Aaron Rodgers is 41 years old. He’s entering his 21st NFL season. The four-time league MVP said on “The Pat McAfee Show” last month that he’s “pretty sure” 2025 will also be his final season.
At the time, Rodgers said he didn’t ask Pittsburgh for more than one season, hence the one-year deal he signed ahead of Steelers minicamp.
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But recently extended Steelers general manager Omar Khan said Friday on “The Rich Eisen Show” that he’d be open to Rodgers staying in Pittsburgh longer than just one season.
Eisen asked, “Do you envision any scenario in which this could be a longer stay in Pittsburgh, if [Rodgers is] so inclined?”
Khan replied: “Obviously we have to see how the season goes, but absolutely. He’s a young 41, and we’re obviously taking it year-by-year, and that’s where we’re at.
“But we’re obviously not closing the door on anything.”
While earning 10 Pro Bowl nods and a Super Bowl ring, Rodgers spent the first 18 seasons of his Hall of Fame-caliber career with the Green Bay Packers, who drafted him No. 24 overall in 2005. It looked like he’d end his illustrious NFL playing days in New York, but his two-year stint with the Jets didn’t go according to plan.
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Rodgers tore his Achilles on the Jets’ fourth snap of the 2023 season, which he then missed while recovering from the heartbreaking injury. Last year, he posted a 28:11 touchdown-to-interception ratio and threw for 3,897 yards while completing 63% of his passes. But his 90.5 passer rating was just below the 92.3 league average and far below his 102.6 career average. His 6.7 yards per attempt were the fewest he had averaged in a season since 2015.
His return, and subsequent durability, at his age last season was impressive. His team’s record was not. The Jets finished 5-12 and didn’t sniff the playoffs.
There was a long wait this offseason to see if Rodgers would come back for another NFL season, either with the Jets or with another franchise.
Eisen asked Khan how he remained so patient for Rodgers to make a decision.
“Somebody asked me about that the other day, and I can say we don’t really view our patience as a weakness,” Khan said Friday. “I view it as a strength. And we had some conversations, and we were engaged with him and just felt really good about our chances. And we went through the evaluation process early and felt like he was going to be the right guy for us if we could land the plane. … He did a great job of communicating with us. I don’t know what the narrative was out there.”
But that’s when Eisen cut Khan off. Eisen asked for the fourth-year Steelers GM to clarify what he meant by Rodgers’ “great job of communicating.” Eisen asked if Rodgers was reaching out to the organization.
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“It’s just open dialogue,” said Khan, who was working in the Steelers’ football operations and player personnel department when they won two Super Bowls in the 2000s.
“We knew where he stood, what was going on with him. And he knew where we were, and it just felt really comfortable with the process.”
Rodgers took what longtime Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin called a “productive” visit on March 28. At the spring owners meetings the next week, team president Art Rooney II was asked if Rodgers would sign with the team, and Rooney indicated Pittsburgh was on that trajectory.
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In mid-April, though, Rodgers went on the “Pat McAfee Show” and mentioned that retirement could still be a possibility while noting that he wanted to focus on his personal life at that time.
The Steelers waited until the sixth round to draft a quarterback — Ohio State’s Will Howard — and ultimately came to an agreement with Rodgers in June.
Rodgers is hard to read and has been for quite some time. Whether he plays beyond this year is anyone’s best guess. But Khan is open to the idea. He, of course, wants to see how this season goes first.
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