Pittsburgh is supposed to be just a final pit stop for Rodgers as he winds down his Hall of Fame career. He’ll be 42 in December, and signed with the Steelers for one last shot at glory after two disappointing seasons with the Jets. Shortly after he signed, Rodgers said, “I’m pretty sure this is it. That’s why we just did a one-year deal.”

But don’t be surprised if Rodgers changes his mind. He’s playing well despite his age, leading the Steelers to a 4-2 start and improving his stats across the board from last year. Rodgers ranks 10th among quarterbacks with a 105 passer rating, with 14 touchdowns, 5 interceptions, and a 68.6 completion percentage. In last week’s loss to the Bengals, Rodgers threw a Hail Mary 70 yards, the NFL’s longest pass in eight years.

The Steelers have every reason to want Rodgers back in 2026. They don’t have a young quarterback in the pipeline and would have to start over at scratch next year if Rodgers doesn’t return. Even at 41, Rodgers is the best and most stable option they’ve had for years after cycling through Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky, Justin Fields, and Russell Wilson.

Rodgers also seems to be falling in love with the Steelers and Pittsburgh. He raves about playing for Tomlin and the small-town feel of Pittsburgh sports. Rodgers went to a Penguins game this past week and said he felt a kinship with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang, who have played together nearly 20 years.

“That’s one of the cool things that [former Steeler Brett] Keisel and I were talking about last night, how in Green Bay and in Pittsburgh there’s iconic players, and they come back around, they live in the city, and they call Pittsburgh home full time,“ Rodgers said. “There’s something special about that … It’s fun to be a part of this organization, and the iconic Packers organization, for so long, too.”

Rodgers is going to see those iconic Packers this weekend when they play the Steelers in Pittsburgh on “Sunday Night Football.” The Packers are the one team Rodgers has never defeated in his 21-year career.

A one-time Super Bowl winner and four-time MVP in 18 seasons with the Packers, Rodgers said the game will be emotional, but less so because it’s not in Green Bay. Most of his former teammates have moved on since Rodgers last played in Green Bay in 2022. He’s looking forward to catching up with the Packers’ trainers, nutritionist, and photographer.

Rodgers said he doesn’t consider it a revenge game, like when Brett Favre played the Packers in 2009 as a member of the Vikings.

Aaron Rodgers’s Packers were beaten by Brett Favre in the quarterback’s first game for the Vikings against his former team.AP/Associated Press

“Well, Brett got traded and then he went to one of the hated rivals,” Rodgers said. “I was [with the Jets] for a couple years. I don’t have any animosity toward the organization. Obviously, I wish that things had been better in our last year there, but I have a great relationship with a lot of people still in that organization.”

The Steelers got off to a slow start on offense this season, in part because Rodgers didn’t participate in most of the offseason program or play in any preseason games. But they are in first place in the AFC North and scored 31 points against the Bengals, and are giving teams problems with a sixth offensive lineman.

“I feel good. I feel like we’re moving in the right direction,” Rodgers said. “We’ve started to figure out what our identity is.”

Sunday night will probably be emotional for Rodgers, and beating the Packers could put a nice bow on his career. But Rodgers is enjoying his time in Pittsburgh so much that it wouldn’t be shocking to see him return in 2026.

“He’s got an awesome relationship with this game,” Tomlin said. “I haven’t been with him for a long time, but he’s been fired up every single week. I’ve been in this thing long enough [to know] you don’t stumble into 20-plus years of service in this business. There’s unique habits, unique relationships with the game of football. I anticipated that. It still doesn’t make it less impressive, his day to day, what he’s willing to do.”

Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz played through visible pain in a 37-10 loss to the Chargers on Thursday night.AP Photo/Gregory Bull/Associated Press

LEADING QUESTION

Vikings’ quarterback situation is a mess

After Thursday’s Chargers-Vikings game, it’s worth revisiting the question atop the Sunday Notes column from Aug. 16: The Vikings have a talented roster, but do they have the quarterback to take them there?

Eight weeks into the season, that would be a resounding “no.” A team that was 14-3 last year and loaded with options at quarterback dropped to 3-4 Thursday night, with undrafted rookie Max Brosmer closing out an embarrassing 37-10 loss to the Chargers after Carson Wentz left with a shoulder injury and J.J. McCarthy was deemed not healthy enough to play.

