Last spring, Aaron Rodgers took months to decide whether and where he would play during the 2025 NFL season.
Then the season began Sunday. And, playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Rodgers immediately looked like the future Hall of Fame quarterback who’d once poked holes in defenses throughout the league and little like the one who’d struggled enough last season to question whether he still had a place as a starter.
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Facing the New York Jets, the team that unceremoniously told him his services were no longer wanted last winter, Rodgers, 41 — the league’s oldest active player — threw four touchdowns passes to four different receivers by early in the fourth quarter of the season opener.
That alone was notable — Rodgers had just one game with four touchdown passes all last season. But he wasn’t done.
With the Steelers trailing 32-31, Rodgers and Pittsburgh got the ball back with 3:13 left in the fourth quarter 81 yards from the end zone. Seven plays later, aided by two long completions from Rodgers and a pass interference penalty drawn on another of his passes, the Steelers moved into position for a game-winning field goal to win 34-32.
“I love beating everybody, so it doesn’t matter who it is,” Rodgers said after the game. “It was nice to win, especially here hearing some of the catcalls out there and the boo birds. I’m not sensitive about that, I expected that, I kind of like that.
“But there were probably people in the organization who didn’t think I could play anymore, so it was nice to remind those people that I still can.”
Rodgers completed 22 of his 30 passes for 244 yards, and while he was sacked four times, he didn’t throw an interception. He connected with the team’s other notable offensive offseason signing, DK Metcalf, four times for a team-high 83 yards. Asked about the contributions by many new players on the roster, Rodgers pointed to the team’s communication during the offseason, including a visit by many of the team’s receivers to visit him in California.
“It’s just conversations that I try to do my entire career. Talk to the guys at practice, before practice, in the locker room, off time,” he said. “And DK, I asked him to do something, because we were roommates [in training camp] kind of, we shared a bathroom and a shower in camp, and I told him way back a long time ago, I said, ‘Hey, give me a report on Monday of game week about how you see things, Monday or Tuesday how you see things and what you like,’ and then kind of forgot about it.
“And then on Tuesday, guess what I got? I got a text message with his thoughts. And it wasn’t a short one.”
The game effectively featured a swap of quarterbacks neither team wanted after last season. Justin Fields, who started the first month in Pittsburgh last year before he lost his job to Russell Wilson, also looked revived as he completed 16 of his 22 passes for 218 yards and a touchdown and ran for two touchdowns, as well.
Rodgers has suggested this could be the final season of his career, which includes a Super Bowl title and four MVP honors. His arm has regularly been one of the league’s strongest, yet a decline in performance in recent years, combined with an Achilles injury in 2023 and a slew of off-field headlines derived from his personal stances, had left only a few teams interested in signing him during the offseason.
Through additions who included adding Metcalf and defensive back Jalen Ramsey in the offseason, Pittsburgh made moves to position itself as a contender in the AFC. The biggest variable in that plan was Rodgers. Through one game, he was their biggest asset.
“I thought he was game, all day,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.
References
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