PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – While at one point after he signed it appeared this was Aaron Rodgers final year in the NFL, the Steelers quarterback didn’t slam that door for another year. In fact, Rodgers brought up an analogy of being in a first-year offense and how much better it is in the second year.
It’s days before a win-and-in or lose-and-out of the playoffs game with Baltimore, so Rodgers said a few times that’s where his focus lies. However.
“I don't really want to get too deep into it,” Rodgers said Wednesday. “Obviously, I'll talk to my wife. And then hopefully, that's a decision down the line. But I'm not really going to talk about it.”
But he did talk about it as other questions came up.
Rodgers reference a friend and teammate who broke his neck on the field in 2011 and that has always stuck with him. It has impacted how he’s approached the game and the potential of being at the end of his career.
“The mortality of those moments and the seriousness of seeing a teammate get carted off the field in a neck brace, it makes you realize how special this opportunity is, but how fleeting it can be,” Rodgers said. “And you just got to stay in the moment and each one could be your last. That's kind of the mindset.”
Even when the conversation drifted back to a huge season finale against the Ravens, it would steer back to his future.
“I mean, 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 said. “Whenever the season ends, I'll be a free agent. So that'll give me a lot of options if I still wanna play.”
Rodgers then laughed as though not to assume there will be a lot of teams after him if he still wants to play. He said he thinks there would be maybe one or two, if he decides he wants to continue a Hall of Fame career.
He does know this for certain, Rodgers said his one season in Pittsburgh was even better than he was hoping.
“I mean, everything about this experience has been great,” Rodgers said. “It's been a special experience from the first conversations with Mike (Tomlin) to the first day I got here in June, to some of the stuff I did when I first got in town, going over to Cam's (Heyward) house, doing Cam's golf tournament. Being a part of the community and learning about the people of Pittsburgh and our fan base. It's a really special year and we're playing meaningful football in December in January now, which is what I wanted after the last couple of years.”
He praised his quarterback room and how much he really enjoys pouring into rookie Will Howard. Mike Tomlin’s leadership, Art Rooney, Andy Weidl and Omar Khan for the high character guys they brought to the team. Rodgers said there are a handful of friendships that will stick with him into the next chapter of his life.
Then there was this, that really made you wonder about his desires to potentially run it back another season, if the Steelers would have him.
“You know, anytime you're in a first-year offense, there's always some growing pains within the offense,” Rodgers said. “It's always like you feel like if you had another year, what you could do. I look at 2019, the way I played in 2019 and then kind of the adjustments we made in the off season and then the way I played in 2020, which was just in a whole kind of different level.”
“I felt like, and I used to tease (Green Bay head coach Matt) LeFleur about this all the time. I was a game manager in 2019 and a game impactor in 2020 and 2021. I think a lot of it is just familiarity with the offense and with the guys. And we've done the best we could with our conversations and our meeting time outside the facility and our meeting in the facility. But obviously, the more years you get in the system with the same guys. The more continuity you have, the better you feel like you can play.”
Rodgers is a smart guy. He seems to enjoy throwing people off the scent, but it just could be that he just doesn’t know what the future holds. That likely goes for the Steelers as well.