Why Aaron Rodgers reportedly wanted to return to Steelers for another season

After months of will-he-or-won't-he speculation, it was learned over the weekend that Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers had agreed to a one-year deal for the future Hall of Famer to remain Pittsburgh's starting quarterback through the beginning of the 2026 season. 

It has seemed since at least March that people within the Steelers organization were confident that Rodgers would eventually rejoin the club during springtime workouts. For a piece published on Monday morning, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated touched upon why Rodgers plans to continue playing at the age of 42. 

The Steelers are giving Aaron Rodgers what he has wanted for some time

"The season didn’t play out the way anyone wanted, but he told everyone in the organization — all the way up to ownership — over the last few months how much fun he had in 2025 and, more to the point, how much he enjoyed playing football again," Breer wrote about what Rodgers experienced with the Steelers during the 2025 campaign. "That, he would tell them, is why he wanted another year as a Steeler. It wasn’t about writing a final chapter or some farewell tour. It was simpler than that. He just wanted to play, having found what he was looking for at the end of what seemed like a cursed two-year run [with the New York Jets]."

Breer was referencing how Rodgers ruptured his Achilles tendon early into his Jets regular-season debut back in September 2023. The following year, Rodgers endured the in-season firings of Jets head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas. 

While Rodgers helped the 2025 Steelers qualify for the playoffs as champions of the AFC North, he then looked like a signal-caller past his prime when he had a fourth-quarter fumble and a fourth-quarter interception returned for touchdowns in Pittsburgh's 30-6 wild-card playoff loss to the Houston Texans. 

Nevertheless, it sounds like he told new Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy some time ago that he was always coming back for another season. McCarthy was Rodgers' coach when the two were with the Green Bay Packers from 2006 through much of the 2018 season. 

Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers always had this date in mind for their reunion

"Rodgers and McCarthy settled on the start of OTAs, which is [Monday] for the Steelers, as the jumping-off point, which allowed Rodgers to spend time at home, and also give McCarthy and the offensive coaches time to work with second-year man Will Howard a little more intentionally, to get a better idea of what they have with the 2025 sixth-rounder," Breer added. "The 42-year-old future Hall of Famer came back to the city 10 days ago or so to get back in his house, get around his teammates socially and get comfortable ahead of getting back to work."

Howard took no in-game snaps as a rookie, and his future with the Steelers is unclear after the club made Penn State quarterback Drew Allar a third-round pick during the 2026 NFL Draft. For now, McCarthy and Co. are clearly all-in on believing that Rodgers has enough left in the tank to guide Pittsburgh to more than just a one-and-done playoff trip.