchise confirmed that the former Green Bay Packer, Mike McCarthy, will become their fourth head coach in franchise history, setting up a potential reunion with his former quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. According to Skip Bayless, however, it’s pretty hard to be excited about a stale product.
“It’s a bad idea,” Bayless stated during the latest episode of his self-titled show on YouTube. “It won’t work… Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers did one great thing together long ago, in a galaxy far away, in Green Bay… I think they want [Rodgers] back, and I think he wants to go back, obviously now reuniting with Mike McCarthy… Aaron Rodgers is now washed up, but the Steelers can’t let him go,” he added.
While highlighting the various instances in which Rodgers reportedly lambasted his teammates both in the locker room and in the film room throughout the 2025 regular season, Bayless went as far as to label the future NFL Hall of Famer as an “all-time blame deflecting, finger-pointing diva.” Throw in the fact that Rodgers’ performance against the Houston Texans in the Wild Card round of the playoffs was an outright “disaster,” and it’s safe to say that Bayless would have preferred a complete reset in Pittsburgh.
In the eyes of the former Undisputed host, the franchise is all but bought in on the duo that was responsible for their defeat at Super Bowl XLV back in 2011. However, it’s worth remembering that there’s no guarantee that Rodgers will actually stick around.
Before the start of the season, the now-42-year-old signal caller famously remarked that he was “pretty sure” that the 2025 regular season would be the final one of his storied career. Throw in the fact that Rodgers was reportedly sobbing and apologizing to Tomlin in the locker room following their loss to Houston. And there’s certainly enough here to suggest that his heart may just no longer be up for it.
Thankfully, for both Rodgers and the Steelers, there’s plenty of time to figure out the details, as we still have another six months before talks of training camp begin to circulate.