The Vikings have one of the worst quarterback situations in the league. It wasn’t long ago that they were loaded at the position.

They let Kirk Cousins leave in March 2024 for $100 million guaranteed with the Falcons. In March 2025, they decided to let Sam Darnold leave for the Seahawks and their three-year, $105 million offer. The Vikings also decided not to compete with the Colts’ offer for Daniel Jones, who got $14 million for one year.

The Vikings instead handed the team to McCarthy, last year’s No. 10 overall pick who missed his rookie season because of a knee injury, but not before first considering Aaron Rodgers. For their backups, they signed Sam Howell and the University of Minnesota’s Brosmer after the draft. Howell never seemed to mesh and got released at the end of training camp. The Vikings signed Wentz, on his sixth team in six years, in late August to be the new backup. With McCarthy spraining his ankle in Week 2, Wentz has gone 2-3 as the fill-in, playing well in spots but not like a long-term solution.

The Vikings could have tried to trade for Jameis Winston, Joe Flacco, Russell Wilson, or, earlier this offseason, Joe Milton. How and why they landed Howell and Wentz is perplexing and could sink their season.

Now the Vikings don’t have any good answers. Coach Kevin O’Connell said after Thursday’s loss that “if J.J. is healthy, J.J. will play,” and McCarthy appears to be in line to start next Sunday’s NFC North showdown at Detroit.

But the Vikings don’t seem to have much confidence in McCarthy. Video from Thursday night showed he’s plenty healthy, yet the Vikings still made him the emergency, third QB. Playing him now is more in the vein of, “Nothing left to lose,” than expecting him to be a real answer.

The Vikings’ best option is probably Cousins, currently sitting on the Falcons’ bench. But the trade deadline is a little more than a week away, on Nov. 4. It’s possible that next week’s game against the Lions could amount to a one-game tryout for McCarthy before the Vikings decide to get Cousins to save their season.

More likely, the Vikings let McCarthy and Wentz play out the string, hope the season doesn’t get too out of hand, then look for new solutions at quarterback in 2026.

Jalen Hurts (1) and the Eagles continue to run the Tush Push, which became an offensive weapon in Philadelphia.Reed Hoffmann/Associated Press

ETC.

Tush Push, onside kick still unresolved

Two of the biggest rule issues from the 2025 offseason are going to be issues again in ’26 — what to do with the Tush Push and the onside kick.

There wasn’t much official talk at this past week’s owners’ meetings in New York about the Tush Push, but the NFL continues to point out the difficulty in officiating false starts by offensive linemen.

“Sometimes on a replay we see, ‘Hey, a guard jumped.’ It is really hard for the line judge to identify that in real time,” NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent said.

The Tush Push barely survived a vote in May to remain in the game for 2025, and the difficulty in officiating it might change a few votes next spring. But NBC officiating analyst Terry McAulay pointed out why it might not fix the real problem.

“The ‘push’ aspect is not what makes the play difficult to officiate,” he wrote on X. “The difficulty is with where the linemen on both sides of the ball position themselves and the action at or just prior to the snap, which happens before the ‘push’ ever occurs. Eliminating the ‘push’ itself would not change this fact.”

Meanwhile, the NFL is thrilled with its changes to the kickoff rules, with the return rate at 80 percent this year, up from 32 percent and 18 percent the last two years. But it continues to be confounded by the onside kick.

Rule changes that ban running starts and overloading one side of the line for safety reasons have rendered onside kicks nearly impossible to recover. Only 1 of 21 attempts were successful through the first seven weeks (Cardinals in Week 2), and the NFL would prefer onside kicks to be in the 10 percent range (historically, it has been 15 percent and higher).

Vincent told the owners on Tuesday he thinks they should consider again next spring replacing the onside kick with a fourth-and-15 or -20 play, which has been debated and rejected multiple times in the last decade. Panthers 17-year long snapper J.J. Jansen said the solution instead should be reducing the distance an onside kick needs to travel from 10 yards to 5.

“Shorter distance increases rate of kicking team recovery,” Jansen wrote on X. “Players closer together increases safety of the play.”

