With the Pittsburgh Steelers reportedly signing QB Aaron Rodgers, he’ll have the opportunity to play a former team for the first time in his career.
Twice, in fact.
Rodgers will face not only the Green Bay Packers for the first time ever, but he’ll also play against the New York Jets. Rodgers spent the last two years with the Jets, and he’ll see them in Week 1 with the Steelers traveling to MetLife Stadium. He’ll see the Packers in primetime on Sunday Night Football in Week 8.
The Steelers-Jets matchup will have a lot of eyes with Rodgers going up against New York and the Steelers facing Justin Fields with the Jets, but the matchup against Green Bay is more notable for Rodgers. The Packers selected him in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft, and he spent the first 18 years of his career as a member of the Packers, beating the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.
Rodgers has never faced the Packers, as they did not play the Jets the two years he was in New York after getting traded. Rodgers will presumably be going up against QB Jordan Love, whom the team selected to be his eventual replacement in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, setting off a chain of events that ultimately led to Rodgers requesting a trade.
While he won’t be returning to Lambeau Field with the matchup at Acrisure Stadium, it’s a game that will surely bring a lot of emotions for Rodgers and the Packers faithful who saw 22 playoff games with Rodgers under center. He also won all four of his NFL MVP awards as a member of the Packers.
The matchup with the Jets will be one where Rodgers will no doubt want to exact revenge, as he had some pointed words towards the new administration in New York. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show in April, Rodgers shared his displeasure with how new Jets head coach Aaron Glenn informed him of his release during a brief meeting.
“He said, ‘We’re going a different direction at quarterback.’ I was kind of shocked. Now, I’m not shocked because I didn’t think that was a possibility. Of course they wanna move on. That’s totally fine, but shocked because I just flew across country. You could have told me this on the phone if we weren’t even gonna have a conversation.”
Now, Glenn’s head coaching debut will come against Rodgers and the Steelers, and there’s little doubt that Rodgers is going to want to prove something to the coach who delivered the news that New York was cutting him.
