Aaron Rodgers officially sealed his return to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday when he inked a new deal to play his 22nd season in the NFL.
The quarterback, 42, had left the Steelers in limbo after deliberating over his NFL future for months after losing in the first round of the playoffs with Pittsburgh back in January.
However, it emerged over the weekend that he had agreed to return to Pittsburgh for yet another season, officially inking the deal on Monday.
The veteran signed a one-year contract after arriving at the Steelers’ facilities for the first day of OTAs, the team announced. It is reported to be worth up to $25 million.
Rodgers was one of the first players to report to OTAs, arriving at the team’s facilities just before 7am, according to ESPN’s Brooke Pryor.
‘He’s extremely focused and locked in,’ said Steelers quarterbacks coach Tom Arth, who was a teammate of Rodgers in Green Bay during the 2006 offseason and preseason.
Aaron Rodgers officially sealed his return to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday
The quarterback was seen arriving at the Steelers’ facilities early on Monday morning
‘He’s such a competitive player, but he has so much fun playing the game. And that’s what I really enjoy about Aaron.
‘He loves playing this game. He plays the game like he’s still 10 years old running around in the backyard.
‘At the same time, he’s got this ferocious competitive spirit that obviously helped push him to the heights that he’s reached.
‘His football IQ is off the charts. What he’s able to process and see on a play-by-play basis, between plays, it really is uncanny. There are not many players who have been able to do the things that he’s done.’
Rodgers will now reunite with new Steelers coach Mike McCarthy after they won a Super Bowl together with the Green Bay Packers in 2011. The duo have won 107 games together, the ninth most by any head coach-starting quarterback duo since 1966.
Last season, Rodgers led the Steelers to the playoffs but they were blown away in the wild card round by the Houston Texans before legendary coach Mike Tomlin departed after 19 years.
In 21 seasons, he has appeared in 264 games, starting 257 of them. He has completed 5,696 of 8,743 passes for 66,274 yards and 527 touchdowns.
Rodgers was named Associated Press Most Valuable Player four times in his career, joining Peyton Manning (five) as the only players to win the honor four or more times.
He will reunite with new Steelers coach Mike McCarthy after they won a Super Bowl in 2011
The quarterback stunned fans when he unveiled a wedding band on his finger last summer
Rodgers’ refusal to confirm his future plans led the Steelers to add to their quarterback ranks in the NFL Draft by picking Penn State’s Drew Allar in the third round.
Rodgers’ return to the NFL will undoubtedly bring his marriage to mysterious wife Brittani, who has still not been identified more than 12 months after their wedding, back into the spotlight.
He first revealed in June last year that he had been married for ‘a couple of months’, placing the wedding in around March or April 2025, but he was scant on details.
Rodgers declined to name who he married, although he said in a December 2024 episode of the Pat McAfee Show that he was dating someone named Brittani, who was a ‘private person,’ at the time.
He has never been seen in public with his wife, who remains one of the NFL’s biggest mysteries, with even his teammates and their partners describing her as a ‘phantom.’
