run it back one last time<\/a>. While there was no one tipping point, the relative health of his 42-year-old body and the chance to have his career come \u201cfull circle\u201d with a team that spent the offseason upgrading the offense in hopes of ending a lengthy playoff victory drought led to a reunion he called \u201csurreal.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt is like a (bunch of) \u2018pinch me\u2019 moments that have happened in the last few days,\u201d Rodgers said after the second day of voluntary organized team activities.<\/p>\n
Perhaps because McCarthy hardly came back to his hometown alone.<\/p>\n
The familiar faces from Rodgers\u2019 time in Green Bay are everywhere inside the Steelers facility, from defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to offensive line coach James Campen. There are \u201cgetting the band back together\u201d vibes everywhere Rodgers looks.<\/p>\n
When Rodgers plopped into a chair for a meeting Monday, in many ways it felt like it was 2006, when he was entering his second year as Brett Favre\u2019s backup for the Packers and McCarthy was a first-year head coach still finding his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cTook me back to being a 22-year-old kid,\u201d Rodgers said with a smile.<\/p>\n
Only he\u2019s hardly that anymore. While the oldest player in the NFL turned back the clock enough last season to throw for 24 touchdowns against seven interceptions and guide the Steelers to the AFC North title, he also missed a game after breaking several bones in his left wrist and looked very much his age during the second half of what became a blowout loss to the Texans that ended both the Steelers\u2019 season and Tomlin\u2019s largely successful 19-year run as head coach.<\/p>\n
Still, Rodgers believes he has enough left to attempt the rarest of exits for players of his stature: the ability to go out on his own terms.<\/p>\n
McCarthy said Rodgers \u201ccan still throw it with anybody,\u201d though the time of year when Rodgers will be asked to really cut it loose is still months away. Perhaps Rodgers\u2019 most important job through OTAs, minicamp and training camp is helping the Steelers prepare for life without him.<\/p>\n
While McCarthy and Rodgers stayed in communication as Rodgers hung out in Malibu, Calif., with his wife and weighed his options for 2026, the Steelers selected Penn State quarterback Drew Allar in the third round of the draft, and McCarthy has talked up 2025 sixth-round choice Will Howard at every turn since taking over.<\/p>\n
Allar and Howard figure to be in the mix this time next year when the Steelers restart their quest to find a long-term solution at the game\u2019s most important position, a search that has been ongoing since Ben Roethlisberger\u2019s retirement in January 2022.<\/p>\n
Rodgers\u2019 presence offers a cheat code of sorts. He knows all the answers to the test, particularly when the test is offered by McCarthy. Allar and Howard will get to spend the next seven or so months soaking up what they can from Rodgers about what McCarthy wants and, perhaps more important, how he wants it.<\/p>\n
McCarthy called Rodgers \u201ca tremendous resource\u201d who also happens to be a future Hall of Famer, giving him a certain cachet that might make him a better conduit for what McCarthy is trying to teach than the coach himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like parenting,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cI could sit there and tell my kids something, and then, like, if he\u2019d walk in and tell my son George something, he\u2019d jump out the window and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Rodgers took a friendly jab at Favre \u2014 whom he sat behind during the first three years of his career \u2014 by borrowing a phrase from Favre that mentoring is \u201cnot in my job description,\u201d the reality is it\u2019s a role he relishes.<\/p>\n
Just not as much as the chance to win. When Rodgers signed with the Steelers a year ago, he called the decision \u201cbest for my soul.\u201d It\u2019s much the same this time around.<\/p>\n
He likes what the team has done by\u00a0trading for wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr., signing running back Rico Dowdle and drafting wideout Germie Bernard. The offensive line could be better with Troy Fautanu moving over to left tackle. The defense still has a pair of franchise icons in defensive lineman Cam Heyward and outside linebacker TJ Watt.<\/p>\n
And now it has a quarterback eager to soak up every last bit of the final chapter of a career that will end with a gold jacket and a bust in the Hall of Fame. Just not quite yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am excited about these guys,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m excited about the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Aaron Rodgers took his time before deciding he wanted to come back for a 22nd season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3269,47170,8203,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-198574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-aaron-rodgers-retirement","tag-mike-mccarthy","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\/198574","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=198574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}