If Aaron Rodgers wants to play, Steelers' hire of Mike McCarthy reboots an option for the QB Charles RobinsonJanuary 25, 2026 at 7:52 AM 1 Heading into Week 18, Aaron Rodgers was nothing if not pragmatically optimistic. The days on his Pittsburgh Steelers contract were dwindling. The future of head coach Mike Tomlin was a subject of public debate. And the franchise he quarterbacked was cornered into a de facto playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens in the regularseason finale. Any direction you looked, there was something finite hanging in the balance.
- - If Aaron Rodgers wants to play, Steelers' hire of Mike McCarthy reboots an option for the QB
Charles RobinsonJanuary 25, 2026 at 7:52 AM
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Heading into Week 18, Aaron Rodgers was nothing if not pragmatically optimistic.
The days on his Pittsburgh Steelers contract were dwindling. The future of head coach Mike Tomlin was a subject of public debate. And the franchise he quarterbacked was cornered into a de facto playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens in the regular-season finale. Any direction you looked, there was something finite hanging in the balance. But in what registered as at least a mild surprise, Rodgers spoke to reporters like a man who didn't see a definitive near-term conclusion to his football career … so long as he didn't want it to end.
"I'm thinking about this week, but obviously I'm 42 years old and I'm on a one-year deal, so you know what the situation is," Rodgers told reporters. "Whenever the season ends, I'll be a free agent. So that'll give me a lot of options if I still want to play."
Rodgers gave a slight shrug and chuckled.
"Not a lot of options, but — there will be options I would think. Maybe one or two if I decide I still want to play."
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He then punctuated the thought by opening the door to a return.
"I've enjoyed this experience," Rodgers said. "Everybody in Pittsburgh has been fantastic to me on and off the field. It's really what I was hoping for, for this experience. It's been even better than I was hoping."
A few days later, the Steelers would beat the Ravens and make the postseason, before getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs against the Houston Texans. All in all, it culminated in a season that felt like Rodgers, Tomlin and the Steelers squeezed about as much as they could have expected.
Then Tomlin left, via a resignation that felt like a surprise to ownership. And maybe to Rodgers, too, given that any thought of his return seemed so strongly bound to whether Tomlin would continue to guide Pittsburgh. When that changed, logical speculation — and that's all we've been left with thus far on the Rodgers front — was that a new head coach would mean a new quarterback. Whatever options were on the table for Rodgers, they appeared to have shrunk by one.
Then came Saturday, when the Steelers went against their historical hiring template and locked in 62-year-old Mike McCarthy, a candidate who can fit more than one forward-looking ideology. On one hand, McCarthy is a seasoned veteran coach who can come in and try to energize an aging roster that is still very much built to win now. On the other, he could be tasked with developing the franchise's next young quarterback. Without a bridge starter currently on the roster, it will be difficult for McCarthy to achieve both of those responsibilities.
Aaron Rodgers said he's enjoyed his time in Pittsburgh, but would a potential reunion with coach Mike McCarthy entice him to return in 2026? (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images) (Perry Knotts via Getty Images)
Unless, of course, McCarthy can find a veteran who knows his system and can come in and help with both tasks. Maybe a quarterback who McCarthy previously helped develop into a star? One who already has spent a season in the Pittsburgh quarterback room with 24-year-old Will Howard, who showed promise in limited reps during his rookie preseason and has the support of the front office as a prospect worth some continued development?
That sounds like a fit for Rodgers. And perhaps the renewal of a 2026 option that appeared to be extinguished when Tomlin resigned.
Of course, that doesn't mean McCarthy was hired with any kind of specificity of luring Rodgers back for another season. While some of Pittsburgh's players gave Rodgers high marks as a teammate in their exit interviews, the work to find the next long-term starting option is clearly near the top of the priorities for ownership and general manager Omar Khan. And that wouldn't have changed even if Tomlin had remained. One way or another, 2026 was always going to be geared toward either figuring out if the next young quarterback is already on the roster (in the form of Howard) or if the Steelers liked any of their draft, trade or free-agency options.
McCarthy's arrival won't change that mindset. The real factors of change at the quarterback spot will instead be pressed against the options Pittsburgh has available. If McCarthy is a head coach Rodgers will play for, it gives Pittsburgh at least one more year of a bridge starter to either weigh Howard as a prospect, or find someone in the 2026 draft who is worthy of being selected and then groomed. And there's certainly some deep-value intrigue over the coming draft class of quarterbacks.
The Steelers won't have a shot at Indiana's Fernando Mendoza and their first-round draft pick at No. 21 overall might not be high enough to land Alabama's Ty Simpson, either. But after that tandem, there are some interesting quarterbacks who could be seen as worthwhile projects with upside. Mississippi's Trinidad Chambliss (if he can't force another year of NCAA eligibility) will draw a significant amount of study from NFL teams. As will a quartet of others who were previously considered to be first-round picks — and potentially very high first-round picks — until hitting stumbles in their final seasons: LSU's Garrett Nussmeier, Miami's Carson Beck, Penn State's Drew Allar and Clemson's Cade Klubnik, among others.
For now — and we've yet to go through the draft-sifting process, so take this with a grain of salt — only Mendoza cuts the figure as a Day 1 rookie starter. Simpson could round into that kind of prospect, or one who has a shot to earn a starting job during his rookie season. The rest? Most personnel opinions appear to be placing them on a developmental track to possibly get a shot with a year or more of work from further down the depth chart.
If any of those players are in the Steelers' future, McCarthy's hiring makes a lot of sense given his history with helping quarterbacks grow into starters. And it also makes sense that Rodgers would be a fit, so long as he continues to be in a year-to-year contract mindset and actually wants to play for McCarthy again.
In that latter vein, both McCarthy and Rodgers have said very nice things about each other in the least few years, each gaining the perspective of working with new people and in new places. Those familiar with the pair have told Yahoo Sports in recent months that the rekindled admiration is real, with both having come to terms with their own mistakes and frustrations that ultimately played a part in McCarthy getting fired late in the 2018 season after coaching the Green Bay Packers for nearly 13 years.
But burying the hatchet in the NFL guarantees nothing. Even if Rodgers wants to play again and McCarthy would like to have him in 2026, the veteran quarterback doesn't know what the rest of the league landscape will look like in even a few weeks. There's a chance the Los Angeles Rams win a Super Bowl and Matthew Stafford decides to pull a John Elway and retire. Should that happen, the Rams will still be very much in the middle of a Super Bowl window and not have an obvious starting quarterback on the roster. And then there is the Minnesota Vikings, a team Rodgers was very interested in playing for last offseason. They are looking for someone to come in and compete with J.J. McCarthy for the starting job next season.
Add the Steelers to that mix, and you have exactly what Rodgers was talking about when he focused his gaze on 2026. Not a lot of options — but certainly some interesting ones.
Source: "AOL Sports"
Source: Sports
Published: January 25, 2026 at 04:27PM on Source: RED MAG
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