{"id":976717,"date":"2026-08-18T18:03:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/976717\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T18:03:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:03:19","slug":"mike-mccarthy-opens-up-on-final-chapter-with-aaron-rodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/976717\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike McCarthy Opens Up on Final Chapter with Aaron Rodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers at training camp on Aug. 1, 2026. — Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy<\/a> waxed poetic about his 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers during a recent interview with Ralph Vacchiano of FOX Sports<\/a>. <\/p>\n

McCarthy thinks Rodgers has two things that will help him defeat Father Time in 2026 \u2014 his intellect and arm strength. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis mind\u2019s incredibly sharp,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cBut I\u2019ll be honest with you, his ball play in this camp has been top-notch. Obviously, I\u2019ve coached a lot of football with him, but his ability to place the football\u2026 I\u2019m not saying he lost any velocity on the ball, but if he has, it\u2019s definitely made up for with his anticipation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he\u2019s getting the ball where it needs to be, on time. He\u2019s having a hell of a camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SteelersPittsburgh Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers lines up for a play during a training camp practice. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now <\/p>\n

McCarthy, who was Rodgers\u2019 head coach for 13 years in Green Bay, is happy to have a full circle moment with his quarterback. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super cool, just to be able to be part of his final chapter. It\u2019s awesome,\u201d McCarthy told Vacchiano. \u201cBut I think he definitely fits the culture here. So yes, I think it\u2019s a great story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think we just want to win. Let\u2019s go win and do the things that we need to do to win. And he\u2019s such a competitor. I love the time, once we cross the white lines, when we get to just go out there and compete. And he is one of the greatest to ever play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy was also hired for life after Rodgers, though, and that includes finding his eventual replacement.<\/p>\n

The Steelers are hoping that comes in the form of one of their backup quarterbacks Will Howard<\/a> or Drew Allar<\/a>. Luckily, McCarthy believes Rodgers\u2019 presence is already paying off in that department.<\/p>\n

\u201cConceptually, he\u2019s pretty much done it all. He\u2019s played 20,000 reps of live football in the NFL,\u201d McCarthy said on SiriusXM NFL Radio earlier this month. \u201cBut the way he pours himself out to his teammates. It\u2019s been very unique and you can just see the urgency in his everyday prep. It\u2019s been cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article:Aaron Rodgers<\/a> Mike McCarthy<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers at training camp on Aug. 1,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":976718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,7,7866,6,520,57,2360,426,2395],"class_list":["post-976717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-football","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers","tag-steelers-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117117833003627091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976717","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=976717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/976718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}