The Pittsburgh Steelers have gone four consecutive years without starting the same quarterback in Week 1 of back-to-back seasons. If the team is going to break that trend in 2026, 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers will have to return.
Steelers new head coach Mike McCarthy, though, made it clear once again during a radio appearance Friday that his top choice is to have Rodgers back next season.
“There’s definitely a decompressing component of playing the season, competing through a season,” McCarthy said on 102.5 WDVE, via Steelers Depot’s Troy Montgomery. “The Super Bowl, the Monday afterwards is, I think emotionally for all of us, when the page truly gets turned onto the new year. I think Aaron’s just going through his process and evaluating what he wants to do moving forward.
“I hope he’s coming back.”
Rodgers signed a one-year deal to join the Steelers for the 2025 campaign. The quarterback initially expressed that it would be his final NFL season.
However, Rodgers also wasn’t shy about being coy on his future, sometimes suggesting he could return. He also turned in a strong season for his age, which has led pundits to speculate he could play in 2026.
Rodgers went 10-6 as a starter while throwing for 3,322 passing yards with 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions during 2025.
Mike McCarthy Doubles Down Wanting Aaron Rodgers Back
McCarthy has been making public appearances as the Steelers new head coach for four days. He’s already notably said twice he wants Rodgers back.
The first time McCarthy stressed wanting Rodgers to return was in his introductory press conference Tuesday.
“Definitely, I don’t see why you wouldn’t,” said McCarthy on Rodgers.
McCarthy coached Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers for 13 years. In McCarthy’s offense, Rodgers won two MVP awards and led the Packers to a Super Bowl title.
Ironically, that championship win came against the Steelers.
McCarthy-Rodgers Relationship Better Than Ever: Report
The Packers fired McCarthy before the end of the 2018 season. A lot of pundits heavily criticized McCarthy for years because Green Bay never returned to the Super Bowl again with Rodgers behind center.
Toward the end of their relationship in Green Bay, pundits also speculated Rodgers wasn’t on good terms with the head coach. Rodgers autobiographer Ian O’Connor debunk those claims, though, while appearing on FS1’s The Herd this week.
“I did speak with both Aaron and McCarthy for my book. I did ask them that question, and their relationship is better now than it ever was when they were together in Green Bay,” O’Connor said, via Steelers Depot’s Matthew Marczi. “Rodgers said to me, ‘Listen, we did butt heads from time to time. But at the end of the day, we lit it up for a lot of years.'”
O’Connor added that McCarthy doesn’t get enough credit for Rodgers’s NFL success.
“When [McCarthy] got him out of Cal, [Rodgers] was very robotic,” O’Connor said. “He had the ball back at his earhole. McCarthy loosened him up and made him a more athletic player and really helped develop him into an all-time great and never gets any credit for that.”
He’s had less than a week as Steelers head coach, but McCarthy appears to be following the same playbook as Mike Tomlin from last season. That playbook is to allow Rodgers to take his time and wait for the 42-year-old to make a decision.
What that likely means for the Steelers is another spring of Rodgers speculation.
Mike McCarthy Fires Another Clear Message on Aaron Rodgers’ Future With Steelers