With the big question of whether he’d come back to the Steelers out of the way, now it’s a question of how much more he can elevate them.<\/p>\n
Rodgers was fairly inconsistent in 2025. He failed to log a single 300-yard passing game and, including the playoff loss, threw for 200 yards or less in seven outings. His 3,322 passing yards marked a career low outside any injury-shortened seasons as a starter, as did his 24 touchdowns, though he remained characteristically protective of the ball, throwing just seven interceptions.<\/p>\n
No longer fleet of foot like he was in his younger days, Rodgers completed only 39.3% of his attempts under pressure, per Next Gen Stats. He also targeted players below 10 air yards on 71.5% of his attempts in general, the highest rate of any QB over the past three seasons, likely a byproduct of knowing evading a rush once it got close to home was a decreasing likelihood.<\/p>\n
Regardless, Rodgers led the Steelers to an AFC North title. He provided veteran leadership in the locker room and looked vintage in the regular-season finale, orchestrating two go-ahead drives in the fourth quarter, including one he punctuated with the game-winning 26-yard touchdown pass in a winner-take-all game for the division against the Baltimore Ravens.<\/p>\n
He earned any successes without a ton of help around him, too. The Steelers offered little to threaten a defense at wide receiver outside DK Metcalf<\/a>, and their rushing attack finished 26th in the league.<\/p>\n Gone is running back Kenneth Gainwell<\/a>, Rodgers’ favorite dump-off target, but Pittsburgh still laid a stronger foundation for Rodgers to build on next season. The Steelers signed<\/a> Rico Dowdle<\/a> to reintroduce some signature grit to the backfield alongside Jaylen Warren<\/a> and traded<\/a> for Michael Pittman<\/a>, a possession receiver who is perfectly suited for Rodgers’ underneath passes. In the draft, they added some beef up front on Day 1 by taking offensive tackle Max Iheanachor<\/a>, then double dipped at wide receiver by moving up in the second round<\/a> for Germie Bernard<\/a> and grabbing Kaden Wetjen<\/a> in the fourth.<\/p>\n While the Steelers again delayed turning their hopes over to a younger QB by keeping the franchise in Rodgers’ hands, they have a potential succession plan in place with Allar on the roster — or even Howard, a 2025 sixth-rounder, if he proves better up to the task.<\/p>\n For 2026, though, it’s full speed ahead with Rodgers to begin a new era, Pittsburgh’s first year with a new head coach since 2007.<\/p>\n The ceiling toward the end of Tomlin’s tenure was a frustrating reality. The Steelers never endured a losing season under him, but have lost six straight playoff games and haven’t escaped the Wild Card Round since the 2017 campaign.<\/p>\n Rodgers felt that sting last season with them.<\/p>\n Now, Pittsburgh is pinning its hopes on Rodgers and McCarthy turning back the clock for a deep playoff run, this time for the club the two dispatched to capture a Lombardi Trophy 15 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the big question of whether he’d come back to the Steelers out of the way, now it’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3269,3265,2376,139,3266,56383,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-194745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-around-the-nfl","tag-breaking-news","tag-news","tag-no-minute","tag-offseason-news","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}