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PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA – JANUARY 12: Aaron Rodgers #8 of the Pittsburgh Steelers looks to pass against the Houston Texans in the first quarter of an NFL wild card playoff game at Acrisure Stadium on January 12, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Aaron Rodgers is returning for one last season with the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The four-time NFL<\/a> MVP has made it known that this will be his last dance as he plays his 22nd season in the league. Rodgers will enter his second year as the Steelers\u2019 starting quarterback as he looks to end a decade long drought for the franchise when it comes to winning a playoff game.<\/p>\n The Steelers will have a new look this season after parting ways with Mike Tomlin, who had coached the franchise for the past 19 seasons. Pittsburgh brought in area native Mike McCarthy, who happens to be Rodgers\u2019s former coach with the Green Bay Packers<\/a>. McCarthy and Rodgers won a Super Bowl together in Green Bay during the 2010 season and worked together for 13 seasons (2006-2018).<\/p>\n Jerome Bettis, who is regarded as one of the greatest players in Steelers history, believes that Rodgers and McCarthy will work well together as they reunite for the first time in eight years. When asked what he believes Rodgers\u2019 legacy will be once he calls it a career, the Pro Football Hall of Fame running back kept it simple and said that he\u2019ll go down as \u201cone of the greatest\u201d quarterbacks to ever do it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be one of the greatest quarterbacks that has ever played the game,\u201d said Bettis in a one-on-one interview<\/a>. \u201cHe won a championship. He showed us what great quarterbacks look like. He\u2019s a four-time MVP. His credentials speak for itself, and he\u2019s one of the greatest quarterbacks to have ever played the game. I think he\u2019ll go down as that and that\u2019ll be his legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n Aaron Rodgers Played in Most Stacked Generation of Quarterbacks in NFL History<\/p>\n Rodgers played in a stacked generation of quarterbacks, a generation that many would consider to be the greatest of all time. The 42-year-old quarterback entered the NFL (2005) and played out his prime against the likes of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. Brady won seven Super Bowls (the most in NFL history), Manning won five MVPs (the most in history) and Brees set multiple passing records, including most consecutive games with a passing touchdown and most seasons as passing yards leader.<\/p>\n Rodgers started out his career later than his peers, not taking over the Packers\u2019 starting job until his fourth season in 2008 due to the presence of legendary quarterback Brett Favre. However, he still ranks among the league leaders in passing yards (fifth), passing touchdowns (fourth) and passer rating (first). He also is the NFL\u2019s career leader in touchdown-to-interception ratio. Furthermore, he also ranks second in league MVPs to Manning.<\/p>\n Jerome Bettis on a Successful Farewell Season for Rodgers: Winning a Super Bowl<\/p>\n Obviously, Rodgers only has one Super Bowl in comparison to Brady\u2019s seven and Manning\u2019s two. That\u2019s also not factoring in other all-time great quarterbacks such as Steelers legend Terry Bradshaw (four) and Troy Aikman (three). In other words, the lack of championship hardware may affect his all-time standing when it comes to comparing him to other quarterbacks.<\/p>\n Winning a Super Bowl in his last season would obviously add to Rodgers\u2019s legacy. Bettis didn\u2019t hold back in his assessment of what constitutes a \u201csuccessful\u201d season for Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n \u201cA successful season is winning a championship,\u201d said Bettis. \u201cThat\u2019s the goal every year. What does he measure as success? That part I don\u2019t know. But when you play for an organization like the Pittsburgh Steelers, the goal is to win a championship. If you win the division, that\u2019s always a nugget, because we play in the toughest division in football, so that\u2019s always going to be a challenge in and of itself. There\u2019s going to be small wins, but ultimately the goal is to win a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDJ Siddiqi<\/a> covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He has covered the NFL and NBA for Forbes, ClutchPoints, CBS Sports, 24\/7 Sports and Bleacher Report before joining Heavy. More about DJ Siddiqi<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA – JANUARY 12: Aaron Rodgers #8 of the Pittsburgh Steelers looks to pass against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-242231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242231","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=242231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}