The Pittsburgh Steelers finally got the answer they waited months to hear.
Aaron Rodgers is returning for another season with the team, ending speculation about the 42-year-old quarterback’s football future. For the past four months, Steelers owner Art Rooney II, general manager Omar Khan and coach Mike McCarthy described positive communication with Rodgers, but nothing seemed certain until the future hall of famer decided whether to return, retire or play elsewhere.
Rodgers and the Steelers agreed to a one-year deal, according to ESPN and NFL Network reports Saturday.
The contract is worth up to $25 million, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who said the deal still needed to be finalized and signed. Schefter said his base salary was between $22 million and $23 million with “up to a few million” in incentives.
The contract represents a pay raise over last year, when Rodgers’ base salary was $13.65 million with a potential maximum of $19.5 million if all incentives were met.
The agreement comes just as the Steelers ramp up offseason workouts. The first of their organized team activities starts on Monday. Rodgers waited until June to sign a year ago, after OTAs were over.
His arrival will give the Steelers four quarterbacks, but all questions about who’ll be the starter are now answered. Rodgers joins a quarterback room that has veteran backup Mason Rudolph, second-year player Will Howard and rookie third-round draft pick Drew Allar.
By re-signing with the Steelers, Rodgers reunites with McCarthy after spending 13 seasons together in Green Bay. They combined as quarterback and coach to win Super Bowl XLV in February 2011, the only Lombardi Trophy won by either Rodgers or McCarthy.
But his familiarity with the new coaching staff goes beyond McCarthy.
Rodgers has previous Green Bay connections with offensive line coach James Campen, strength and conditioning coaches Mark Lovat and Grant Thorne, defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, assistant offensive line coach Jahri Evans, quarterbacks coach Tom Arth and inside linebackers coach Scott McCurley.
“There’s some great characters,” Rodgers said in March as a guest on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say that was something that I enjoyed seeing, all those guys getting back together. It’s some of the guys that had the greatest impact on my career.”
Considered among the NFL’s all-time greats and destined to be enshrined in Canton, Rodgers is a four-time league MVP and a 10-time Pro Bowl pick, most recently in 2021.
Rodgers ranks fourth all-time with 527 career touchdown passes, only 12 behind Peyton Manning for third place. He ranks fifth in career passing yards (66,274), fifth in completions (5,696) and sixth in attempts (8,743).
He was the oldest player in the league last season (until Philip Rivers briefly unretired), yet Rodgers appeared rejuvenated at times, even dusting off the championship belt celebration he made famous in TV commercials.
Rodgers signed a one-year contract with the Steelers last June, indicating at the time that 2025 would likely be his final season in a 21-year career. He was coming off two lackluster seasons with the Jets, one lost to injury.
Looking for a bounce back, Rodgers led the Steelers to an AFC North title while passing for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The Steelers went 10-6 in the regular season with him as the starter.
Rodgers missed Week 12 after fracturing his left wrist but returned to lead the Steelers to the playoffs. Re-signing with the Steelers for another year seemed almost likely at that point.
However, a lopsided loss to the Houston Texans in the wild-card round cast doubt on Rodgers’ future with the franchise, especially once coach Mike Tomlin resigned the next day.
At a press conference about Tomlin’s exit, Rooney said: “I mean, look, Aaron came here to play for Mike, so I think it will most likely affect his decision.”
Ten days later, the outlook changed again once the Steelers hired McCarthy. Rodgers played for McCarthy from 2006-18, including 11 seasons as the Packers’ starting quarterback.
McCarthy and the Steelers seemed interested in a reunion, but was Rodgers?
He said little about reuniting with McCarthy or the Steelers for months, other than his March 4 appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.” Rodgers said he’d talked with McCarthy and Khan but that no formal contract offer had been made.
“So there’s nothing that I’m having to debate between,” Rodgers said to McAfee. “I’m a free agent. I’m enjoying my time with my wife. Enjoying this part of the offseason. I think there’s conversations to be had down the line, but right now… There hasn’t been any progressive conversations.”
Free agency came and went without the Steelers signing a quarterback, further indication they were waiting on Rodgers. They didn’t address their quarterback need until the NFL Draft, where the Steelers used a third-round pick to select Allar.
But McCarthy said drafting the former Penn State quarterback wasn’t connected to whatever decision Rodgers was expected to make.
“Not at all,” McCarthy said on draft day. “This is about developing the room and trying to make the room as deep as we possibly can.”
Rodgers celebrated two of his four MVP seasons under McCarthy. He won the award in 2011 and ’14, followed by two more in 2020 and ’21 under coach Matt LaFleur.
There was speculation that, had Rodgers not re-signed with the Steelers, he might’ve joined LaFleur’s brother in Arizona. Mike LaFleur is the first-year head coach of the Cardinals.