Patriots rookie left tackle Will Campbell hasn’t had his name called too many times on broadcasts and seems to be adjusting well to the NFL. But Next Gen Stats points out that Campbell has allowed a team-high 27 pressures, with 11 under 2.5 seconds, for a quick pressure rate (4.3 percent) that ranks ninth-highest among 34 left tackles.

It’s relevant because Campbell on Sunday will face Myles Garrett, the Browns’ four-time All-Pro whose 13 quick pressures are tied for fifth-most in the NFL. Aaron Rodgers this past week called Garrett and the Packers’ Micah Parsons among “the very few players in the league that you actually have to have four hands on at all times.” Expect Campbell to get a lot of help from tight ends and running backs.

The Texans’ defense faced a Kubiak offense in last week’s loss to the Seahawks. This week, their defense faces a Kubiak offense against the 49ers. Klint Kubiak, 38, is the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator, while Klay Kubiak, 37, has the same job for the 49ers. They are the sons of former quarterback, coordinator, and head coach Gary Kubiak.

Though the Kubiak boys are NFC West rivals, they still share some notes.

“We talk every week,” Klay Kubiak said Thursday. “We’re divisional foes, but we always talk after games, just kind of, ‘Hey, what were you seeing in the defense? How’d they look to you live?’ Just kind of sharing little stuff like that.”

The NFL and NFL Players Association announced Friday that the Giants were fined $200,000, coach Brian Daboll $100,000, and running back Cam Skattebo $15,000 for violating the NFL’s concussion protocol and entering the injury tent during Jaxson Dart’s concussion test two weeks ago.

But this still amounts to a slap on the wrist. If the NFL was serious, it wouldn’t bury the news on a Friday afternoon, and it certainly would have fined the Giants more than a measly $200,000. A larger fine for the team would send a stronger message that it is not OK to charge into the injury tent and interfere with team doctors.

The Ravens are 1-5 and without star quarterback Lamar Jackson, who has been sidelined with a hamstring injury.Nick Wass/Associated Press

The Ravens are 1-5, so you know what that means — no more fun in the locker room. The Baltimore Sun reported that the Ping-Pong tables, basketball hoop, cornhole boards, and video game consoles were removed from the locker room, and NFL Network further clarified that the move was driven by the players, not the coaches … The city of Baltimore sure rolled out the red carpet for the Rams. The Ravens barely showed up for a 17-3 loss to the Rams at home in Week 6. The Maryland Stadium Authority then allowed the Rams to practice all week at Camden Yards before the Rams flew to London, where they easily handled the Jaguars, 35-7. The Rams will pay for a full resodding of the Camden Yards field this offseason … NFL coaches have been significantly more successful at challenges this year, per ESPN — 36 of 60 (60 percent) compared with 21 of 53 (39.6 percent) through this time last year, a 52 percent increase. The difference this year is that coaches in the press box have more replay angles to view than before … Tom Brady (2021), Matthew Stafford (2021), Brett Favre (2009), and Joe Montana (1994) all won their first game against their former teams, while Peyton Manning (2013) and Kurt Warner (2005) lost … The Pro Bowl Games, centering around an AFC vs. NFC flag football game, will be played Tuesday night of Super Bowl week in San Francisco, host of the Super Bowl. The NFL typically holds it the Sunday before or after the Super Bowl week, but now is trying out midweek prime time … During halftime of Thursday’s Vikings-Chargers game, Rodney Harrison became the 36th player inducted into the Chargers Hall of Fame. A fifth-round pick in 1994, Harrison helped the Chargers reach the Super Bowl as a rookie, compiled 26 interceptions and 21.5 sacks over nine seasons, and was named Chargers Defensive Player of the Year by his teammates four times … Yes, there really are more commercials on RedZone Channel. Per Sportico, here was the breakdown in Week 7: Seven 15-second ads (two for DraftKings and one each Visa, Mercedes, Lowe’s, Wingstop, Progressive), seven L-bar ads that shared the screen with game action, and four sponsored segments from host Scott Hanson (Visa, Wingstop, DraftKings, and Mercedes). That’s up from four 15-second ads in Week 1, and up from the zero that RedZone Channel had for 15 years. There’s a word for it: greed.

Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.