For the second time in his 21-year career, Aaron Rodgers has a chance to lead his team into the postseason with a victory in a winner-take-all game with a division title on the line.
Extending his season beyond the Pittsburgh Steelers’ regular-season finale Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens is all the farther the 42-year-old quarterback is willing to look into the future.
If the Steelers lose, game No. 264 in Rodgers’ legendary career could be his last. He joined the Steelers on a one-year contract in June and has made no plans to play beyond this season.
Rodgers wants to play a postseason game for the first time in four seasons, and he’s not ready yet to ponder what the offseason might bring.
“I haven’t thought about it,” Rodgers said Wednesday when asked whether he might return in 2026.
He also is keenly aware of the situation he and the Steelers face once this season is over. The franchise is expected to identify its quarterback of the future in the 2026 draft, which may prevent running it back again with Rodgers.
“I’m 42 years old and on a one-year deal,” Rodgers said. “You know what the situation is. When the season ends, I’ll be a free agent. That will give me a lot of options.”
Rodgers caught his breath and amended his words.
“There will be options, maybe one or two if I want to play,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed this experience. Everybody in Pittsburgh has been fantastic with me on and off the field. It was what I was hoping for.”
Rodgers signed with the Steelers for one more chance to play “meaningful football in December and January.”
Rodgers hasn’t tasted the postseason since January 2022, his penultimate season in Green Bay when the Packers finished 8-9. He lasted just a few snaps into his first season with the New York Jets, and they went 5-12 in his second year there.
For a while, it looked like Rodgers wouldn’t get a chance to play meaningful football down the stretch. The Steelers lost five games in a seven-game span and were 6-6 heading into a Dec. 7 matchup at Baltimore. The Steelers won three in a row before squandering a chance to win the AFC North on Sunday with a 13-6 loss at Cleveland.
“If you’d have told us at 6-6 that we’d be sitting at 9-7 for a chance to play for the division regardless of what happened in those four games, we’ve had taken it for sure,” Rodgers said.
The only other time Rodgers faced a win-or-go-home setting in a regular-season finale was in 2013. Fresh off a 38-31 loss to the Steelers, the Packers needed to win at Chicago to claim the AFC North title. Returning from a seven-game absence, Rodgers completed 25 of 39 passes for 318 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He led the Packers back from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter with two touchdown drives, and he hit Randall Cobb with a 48-yard TD pass with 38 seconds left to give Green Bay a 33-28 victory and deny the Bears a postseason berth.
This year, Rodgers will try to rebound from one of his worst performances. He had 168 yards passing and a 64.9 passer rating while leading the offense to just six points in the loss to the Browns. Three other times this season when Rodgers had a sub-65.0 passer rating, he responded with a rating of at least 96.1 the following week. Twice, his rating was over 100.
“If you’ve seen my career, I don’t have a lot of stinkers back to back,” Rodgers said. “That’s why I have the same mindset every week, the same approach. Expect greatness and when it doesn’t happen, you don’t shift the plan, you keep on going and trust the process.”
Rodgers won’t deviate from that script this week, either, even if the Steelers will be missing their top offensive playmaker in DK Metcalf for the second week in a row and are home underdogs against the Ravens.
“Business as usual for us,” Rodgers said, adding. “We’ll be fine.”
