For one week, at least, it looked like Aaron Rodgers still has something left, and that might have been a bit surprise to the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback’s Week 1 opponent, the New York Jets.
Rodgers opened his tenure with the Steelers by knocking off the Jets, the team with which he spent two incredibly frustrating seasons. Ultimately, New York hired Aaron Glenn as head coach and that sealed Rodgers’ fate in Gotham, leading him to Pittsburgh. In Game 1 with the Steelers, Rodgers torched his old team to the tune of 22-of-30 for 244 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-32 win.
“It was nice to win, especially hearing some of the cat calls out there and the boo birds. I’m not sensitive about that, I expected that, I kind of liked that,” Rodgers told reporters in his postgame press conference. “But there were probably people in the organization who didn’t think I could play anymore, so it was nice to remind them I still can.”
Aaron Rodgers Gets Jets Revenge in Steelers Debut
Rodgers otherwise largely downplayed the significance of him returning to the Meadowlands in Week 1 and beating his former team.
“I love beating everybody, so it doesn’t matter who it is. I really only played 18 games here.”
Be that as it may, Rodgers is notoriously motivated by grudges, so he had to have been a little more jacked to win this one. He was quick to snap back at critics who wondered whether he and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith could coexist, calling out that narrative on the field after the game.
Rodgers Reflects on Jets’ Exit
Rodgers also didn’t hide from his own revelation that Glenn told him he didn’t see the fit and that they were going in a different direction. Rodgers relayed that to Pat McAfee earlier in the year, saying he felt like there wasn’t an “ample amount of respect” in his meeting with the Jets, adding he shouldn’t have been surprised “based on some of the things I saw over two years.
Reporters asked Rodgers whether Sunday’s outcome was made even sweeter by how things ended with the Jets, but the four-time MVP more or less took the high road.
Yes that’s what he did,” Rodgers replied regarding the meeting, adding, “I was happy to beat everybody associated with the Jets.
Rodgers added: “Like I said, this last week, I gave as much as I could to the team, and it didn’t work out. I didn’t have any hard feelings about it not working out — now, I maybe didn’t appreciate the way it went down at the end, but that’s in the past and we’re 1-0.”
Week 1 marked just the second time since the 2022 season that Rodgers threw four touchdowns in a game. The other one coincidentally came in his Jets finale, in Week 18 last season, in a meaningless game for Rodgers and New York. Rodgers will get a chance to prove the latest four-spot wasn’t a fluke in Week 2 when the Steelers host Seattle in the home opener.
Aaron Rodgers Chirps Jets After Winning Steelers Debut