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Exposure of Aaron Rodgers' contract details with the Pittsburgh Steelers proves he's betting on himself in a major way

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Rob Gregson | Last updated Jun 10, 2025 9:15 AM ET

Aaron Rodgers once said he would play for as little as $10m.

And while his contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers wasn't that light in comparison to his others, it was more than team-friendly, with an incentive-laden deal for Rodgers.

And following the release of those incentives by Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, we can see that Rodgers is betting on the success of the Steelers, but espeicailly himself to reach those numbers...

Aaron Rodgers incentives based on Health, MVP, Playoffs

There are incentives attached to the deal that will max out at $5.85 million. He would have to play 70% of the team's regular season snaps to qualify for any of them. That maximum value of the deal, with these incentives, is $19.5 million.

The incentives are as follows:
$500,000 if the Steelers make the playoffs.
$600,000 for a wild-card round win with 50% play-time in the game OR a first-round bye.
$750,000 for a divisional round win with 50% play-time in the game.
$1 million for AFC title game win with 50% play-time in the game.
$1.5 million for Super Bowl win with 50% play-time in the game.
$1.5 million for winning the AP MVP award.
The contract carries a cap hit of $14.15 million for the 2025 season.

Ryan Phillips, Albert Breer, Sports Illustrated

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The first thing to note here is that none of these incentives matter if Rodgers doesn't play 70% of the team's snaps in the regular season. All parties involved hope for that, and Rodgers played every game last season, a year removed from his Achilles injury, but he will turn 42 years old during the season.

Beyond that, the playoff incentives are noteworthy but what really catches my eye is the MVP incentive. You can get Aaron Rodgers' MVP ticket at around +8,000 on most books. If Rodgers were to win the MVP, he would be the oldest player in NFL history to do so, clearing Tom Brady, who won it at 40 years old.

The hope would be that Rodgers could replicate that of Tom Brady and his former teammate Brett Favre, who had a season that nearly resulted in a Super Bowl apperance with the Minnesota Vikings in 2009, at the age of 40.

We'll see if Rodgers can finish the job.