The word “legacy” is overused in sports discourse, often brought about for players or situations that don’t necessitate that intense level of scrutiny or debate.
Future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers does necessitate the “legacy” conversation since that’s likely the primary reason he is suiting up for a 21st NFL season, and his first with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2025. Rodgers is signing a one-year deal with Pittsburgh, CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones confirms.
The 41-year-old, who will turn 42 on Dec. 2 in the middle of the upcoming season, is a four-time NFL MVP (second-most ever behind Peyton Manning’s five) and the Super Bowl XLV MVP. Rodgers has the best career touchdown-to-interception ratio (4.3, 503-116) and best career passer rating (102.6) in NFL history while his 503 career passing touchdowns rank as the fifth best in league history, just five behind his Hall of Fame Green Bay Packers predecessor Brett Favre (508).
There’s more than enough there for Rodgers to simply call it a career, knowing that he will go down as a top-10 quarterback of all time without a doubt. However, it’s clear based on his regular media presence on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN and his “Aaron Rodgers: Enigma” Netflix documentary that he cares a lot about what people think of him and that he still feels he has more to prove. That’s somewhat understandable. If Rodgers could win one more Super Bowl, he would join Manning and Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks ever to win at least three league MVPs and two Super Bowls. That would certainly cement his place as a top-five quarterback in NFL history.
That’s the reward aspect of Rodgers giving it one more go with the Steelers in 2025 along with how celebrated he would be for lifting one of the league’s most historic franchises back to the mountain top for Pittsburgh’s first championship since the 2008 season. Doing so would also allow Rodgers to ride off into the sunset with many people forgetting some of his behavior regarding his public health stances and the worst season of his career helping lead to the firings of New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas in 2024.
However, giving it another go in 2025 as he turns 42 is also a big risk. Rodgers will be two years removed from tearing his Achilles, and last season he looked incredibly stiff moving around the pocket following an injury that has drained much of the mobility that allowed him to dance around in the pocket before making jaw-dropping throw after jaw-dropping throw throughout his career. Another serious injury, missing the postseason, plenty of pain and even a potential, permanent limp could be the end result of another year of NFL football for Rodgers at his age.
So can Rodgers lead Pittsburgh back to the promised land? Let’s look at what he has going for him and what he’s up against in this daunting 2025 quest. First, let’s look at the pros.
Pros
Unlike the Jets, Rodgers heads to an organization known for its stability in Pittsburgh just like his longtime home of Green Bay. The Steelers have 21 consecutive seasons without a losing record since 2004, which is tied for the longest-such streak in NFL history with the 1965-1985 Dallas Cowboys, per CBS Sports Research.
The last 18 of those seasons have come under current head coach Mike Tomlin. Pittsburgh also enters 2025 fresh off a season with a top-10 scoring defense after allowing just 20.4 points per game, the eighth-fewest in the league. That unit is led by two All-Pro defensive linemen in edge rusher T.J. Watt and defensive tackle Cameron Heyward plus Pro Bowl inside linebacker Patrick Queen and Pro Bowl safety Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Offensively, Rodgers has an explosive No. 1 receiver to throw to in two-time Pro Bowler DK Metcalf plus a solid red zone target in tight end Pat Freiermuth, whose 18 receiving touchdowns since he entered the league in 2021 are tied for the seventh most at the position. He’s already connected with Metcalf, throwing with him at UCLA as the video below indicates. Rodgers did close the 2024 season well, throwing 18 touchdowns to only four interceptions in the final 10 games of the season — the seventh-best touchdown-to-interception ratio in the league in that stretch. That’s an indicator that he could be closer to performing like his MVP self than a husk of himself in 2025. Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith has been able to cobble together a top 10 rushing offense in four of his six seasons as an NFL OC, and last season’s Pittsburgh squad was barely outside the top 10 at No. 11, averaging 127.4 rushing yards per game. With a one-two punch at running back featuring the efficient Jaylen Warren and 2025 third-round pick Kaleb Johnson, an All-American who led the Big Ten in both rushing yards (1,537) and rushing touchdowns (21) last season, Smith should be able to put together a strong ground game to take some of the burden off of Rodgers.
Cons
Now, here are the cons of Rodgers’ set up in Pittsburgh. Four of the Steelers’ five offensive line starters either just finished their first or second season in the NFL, so it’s a group that has potential but is very much still developing. That doesn’t exactly align with the Rodgers timeline. Last season, Pittsburgh surrendered a quarterback pressure rate of 38.6%, the fourth highest in the entire NFL. Smith loves to run the football, but he’s never been known for having sophisticated passing offenses. Post-Achilles tear, Rodgers would certainly like to be operating out of shotgun and putting less pressure on his movement abilities at his age: The Jets lined up in shotgun on 74.3% of their offensive snaps (11th-highest rate in the NFL). Smith’s Steelers lined up under center on 42.6% of their snaps, the fourth-highest rate in the NFL. It will be intriguing to see what the offensive structure in 2025 looks like between a quarterback and offensive coordinator who are diametrically opposed from a schematic perspective.
When the Steelers have reached the postseason of late, they’ve lost — they’re on a six-game playoff losing streak. That’s the longest active playoff losing streak by any team in the league along with the Miami Dolphins, and the Steelers’ six consecutive games that comprise this streak all involve the defense allowing at least 28 points. Pittsburgh’s six-game streak of 28-plus points allowed is the longest-such streak by any team in NFL playoff history, per CBS Sports Research. This is a team that has developed a culture of falling flat on their face in the postseason of late.
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Bryan DeArdo
Those are just the internal roadblocks Rodgers has to face. In the AFC North, he’ll have to face Lamar Jackson’s Ravens and Joe Burrow’s Bengals twice. The Steelers are also scheduled to face the entire NFC North, which had three playoff teams a year ago — including the Packers — plus a Chicago Bears squad that could be a lot more dangerous under new head coach Ben Johnson. Should Rodgers reach the postseason, getting past Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, who have won the conference five times in the last six seasons (an NFL record), will be extremely difficult.
So can Rodgers give his all-time resume one last boost to solidify his place in the highest tier of quarterbacks in NFL history, or will his 2025 campaign with the Steelers be another crash and burn like his Jets tenure? It’s much more likely Pittsburgh’s season is eventful but not enough to reach the postseason, but with Aaron Rodgers, anything is possible. That’s why the football world will be locked in on the Steelers for all 18 weeks of the 2025 season.
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Author: Garrett Podell
June 5, 2025 | 5:15 pm
