Mike Tomlin makes Aaron Rodgers prediction, discusses departure from Steelers

So why is Tomlin so convinced that Rodgers will return? He thinks Rodgers is addicted to football and everything that comes with it.

“I just think being around him for the 12 months that I’m around him, he's got a love affair with the game of football,” Tomlin said of Rodgers. “And not only the game, but the process. The informal moments, the development of younger guys, the interaction with teammates. I think he has an addiction to that. And there’s only one way to feed it, and certainly, he is still capable and in really good shape, and so I think at the end of the day, he’ll play football.”

With Rodgers as their starting quarterback in 2025, the Steelers went 10-7 and won the AFC North, but were humiliated at home in a wild-card playoff game, making it the eighth season in a row the franchise failed to win a playoff game.

Tomlin resigned two days later. 

As for why Tomlin resigned, he discussed that on Sunday night and said it was not an overnight decision and it was not really any one thing that pushed him away. He did, however, reference the lack of recent success in the playoffs, and that the veteran players on the team like T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward and Chris Boswell deserved the excitement of a new voice in leadership and a chance to have playoff success.

Tomlin coached the Steelers for 19 seasons, compiling a 193-114-2 record, winning eight division titles, appearing in three AFC Championship games, two Super Bowls (XLIII and XLV) and winning one of them (XLIII).

He was replaced by former Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy. McCarthy is just the fourth head coach for the Steelers since the start of the 1969 season, joining Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin. The previous three all appeared in multiple Super Bowls and won at least one of them. Rodgers and McCarthy spent more than a decade together in Green Bay, beating Tomlin and the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV during the 2010 season.