{"id":668850,"date":"2026-01-11T13:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/668850\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T13:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:18:27","slug":"aaron-rodgers-back-in-playoffs-after-fulfilling-steelers-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/668850\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Rodgers back in playoffs after fulfilling Steelers’ ‘vision’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> had a vision.<\/p>\n

And it took some serious patience.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until early June that Aaron Rodgers<\/a> reached a one-year, $13.65 million contract with the Steelers, nearly four months after the Jets informed the veteran quarterback of his release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh went through free agency, the NFL Draft and OTAs without adding a starting QB, taking a risk as Rodgers considered his future.<\/p>\n

But Rodgers finally signed, and some seven months later, he and the fourth-seeded Steelers (10-7) are preparing for a playoff game against the Houston Texans (12-5).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the vision in the spring when we pursued him,\u201d head coach Mike Tomlin said after clinching the AFC North with an instant-classic 26-24 win over the Baltimore Ravens in the regular-season finale.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why you do business with a 41, 42-year-old guy, been-there, done-that guy with a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 like his. He\u2019s not only capable, man. He thrives in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday night\u2019s Wild Card Round game at Pittsburgh\u2019s Acrisure Stadium marks Rodgers\u2019 first postseason appearance since January of 2022.<\/p>\n

That drought included a disappointing two-year tenure with the Jets in which Rodgers missed practically all of the 2023 season due to an Achilles tear, followed by a 2024 season in which he went 5-12.<\/p>\n

Although Rodgers was productive in 2024 \u2014 he passed for 3,897 yards and 28 touchdowns \u2014 and finished the season strong, the Jets\u2019 new regime of head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey opted for a clean slate and moved on from the headline-making four-time MVP.<\/p>\n

The Jets ultimately started three quarterbacks \u2014 including Justin Fields, who spent 2024 with Pittsburgh \u2014 during their 3-14 season in 2025.<\/p>\n

Their loss proved to be Pittsburgh\u2019s gain, as the Steelers went 10-6 in Rodgers\u2019 starts and won their division for the first time since 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of gratitude for the journey,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cEvery season is different, has its challenges, adversity. We haven\u2019t made it easy on ourselves, really all season, I guess, but I\u2019m proud of our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers, who turned 42 last month, passed for 3,322 yards and 24 touchdowns with seven interceptions in 16 games.<\/p>\n

He was at his best when it mattered most, throwing for a season-high 294 yards and leading the Steelers on two fourth-quarter touchdown drives against the Ravens with the division on the line.<\/p>\n

The latter of those touchdowns was a 26-yard pass to Calvin Austin with 55 seconds remaining \u2014 a go-ahead score that held up as the game-winner when Ravens rookie kicker Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field-goal attempt as time expired.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool when you see the ball in the hands of [No.] 8 there,\u201d said Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt, referring to Rodgers. \u201cIt\u2019s like, he\u2019s here for a reason. This is why he\u2019s here. This is the best dude in the NFL for this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers enter the playoffs having won four of their last five games, but they began the week as 3.5-point underdogs to the fifth-seeded Texans.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because red-hot Houston has won nine games in a row, largely on the strength of one of the NFL\u2019s stoutest defenses.<\/p>\n

The Texans allowed an NFL-low 277.2 yards per game, while opponents scored an AFC-low 17.4 points per game against them.<\/p>\n

Pass rushers Danielle Hunter (15) and Will Anderson (12) combined for 27 sacks \u2014 an advantage Rodgers will attempt to thwart with one of the NFL\u2019s quickest release times.<\/p>\n

\u201cAaron, he\u2019s done it at a high level for a long time because he\u2019s probably one of the smartest quarterbacks to play the game,\u201d said Houston head coach DeMeco Ryans, a former linebacker who faced Rodgers during his playing career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does a really good job, understands defense really well. But for us, that doesn\u2019t change. \u2026 It\u2019s about our guys playing together, collectively, against a really good opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing working in Rodgers\u2019 favor is the return of top wide receiver D.K. Metcalf, who is back after a two-game suspension for hitting a fan during a Week 16 win in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Tomlin said Metcalf \u2014 who led Pittsburgh with 850 receiving yards and six touchdown catches in 15 games \u2014 is \u201cin a great place\u201d and \u201chappy to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

So is Rodgers, who seeks his second Super Bowl championship after winning his first a decade and a half ago with the Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just takes a little belief at this point in the season,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cThere\u2019s 14 teams that\u2019ll be left, 18 that\u2019ll be planning their offseasons. It\u2019s good to be part of the 14.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers had a vision. And it took some serious patience. It wasn\u2019t until early June that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[1586,7,226,1255,6,84,426,5226,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-668850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jets","11":"tag-mike-tomlin","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nfl-playoffs","14":"tag-steelers","15":"tag-t-j-watt","16":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115876666199626331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}