'The Schedule Was For Coach Tomlin': Aaron Rodgers Potential Matchup With Jets, Gets NFL Scheduler Clearing The Air

Was Aaron Rodgers part of the consideration when plotting the NFL schedule for the 2025 regular season? Was it so he could face his former team while paying for his new one? As it turned out, the match-up between the Steelers and the Jets was simply a stroke of fate.

In an interview with the program “Up and Adams,” NFL Vice President of Broadcasting and Scheduling Mike North clarified that the schedule released, which features a Week 1 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets, has nothing to do with Aaron Rodgers

“The Steeler schedule obviously only gets more interesting if a future Hall of Fame quarterback decides to play,” North said. “But they’re still the Steelers, and you know that coach has never had a losing season. They’re always in the playoff chase down the stretch.”

“We don’t know anything more than anybody else. The schedule was built for Coach [Mike] Tomlin and for the Steelers, and if Aaron decides to play, it probably just makes many, if not all, the Steelers games a little more interesting.”

In fact, North even confirmed that if Rodgers has been a confirmed Steeler before the schedule got released, they would have done something about it.

“If we knew for certain that Aaron was going to be the quarterback of the Steelers, we might’ve done something a little different in Week 1 with the Steelers game. You’ll see Pittsburgh at the Jets are on CBS at 1 o’clock in the afternoon in Week 1 along with seven other NFL games all at the same time.”

“I think if the league knew, we probably would’ve scheduled that game for a national television window.”