{"id":686063,"date":"2026-01-18T08:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T08:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/686063\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T08:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T08:30:13","slug":"steelers-aaron-rodgers-unlikely-to-return-to-pittsburgh-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/686063\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers&#8217; Aaron Rodgers unlikely to return to Pittsburgh in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 18, 2026, 12:28 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The writing on the Steel City walls is becoming clearer following a new update \u2014 it doesn&#8217;t seem like <a href=\"http:\/\/steelerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/steelers\/2026\/01\/17\/steelers-free-agency-aaron-rodgers\/88231428007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aaron Rodgers<\/a> will return to the <a href=\"http:\/\/steelerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/steelers\/2026\/01\/17\/steelers-head-coach-nfl-mike-tomlin-curt-cignetti\/88234050007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">According to a new report from NFL Network&#8217;s Ian Rapoport, Mike Tomlin&#8217;s decision to step down as head coach of the Steelers may have had a huge impact on Rodgers&#8217; potential return to Pittsburgh, which now seems unlikely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;Mike Tomlin stepped down for the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/pittsburgh-steelers\/356\" data-autotag=\"c4d4185f-a327-423a-aa54-67a40f9dee05\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, certainly, a stunning move that leaves the future of Aaron Rodgers in doubt,&#8221; Rapoport said on Saturday. &#8220;I would not expect him to return to Pittsburgh now that Mike Tomlin is not back. What opportunities would Rodgers would actually take for another season, is a very real question. We may have seen the last of Rodgers in the NFL.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Rodgers&#8217; potentially last pass attempt as a Steeler is one fans would quickly love to forget, as he threw a pick-six before being benched to end Pittsburgh&#8217;s blown out loss to the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/houston-texans\/325\" data-autotag=\"4fdb1a06-1d90-42ff-b7f7-5268ecaf7955\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Houston Texans<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With Rodgers&#8217; future in doubt, there are still some viable replacements the Steelers can target, such as these four quarterbacks this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">For up-to-date\u00a0Steelers\u00a0coverage, including any offseason moves, follow us on X\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheSteelersWire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">@TheSteelersWire<\/a>\u00a0and give our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SteelersWire\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0a like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 18, 2026, 12:28 a.m. ET The writing on the Steel City walls is becoming clearer following a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[95878,7,6,520,57,2360,96718,96719,426,96675,95882,95893,95953,97638,95888,95895,95897,96720,96071,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-686063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-sstssportsnflsteelers","15":"tag-sstsnsteelers","16":"tag-steelers","17":"tag-tagaaron-rodgers","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagfacebook","20":"tag-taghouston-texans","21":"tag-tagmike-tomlin","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-hub","24":"tag-tagoverall-negative","25":"tag-tagpittsburgh-steelers","26":"tag-tagsmg-timely","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115915169867424731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686063","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=686063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}