Around this time last year, Aaron Rodgers could be found appearing on the Pat McAfee Show to assert that he was “pretty sure” that the 2025 regular season would be the final one of his Hall of Fame career. Well, almost eight weeks have passed since the season officially ended for Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he doesn’t appear to be any closer to actual retirement.
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If anything, it actually seems as if he’s heavily considering the idea of a 22nd season, or at least, that’s what he seemed to suggest during his most recent appearance on McAfee’s show. “Anybody on here that is expecting me to make some big decision, just turn it off now,” Rodgers prefaced to McAfee’s viewers.
“I’ve talked to Mike [McCarthy.] I’ve talked to Omar [Khan.] There’s been no deadline that’s been put in front of me. There’s no contract offer or anything, so there’s nothing that I’m having to debate between. I’m a free agent, and I’m enjoying my time with my wife and this part of the offseason.”
In case that wasn’t ambiguous enough, the 42-year-old veteran also suggested that, while he does believe that there are “some conversations to be had,” those will ultimately come “down the line.” In other words, those still being the ones of Rodger, “there haven’t been any progressive conversations.”
Even though he was able to finish inside the top 15 in terms of passing yards, completions, and touchdowns, all of those totals still marked career lows for Rodgers. To make matters even worse, the last time that he was on a football field, he was being dominated by a prolific Houston Texans defense.
In what still has the potential to be the final game of his career, Rodgers struggled to complete just 51.5% of his passes. He produced a measly total of 146 passing yards and a career-worst 50.8 passer rating while throwing an interception and enduring four sacks.
That ultimately resulted in a sixth consecutive postseason loss for the Steelers and the firing of Mike Tomlin, who had been the head coach of the team for nearly two decades. Regardless of what Rodgers decides to do about the 2026 season, the Steelers find themselves facing an extensive period of uncertainty.
From their dealings with T.J. Watt to their trading for D.K. Metcalf, everything that Pittsburgh did last offseason was done with the intent of ending their now decade-long drought in the playoffs. They pushed all of their chips in on Rodgers, only to bust when things mattered most.
That may come up when it’s time to negotiate his next one-year deal, but it’s also just as likely that those negotiations will never happen, and therein lies the issue with Rodgers at this point in time. You may be familiar with him, you may know what he was capable of in the past, but you don’t know what you’re getting with him now.
Banking on him to turn back the clock, in any sort of capacity, has now proven to be a foolish wager, so unless everyone truly believes that he’s capable of recapturing the magic that he once found with McCarthy back in 2010, then perhaps it’s best that the Steelers finally begin the hunt for their next long-term quarterback.
