Before Aaron Rodgers ever signed a contract for the 2025 season, he announced to the world that he would “play for $10Ms” on The Pat McAfee Show. He ended up signing for more than that with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but one report indicates he lowered his own pay despite Pittsburgh being willing to offer more.
Bryant McFadden revealed some of his conversations with Rodgers at training camp on behalf of CBS Sports.
“It wasn’t about money because they are giving him around $13 million or something like that. And I got word that he actually could have gotten more, but that’s what he wanted,” McFadden said via 93.7 The Fan’s The PM Team. “They were willing to offer more…They were willing to pay him more than what he’s actually receiving, but Aaron was like, ‘No man, this is what I would take and I just wanna play ball.'”
Rodgers said it wasn’t about money on McAfee’s show, but words and actions are two different things. He backed it up by taking a contract way under market value at $14.15 million with incentives to go higher. That is less than Justin Fields and only a hair more than Daniel Jones for the 21st highest-paid QB in the league.
If Rodgers let his agent negotiate a fair-market value on his contract, he would have been getting paid north of $40 million this season. The discount he took is a lot of relief on the Steelers’ cap this year.
Tom Brady famously took less money than his true value to make sure his team had extra cap space to sign good players and stay competitive. By taking less, Rodgers gave the Steelers a lot of wiggle room to bring in players like Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith. And to extend T.J. Watt on a record-breaking contract.
The natural parallel to look at is the current situation with Cam Heyward. At 36 years old, he is approaching the end of his career. He made it clear that he isn’t being paid enough money and is holding out until the Steelers revisit his 2025 pay.
As a first-team All-Pro, Heyward had a better year than Rodgers last year. I personally don’t fault Heyward for wanting more than the 23rd highest-paid DT in the league. Rodgers’ decision isn’t expected, but it’s certainly a welcome bonus to the team.
Mike Tomlin admitted via The Pivot Podcast that he knew Rodgers would eventually sign as early as the draft, and probably even before then. So they were able to construct their roster with his steep discount in mind.
If the Steelers find themselves deep in the playoffs in 2025, a big part of the story will be a quarterback who decided legacy was worth more than leverage.
