{"id":89739,"date":"2026-01-17T23:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89739\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T23:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T23:11:09","slug":"aaron-rodgers-not-expected-to-return-to-steelers-following-mike-tomlin-stepping-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89739\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Rodgers not expected to return to Steelers following Mike Tomlin stepping down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>That&#8217;s how quickly the NFL can change, even considering long-established figures. In the matter of seven days, the Steelers are now in search of just their fourth head coach since 1969, and Rodgers is expected to be one and done in Pittsburgh after throwing for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions during a 10-7 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Having never logged a sub-.500 season during Tomlin&#8217;s tenure, with a streak of such campaigns extending to 2004 during Bill Cowher&#8217;s final three years with the club, the Steelers will look to continue their success under a new head coach and leaning on a different starting quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>While breaking in a new head coach will certainly take some getting used to, though, the Steelers are on familiar ground potentially looking for a new signal-caller. They&#8217;ve employed a revolving door of QBs, from Rodgers to <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/russell-wilson\/\" title=\"Russell Wilson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Russell Wilson<\/a> to <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/kenny-pickett\/\" title=\"Kenny Pickett\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kenny Pickett<\/a> and others in the aftermath of Ben Roethlisberger&#8217;s retirement.<\/p>\n<p>As for Rodgers, the question turns to what opportunities he would take moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>Rapoport added that Rodgers might have already thrown his last pass &#8212; unfortunately a pick-six in Pittsburgh&#8217;s <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/games\/texans-at-steelers-2025-post-1?tab=recap\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">30-6 wild-card loss<\/a> &#8212; and Rodgers suggested ahead of this season that <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/ck\/a?!&amp;&amp;p=fcd3ca023882160534374b336aaa9fa054cc8f8dc25613b46045f1cb7c019d34JmltdHM9MTc2ODYwODAwMA&amp;ptn=3&amp;ver=2&amp;hsh=4&amp;fclid=2736f501-8d99-630d-014d-e4aa8cf362bf&amp;psq=aaron+rodgers+says+season+is+his+last+nfl.com&amp;u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmZsLmNvbS9uZXdzL3N0ZWVsZXJzLXFiLWFhcm9uLXJvZGdlcnMtcHJldHR5LXN1cmUtMjAyNS13aWxsLWJlLWZpbmFsLXNlYXNvbg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the 2025 campaign would be his last<\/a>. However, he <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/steelers-aaron-rodgers-focused-on-week-18-but-leaves-door-open-for-return-there-ll-be-options-if-i-decided-i-still-want-to-play\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">softened his stance<\/a> toward the end of the year. He&#8217;s a mercurial figure, and he proved he still has plenty to offer under center.<\/p>\n<p>With Pittsburgh seemingly no longer an option, it&#8217;ll either be a fourth NFL home or retirement for Rodgers in the coming offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That&#8217;s how quickly the NFL can change, even considering long-established figures. In the matter of seven days, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3269,3265,139,3266,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":{"0":"post-89739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-around-the-nfl","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-no-minute","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","14":"tag-pittsburgh-news","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89739","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=89739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}