Quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers won the fewest amount of games of any AFC playoff team. The Steelers’ 10 victories were at least three fewer than every other AFC division winner.
As a division winner, the Steelers will host a playoff game. But their wild card opponent, the Houston Texans, won two more games than Pittsburgh during the regular season.
All of those facts, though, won’t matter much when the NFL postseason begins. Rodgers reminded his potential 2026 playoff foes of that fact through the media Thursday.
“Clean the slate, now. Anybody can make a run,” Rodgers said, via 93.7 The Fan on Thursday afternoon. “It’s the hottest team. We’ve won four out of five. We’re playing a lot better football than we were earlier in the season.
“I like our chances.”
To Rodgers’s point, the Steelers sat at 6-6 with five games left entering December. At that time, the team was coming off an embarrassing 26-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills, where the home crowd called to fire head coach Mike Tomlin.
But the Steelers went on a 3-game winning streak to get on the doorstep of winning the AFC North. After stumbling against the Cleveland Browns, the Steelers clinched the division versus the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.
With Rodgers behind center, the Steelers went 10-6 this season and won five of their last seven contests.
Aaron Rodgers, Steelers to Face Arguably Hottest NFL Team in Playoffs
Rodgers wasn’t wrong to make the argument he did. The NFL playoffs are often about who is playing the best at that time.
The Steelers quarterback, though, overlooked the fact the Texans might be the league’s hottest team entering January.
Houston comes into the postseason having won its last nine games. The Texans began the campaign 0-3 and were 3-5 entering the second weekend in November. But nine straight victories, including three versus other AFC playoff teams, enabled Houston to earn the top AFC wild card seed.
During that stretch, the Texans rose to the top of the heap in many defensive statistics. Houston finished the regular season first in yards allowed and second in points yielded.
That could mean tough sledding for Rodgers and the Steelers offense in the wild card matchup.
Rodgers Playing Best Football of 2025 NFL Season
The Texans defense will be a tough unit for any quarterback it potentially faces this month. But a veteran quarterback such as Rodgers might make him the best equipped to defeat the unit.
Rodgers has made 21 previous starts in the NFL playoffs, which nearly matches the number of playoff starts the rest of the AFC quarterbacks have made combined (22).
Rodgers is older than even Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans. Clearly, he’ll have an edge when it comes to experience.
Furthermore, as he said about his team, the 42-year-old signal-caller is playing his best football of the season. Rodgers has completed 66.5% of his passes while averaging 6.6 yards per attempt the past five games. He also has five touchdowns with zero interceptions during that stretch.
Rodgers hasn’t thrown an interception in the past seven games.
In the fourth quarter Sunday, Rodgers completed 11 of 14 attempts for 133 yards with a touchdown.
The Steelers will host the Texans on Monday, January 12 in the wild card round. Kickoff is set for 8:15 pm ET at Acrisure Stadium.
Steelers’ Aaron Rodgers Puts AFC on Notice Before NFL Playoffs