Aaron Rodgers Confirms 2026 Will Be His Final NFL Season as Steelers OTAs Officially Open
Aaron Rodgers is done after this. The four-time NFL MVP confirmed at Steelers OTAs this week that 2026 will be his final NFL season, putting a hard end date on a Hall of Fame career that began in Green Bay and is finishing in Pittsburgh.
“This is it,” Rodgers said when asked if this would be his final NFL year.
Forty-three in December. Twenty-two seasons of NFL football. Rodgers signed a one-year deal worth up to $25 million with the Steelers earlier this offseason, with a base salary of $22-23 million and a few million more in incentives. The contract reunites him with Mike McCarthy, his head coach for 13 of his seasons with the Packers.
Unlike last year, when he reported to the Jets with a holdout-flavored offseason, Rodgers is fully participating in OTAs. McCarthy called it the “most important part of the offseason program,” and Rodgers agreed. “Being here for OTAs in my view is what I was looking for and what he was looking for,” McCarthy said. The willingness to show up matters. The body of work matters more.
The Steelers have built a competent supporting cast around him. They drafted Germie Bernard to play the slot. They added Michael Pittman Jr. as a veteran outside presence. The defense remains the strength, anchored by TJ Watt and Nick Herbig. Mike Tomlin has put together a roster that does not need elite quarterback play to compete in the AFC. With Rodgers, the ceiling is higher.
The question is whether the ceiling is high enough. The AFC has the Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, and Bengals. Patrick Mahomes is in his prime. Josh Allen is too. Lamar Jackson is the reigning MVP. Joe Burrow has another year on his prove-it contract before the Bengals lose him forever. A 42-year-old Rodgers is asking a lot.
What Pittsburgh gets out of this is a high-end short-term option, a draft year to plan around, and a guy who can immediately stabilize the position. McCarthy gets one more shot to work with the quarterback he developed two decades ago. The reunion has all the makings of a story arc that could end in real success.
What we get is a farewell tour. Rodgers will play 17 games this fall as the second-most decorated quarterback of his generation, behind only Tom Brady. He has four MVPs. He has a Super Bowl title. He has thrown for nearly 60,000 yards. He has the most touchdown-to-interception ratio in NFL history. The numbers are absurd. The career is one of the best in league history.
For the Steelers fan base, this is a chance to root for a future Hall of Famer in a Pittsburgh jersey. The contracts the team has handed out to Rodgers and the supporting pieces tell you ownership believes this group can go deep into the playoffs. Tomlin has never had a losing season. The defense has been elite for years. The only piece missing has been a quarterback who can deliver in the big moments.
Whether Rodgers can still be that guy is the bet. He has had two injury-plagued seasons in New York. He has aged. He has battled. He showed enough late last year to convince the Steelers to make this commitment.
One more season. One last chance to win. Aaron Rodgers wants to ride off on his terms. Mike McCarthy wants to ride with him. The AFC will not make it easy. Sunday afternoons in Pittsburgh just got more interesting.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
