{"id":338346,"date":"2026-05-21T13:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=338346"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:44:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:14:00","slug":"aaron-rodgers-plans-to-retire-after-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/aaron-rodgers-plans-to-retire-after-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Rodgers Plans To Retire After 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It appears Steelers quarterback <strong>Aaron Rodgers<\/strong> will ride off into the sunset after the 2026 season. Meeting with the media on Wednesday, Rodgers revealed that he&#8217;ll only play another yr (via <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bepryor\/status\/2057165185870184659\">Brooke Pryor of ESPN<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.profootballrumors.com\/files\/2025\/11\/USATSI_27494688-scaled.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYes,\u201d<\/em> said Rodgers when asked if this shall be his last season.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s price mentioning that Rodgers made similar comments last June, a few weeks after the previous Packer and Jet ended a protracted trip to free agency to affix the Steelers. It was a similarly drawn-out process this spring, but Rodgers finally agreed to return last weekend for a guaranteed $22MM. Rodgers stated that he made the choice after last month\u2019s draft, adding he has been in Pittsburgh since early May (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bepryor\/status\/2057162745091391593\">via Pryor<\/a>). The four-time MVP and future Hall of Famer is now in line to play his twenty second season on the age of 42 (he\u2019ll turn 43 in December).<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers\u2019 respect for longtime head coach <strong>Mike Tomlin<\/strong> influenced his decision to sign with Pittsburgh in 2025. The 2 went on to form a robust connection in a 10-7, AFC North-winning campaign for the Steelers. Rodgers didn&#8217;t resemble his all-world Green Bay self, but he bounced back from a few forgettable Jets seasons to win 10 of his 16 starts. He accomplished 65.7% of passes (in keeping with his profession mark of 65.1), tossed 24 touchdowns against just seven interceptions, and posted a good 94.8 traditional rating.<\/p>\n<p>While the regular season was a hit for the Rodgers-led Steelers, the franchise prolonged its playoff losing streak to seven games. Led by a ferocious defense, Houston went into Pittsburgh within the wild-card round and crushed the Steelers, 30-6. Tomlin resigned shortly after that. It appeared Rodgers would follow Tomlin out the door, but then the Steelers hired<strong> Mike McCarthy<\/strong> as their head coach. McCarthy held the identical position in Green Bay from 2006-18. He and Rodgers won their only Super Bowl together, and the QB also took home two of his MVP awards in that span.<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers told reporters Wednesday that he suggested McCarthy to Steelers general manager <strong>Omar Khan<\/strong> after Tomlin stepped down (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bepryor\/status\/2057162734458847430\">via Pryor<\/a>). The QB and coach were in communication over the past few months.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\"><em>\u201cThere may be a full aspect circle that piqued my interest of coming back,\u201d <\/em>Rodgers said of reuniting with McCarthy (via <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MarkKaboly\/status\/2057163100755800221\">Mark Kaboly of The Pat McAfee Show<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Tomlin never posted a sub-.500 season in any of his 19 years on the helm, and he ended his Pittsburgh tenure with three straight playoff berths. The Steelers will expect similar regular-season leads to McCarthy\u2019s first yr and Rodgers\u2019 last, though it&#8217;ll go down as a disappointment in the event that they are once more immediately dispatched within the playoffs. The Steelers haven&#8217;t won a postseason game since January 2017, which has led to increased frustration from their fan base.<\/p>\n<p>With Rodgers\u2019 profession nearing an end, the Steelers can have to buy a starting signal-caller yet again next offseason. That can depend upon how much faith they&#8217;ve in 2025 sixth-round pick <strong>Will Howard<\/strong> and rookie third-rounder <strong>Drew Allar<\/strong>. Since <strong>Ben Roethlisberger<\/strong> retired after the 2021 campaign, Pittsburgh has been unable to search out a long-term answer at the sport\u2019s foremost position.<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers spent a 2022 first-rounder on <strong>Kenny Pickett<\/strong>, but he lasted just two years with the organization. After Pickett flamed out, they brought in <strong>Russell Wilson<\/strong> and <strong>Justin Fields<\/strong> as starting options in 2024. Despite making the playoffs that yr, the Steelers weren&#8217;t impressed enough to bring Wilson or Fields back for a second season. That led them to Rodgers, who will go down as a two-year starter for the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers will enter his final season fourth all-time in touchdown passes and fifth in each yards and completions. He&#8217;s 13 TD tosses from 540, which might move him past <strong>Peyton Manning<\/strong> for third on the list. He can even have a probability to develop into just the sixth QB to ever start a game at age 43 or older (via <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JamesPalmerTV\/status\/2057168401005703533\">James Palmer of Bleacher Report<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It appears Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will ride off into the sunset after the 2026 season. Meeting with the media on Wednesday, Rodgers revealed that he&#8217;ll only play another yr (via Brooke Pryor of ESPN). \u201cYes,\u201d said Rodgers when asked if this shall be his last season. It&#8217;s price mentioning that Rodgers made similar comments [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":338347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[1116,972,2371,5596],"class_list":["post-338346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-aaron","tag-plans","tag-retire","tag-rodgers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338346"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338349,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338346\/revisions\/338349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}