With Aaron Rodgers joining the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 2025 season, many are looking at this as the swansong of his career. He’s going to turn 42 at the end of the year, and this will be his 21st season in the league. The idea that this is Rodgers’ last year in the NFL isn’t a rare one, and it does make some sense.
However, former NFL WR Keyshawn Johnson thinks if things go well enough in 2025, the Steelers might be compelled to bring Rodgers back for the 2026 season.
“Anything short of the AFC Championship game, it’s his last year,” Johnson said on FS1’s SPEAK. “If he can get them to the AFC Championship game, then they’ll take a look at 2026-2027 with him. You have to. You just have to. The Minnesota Vikings did the same thing with Brett Favre… This is sort of a similar path for Aaron Rodgers. If he can get them to the AFC Championship game, they’ll revisit it and bring him back.”
One thing we know is that Aaron Rodgers still has the desire to play football. It’s true that he contemplated retirement before joining Pittsburgh. Yet, it’d be hard to find another person in his shoes who wouldn’t think about the same thing. Rodgers is coming off a brutal two-year stint with the New York Jets, is in his 40s, and has an Achilles injury not far behind in his rearview mirror. After giving 20 years to the sport at a professional level, and many more before that, it would be impossible not to consider that.
However, he clearly wanted to play the sport enough, and wanted to be a Steeler enough to join this season. Aside from those aforementioned factors, deciding to play in 2025 means finding a new place to live, going through another training camp, preseason, and 17-game season (or more, as the Steelers would hope).
If things go well in Pittsburgh, there’s reason to believe Aaron Rodgers might want to come back. But would that be in the Steelers’ best interest?
One thing is clear about Pittsburgh’s plan for the future. They want to find their quarterback in next offseason’s draft. However, if they make the AFC Championship game, that would be a sign of a major, slightly unexpected step forward this year. It would be their first playoff win since the 2016 season. It would also mean they made it further than two of the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, and Baltimore Ravens. Those three teams are commonly considered better than the Steelers.
As Johnson mentions, it is the same route Brett Favre followed. Things didn’t go as well in that second year. However, even keeping Rodgers around as a mentor could be a good idea. He’s already making an impression on Will Howard, for example.
Pittsburgh could find its quarterback of the future and keep Rodgers around at the same time. However, that is asking a lot. That scenario would mean this is essentially the Steelers’ best season in nine years. That’s a hard hill to climb. If they mount it, though, it might be just as hard not to consider bringing Aaron Rodgers back.
