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By Owen Hillman
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With the Pittsburgh Steelers hiring Mike McCarthy as head coach, they might have to change their quarterback. According to a report by Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports, there’s a chance that Aaron Rodgers could be leaving the Steelers, whether that’s through retirement or free agency.
“Even if Rodgers wants to play again and McCarthy would like to have him in 2026, the veteran quarterback doesn’t know what the rest of the league landscape will look like in even a few weeks,” said Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson. Rodgers signed a one-year, $13.65 million contract with the Steelers on June 6, 2025, so Rodgers is set to be an unrestricted free agent in 2026.
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To Green Bay Packers fans, this could be considered surprising. Rodgers and McCarthy won the 2010 Super Bowl in Green Bay together, and the Packers missed the playoffs just three times in the era where McCarthy was the coach and Rodgers the starting quarterback (2008-18). Rodgers won the MVP in the 2011 and 2014 season under McCarthy, and overall, the pair had a 100-57-1 record together
However, the relationship between McCarthy and Rodgers soured near the end of McCarthy’s tenure. The 2017 and 2018 seasons personified this. In 2017, Rodgers suffered a collarbone injury that took him out for nine games of the season. The Packers missed the playoffs, but with Rodgers back in 2018, they were expected to make it. Unfortunately, they went 6-9-1, and after a Week 13 loss to the 1-10 Arizona Cardinals, the Packers fired McCarthy.
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Both Rodgers and McCarthy have seen some success since the breakup, but not another Super Bowl. Rodgers won the 2020 and 2021 MVP with the Packers, but they never made it to the Super Bowl, and he ended his Green Bay tenure with a season-ending loss to the Detroit Lions in 2022. He was traded to the New York Jets, where he lasted just two seasons and played just one. After that he signed with Pittsburgh.
McCarthy, meanwhile, became the Dallas Cowboys head coach in 2020 after taking a hiatus in 2019. He had a 49-35 tenure with the Cowboys from 2020-24, but they couldn’t escape the divisional round in 2022 and lost in the wild card in 2021 and 2023 (against the Packers. After a disappointing 7-10 season, McCarthy was fired and took a one-year hiatus again before landing with the Steelers.
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