Odds are, Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin will spend just a year sharing the same sideline. In a different life, Rodgers wishes it could’ve been a lot longer than that. Joining Cam Heyward and co-host Hayden Walsh on Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast, Rodgers offered high praise for the man who has only coached him for the last two months.
“I told Mike I wish I’d had him for 15 years of my career,” Rodgers said during the show’s most recent episode. “And that’s no shot to anybody. I mean, Mike McCarthy and I were real close. Still are. And I love Mike. But I wish I could have played 30 and had 15. I would’ve had 13 with Mike McCarthy. Would’ve been cool to have 13 with Mike Tomlin.”
Tomlin was the driving force behind Rodgers’s arrival in Pittsburgh. Before and since signing in June, Rodgers has praised Tomlin as a coach and leader. Spending the last month of training camp and the preseason together, Rodgers is buying into what Tomlin is selling even more.
“There’s no substitute for that leadership in front of the meeting.”
Rodgers repeated his appreciation for the patience Tomlin and the Steelers afforded him throughout the offseason, treating their conversations as equals and friends instead of player-and-coach.
“He would remember things and ask about people that I was telling him about,” Rodgers said of Tomlin. “And that just meant the world to me.”
Rodgers revealed that issues in his personal life were the key reason it took months for him to officially sign with Pittsburgh, admitting he wouldn’t have been able to be around the team in April had he signed during free agency or ahead of the draft. The Steelers were willing to wait him out. It proved to be a good strategy and frankly, a necessary one. Rodgers and Pittsburgh needed each other. Rodgers had few, if any, other suitors, and he was the last veteran quarterback the team could earnestly win with this season.
This chapter won’t define their careers. Rodgers is already a Hall of Famer, and Tomlin owns the resume as the NFL’s longest-tenured active coach. Both have Super Bowl rings. Still, the pair can further their legacy with a 2026 playoff run. For Rodgers, it would be the best note to end his career on. For Tomlin, it would take the heat off his recent lack of success.
