Steelers owner Art Rooney II dismisses the Aaron Rodgers factor in Mike McCarthy's hiring, prioritizing the coach's championship potential.
It is easy to connect the dots with the Pittsburgh Steelers hiring Mike McCarthy as their coach.
Aaron Rodgers spent this past season as the Steelers’ quarterback and led them to their first AFC North title since 2020. The 42-year-old becomes a free agent and said late in the year that he was at least thinking about retirement.
McCarthy coached the Packers for 13 seasons from 2006 18, and Rodgers was with Green Bay for the entire tenure. Rodgers won two NFL MVP awards and a Super Bowl during that span, burnishing McCarthy’s reputation as an outstanding developer of quarterbacks.
Thus, it makes sense to think that the Rodgers’ connection played a role in Pittsburgh's decision to choose McCarthy on Saturday to replace Mike Tomlin, who resigned earlier this month after 19 seasons. Still, owner Art Rooney II downplayed the McCarthy-Rodgers connection in a story on the Steelers’ website on Sunday.
"We decided to bring Mike on because we believe that he's the right coach for us at this point to help lead us to a championship," Rooney said. "We don't know what Aaron's plans are right now, and that did not weigh heavily in the decision. We'll see where Aaron is, and we've left the door open, but obviously, we all have to sit down and see if that makes sense. So that'll happen sometime in the next month or so.
“But the decision was made based on Mike being the coach we want, and it really had very little to do with whether Aaron is going to be back or not."
Turning to the current roster, Rodgers’ two primary backups, Mason Rudolph and Will Howard, are under contract for next season.
Rudolph, 30, has made 19 starts in his seven-year career in the NFL, including 14 in six years with Pittsburgh, and has a 9-9-1 record. Rudolph started once this season in a loss to the Chicago Bears on Nov. 23 when he completed 24 of 31 passes for 171 yards and one touchdown with one interception.
Howard, 24, was the Steelers’ sixth-round draft pick from Ohio State in 2025 but did not appear in any preseason or postseason games. After making a strong impression early in training camp, he sustained a broken hand that caused him to begin the season on injured reserve.