As Aaron Rodgers was carted off the field Sept. 11, 2023, the shell-shocked crowd at MetLife Stadium wondered: Was it over?
Fans didn’t wonder only about whether Rodgers would return that game or that season.
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There was real reason to wonder, as Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon four snaps into his New York Jets tenure, whether he would ever play professional football again.
Far less had unceremoniously ended careers.
Rodgers was 39 years old, with invasive surgery and a grueling rehabilitation ahead.
After 18 great seasons with the Green Bay Packers, was there really more to come back for? Would playing for the Jets really motivate Rodgers through the stretching and the grasping of marbles between his toes, the lonely pain and the slow progress?
Aaron Rodgers had a disappointing run with the Jets but he says that isn’t motivating him with the Steelers. “I didn’t need this,” Rodgers said Tuesday. “I didn’t need it at all. I don’t feel the need to prove anything to anybody [and] don’t have any chip on my shoulder that I need to hold onto.” (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
(Michael Owens via Getty Images)
It’s easy to forget, or let fade, how much peril Rodgers’ career was in two years ago. Forget the much-discussed darkness retreat when Rodgers seriously considered, even before the Jets, walking off into the sunset. Retirement via Achilles injury would not have been on his timeline or in his way.
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And Rodgers is a man who likes doing things on his timeline and in his way.
So when he said Tuesday afternoon on the “Pat McAfee Show” that he anticipates 2025 being his last season, he wasn’t just agreeing to an obvious conclusion for a 41-year-old playing a younger man’s game. Rodgers’ admission was the closest he’s come to publicly acknowledging how near the end of his career is — and that he does, very soon, envision no longer playing professional football.
“I’m pretty sure this is it,” Rodgers said of the 2025 NFL season. “That’s why we just did a one-year deal. Steelers didn’t need to put any extra years on that or anything. So this was really about finishing with a lot of love and fun and peace for the career that I’ve had.
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“I mean, I’ve played 20 freaking years.”
The plan for Rodgers’ 21st year
Rodgers explained Tuesday why the Pittsburgh Steelers are his ideal destination to finish his career on his terms.
He praised head coach Mike Tomlin and a slew of defensive leaders beginning with Cam Heyward; Rodgers championed what trade-acquisition receiver DK Metcalf brings to the table, laughing at Metcalf’s desire to work out with Rodgers so close to sunrise.
“He’s like, ‘I work out at 6 a.m. every day [and] I’m like ‘OK, alrighty,’” Rodgers said. “This guy has discipline. This guy has to drive. I said, ‘How about 8 o’clock because I have to drive from Malibu to UCLA?’
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“He’s not just a specimen, but he’s a really solid human being. He is a solid, solid dude and he leads by example.”
Rodgers joins the Steelers after his decorated Packers tenure included 10 Pro Bowl berths, four MVP awards and 11 playoff wins including a Super Bowl title. His Jets tenure was far shakier by team standards, New York finishing 5-12 last season and well short of the playoffs.
Rodgers completed 63% of his passes in 2024 for 3,897 yards and 28 touchdowns to 11 interceptions. His 90.5 passer rating tied Joe Flacco’s for 20th among quarterbacks, just below the 92.3 league average. Rodgers ranked 20th in EPA/play among quarterbacks who played at least 250 snaps, per Sumer Sports. (The advanced efficiency metric assesses a player’s contribution to the offense and that contribution’s likelihood to help or hurt the team’s chance at scoring. Rodgers scored 0.0, neither helping nor hurting the offense’s chance to score in aggregate.)
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No one’s arguing Rodgers produced a career year in 2024. But playing all 17 games (that’s 1,030 snaps, for those counting at home) at 40 years old in the first year after an Achilles injury? League wisdom says players are limited the first season after Achilles tears. It shouldn’t be surprising if Rodgers is healthier and more mobile in 2025, nor should it be surprising if an acknowledgment of his age and corresponding shift in play style would grant him the ability to more effectively capitalize on his rare cerebral abilities at the line of scrimmage.
“I really want the mantle of leadership on offense, and I’m going to earn it every single day in training camp,” said Rodgers, who is scheduled to work out with Steelers teammates in California next week. “But there’s some stability I think that I can bring having played in a similar system for a long time and having just played a ton of football.
“I told the guys in the first meeting: I want to pass on my knowledge.”
What to expect from Rodgers’ expected finale
After reaching personal accolades, team success and an apparent marriage this offseason, it’s fair to wonder: What’s still motivating Rodgers to join a new team, learn at least some degree of new terminology, and continue to take hits from some of the fastest and strongest humans around for a 21st trip around the sun?
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Is Rodgers looking for a palate cleanser after his Jets tenure?
“I didn’t need this,” he said. “I didn’t need it at all. I don’t feel the need to prove anything to anybody [and] don’t have any chip on my shoulder that I need to hold onto.
“It’s not really, ‘Can’t go out like this.’ I love the game and there’s been a beautiful relationship.”
Rodgers values the chance to explore the next, and seemingly final, chapter of that relationship with a franchise whose winning history includes six Lombardi trophies, he said.
He values the chance to work with sixth-round rookie quarterback Will Howard, Rodgers pulling the Ohio State product aside recently to tell him: “I want to help you as much as possible. But I’m not going to overstep my bounds. If you want assistance, I’m here, buddy.”
No, as Flacco said of his latest Cleveland Browns post with two in-house drafted rookies, Rodgers wasn’t hired primarily to mentor a young player. He’s primarily there to help the Steelers win games and score points. But the job is multifaceted and — at least right now — Rodgers says he wants to embrace that.
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“I’d love to help Will and set him up to have a chance to be the guy for the next who knows how long,” Rodgers said. “I think that’s part of the opportunity. It’s not the job. I’ve seen other veteran quarterbacks talk about it. But the opportunity to help Will out is one that I’m really looking forward to and excited about.”
And after that?
Rodgers wants to go win — for himself, and for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“The fact that I can come back to Pittsburgh, play for Mike, get to know the organization, be a part of a special franchise that’s had such an incredible success and be able to play and follow in the footsteps of the Terry Bradshaws and Franco Harris and Lynn Swan and Jack Lambert mean Joe Green, and then all the guys that played in the 90s and the 2000s and Jerome Bettis and Big Ben [Roethlisberger] — all-time greats.
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“Just to be a guy that can put on the same uniform is pretty special for me. And that’s all I need this year is just to go out there, have a chance to compete. That’s why I’m working so hard.
“I want to put myself in a position to be able to play 20 games this year and 20 great ones.”
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