Most of the offseason was spent talking about Aaron Rodgers. Would he play again? Would it be for the Pittsburgh Steelers? Was he worth it anyway? The debates never stopped.
A month into the season, Rodgers is laying the foundation for what might be one of the great stories in American sports history. And nobody seems to be talking about it at all.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers are 3-1 to start the season. In Week 1, the Steelers trailed Rodgers’ former team, the New York Jets, and Rodgers threw two fourth-quarter touchdowns to lead Pittsburgh to a win. In Week 3, Rodgers broke a tie with a touchdown pass to Calvin Austin III with 2:16 left. Last week, his 80-yard touchdown to DK Metcalf was a huge reason Pittsburgh beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-21. On top of the Steelers’ start, the Bengals, Ravens and Browns have each had significant injuries or issues. Pittsburgh looks like it might win its division and make the playoffs. The only competitor seems to be the Ravens, who are unraveling early in the season.
And it’s all happening without anywhere near the attention given to most of the other stories around the NFL.
It’s early in the season, and if Rodgers and the Steelers continue to lead the division, that story will get attention. Rodgers has intimated that this will be his last season, and after his Jets stint was a disappointment it looks like he might write the type of final chapter that very few players get. And he’s doing it at an age in which almost every other quarterback is long retired from football.
Regardless of what you think of Rodgers, it is a pretty cool story.
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Aaron Rodgers off to a good start
Two quarterbacks have started a playoff game at age 42 or older. Tom Brady, the exception to every rule when it comes to 40-something quarterbacks, started eight. Drew Brees started one, and his New Orleans Saints lost that game.
That’s the entire list. Other than Brady, whose longevity is one of the extreme outliers in sports history, there has been one losing start for any quarterback after turning 42 years old. So we can’t say that what Rodgers, who turns 42 in December, is trying to do is unprecedented. But it’s pretty close.
Rodgers has come up with the plays the Steelers have needed, though he’s nowhere near the form that earned him four MVPs. Rodgers ranks 37th among 38 graded quarterbacks at Pro Football Focus. Only rookies Cam Ward and Jaxson Dart have a worse passing grade. His surface stats are just fine though: 68.5% on completions, 786 yards, eight touchdowns, three interceptions and a 102.6 passer rating.
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It’s far more than anyone could have realistically expected from a quarterback at Rodgers’ age. There are four instances of a quarterback at 42 years or older attempting at least 100 passes over a full season and posting a passer rating above 76.6, and every instance was Brady.
Rodgers is doing what he can and what the Steelers ask. Rodgers had one of the strongest arms in NFL history, but this version of him throws short. Extremely short. His average depth of target is a minuscule 3.1, less than half of the quarterback with the second-lowest ADOT, which is Kyler Murray at 6.4. What Rodgers is doing is keeping the chains moving, not making many crushing mistakes and then, if the Steelers need him to be the closer in the fourth quarter, he has done that a couple of times.
Can the Steelers success continue with Rodgers playing this style? Maybe, maybe not, but what he has done already defies any of the norms of what he should be doing at his age in the NFL. It’s just that the celebration of it, at least to this early point in the season, has been muted.
Aaron Rodgers has helped the Steelers to first place in the AFC North. (Yahoo Sports graphic by Stefan Milic)
Rodgers’ ‘complicated’ legacy
Years ago, then-Packers president Mark Murphy let it slip that the late Green Bay general manager Ted Thompson would refer to Rodgers as “a complicated fella.” That fits.
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There has been Rodgers fatigue, though you wouldn’t know it from a summer of wondering if and when he’d sign with the Steelers. There has been plenty of drama within the game, with his seemingly annual retirement dilemma or bringing all of his cronies with him to the Jets. There are the stories of darkness retreats, the passive aggressive appearances on TV with Pat McAfee, and his political views. Rodgers is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in NFL history — he has four MVPs, second to only Peyton Manning — and it’s safe to say his overall popularity has dipped. Maybe that’s why Rodgers leading the Steelers to first place in the AFC North hasn’t been a big topic even though everything else that happens in the NFL becomes a big topic.
If quarterbacks are still playing in their 40s, they’re usually broken down and having a sad ending in an unfamiliar uniform. Rodgers is having a bit of a revival after an unsatisfying two seasons with the Jets. He has come back from a torn Achilles suffered in the 2023 season opener. He has led a fourth-quarter comeback against a team that gave up on him, and threw a game-winning touchdown to complete the 36th game-winning drive of his career two weeks later. He has a decent chance to become just the third quarterback his age to lead his team to the playoffs. Instead of a forgettable ending, he has a real shot at going to the playoffs as a starting QB for the 12th time, and his first time since 2021.
So far, it’s a head start to a great story. Just a story that’s not, to this point, being amplified. It’s complicated.
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