Aaron Rodgers, 42, will retire from the NFL after the upcoming season, his final 22nd and complete career. The four-time MVP will play his last year with the Pittsburgh Steelers, after a Packers-then-Jets run that included Super Bowl glory, major injuries, pub
Aaron Rodgers walked into the next chapter already decided—then set a deadline for the one after it. The quarterback, 42, announced on Wednesday, May 20, that he plans to retire from the NFL after the upcoming season.
Rodgers’ final year will be his 22nd professional season, and he will do it with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The decision arrives just four days after he agreed to re-sign with Pittsburgh on a one-year contract.
Rodgers steps away as one of the most decorated and accomplished passers in league history. He ranks fourth all-time in touchdown passes with 527 and fifth in passing yards at 66,274. Only Peyton Manning has won more MVP awards than Rodgers’ four—Manning has five. Rodgers also led the Green Bay Packers to the franchise’s fourth Super Bowl title in the 2011 season. earning Super Bowl 45 MVP honors.
His statistical résumé also includes records that are hard to shake. Rodgers is tied with the Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson for the highest career passer rating at 102.6. He also shares the distinction of owning the two highest single-season passer rating marks—122.5 in 2011 and 121.5 in 2020. His touchdown-to-interception ratio of 4.28 stands as the best in league history for quarterbacks with at least 1,500 passing attempts.
How he threw helped define an era. Rodgers was known for the quick release and for drawing defenders offside, then attacking downfield. He also built a reputation for completing signature Hail Mary passes.
But his late-career story has never been only about football. Rodgers’ years in the league included repeated clashes with Green Bay leadership. and he became outspoken about COVID-19 vaccination efforts after misleading the media about his own vaccination status in 2021. In 2023. he went on a four-day darkness retreat in southern Oregon. later saying he was initially 90% certain he would retire as a Packer but that afterward he felt something had changed with the team’s stance toward him. He then publicly stated his intention to play for the New York Jets, and a trade followed 40 days later.
That Jets run, by contrast, carried disappointment almost immediately. Rodgers tore his Achilles just four plays into his debut season with New York. In his follow-up season, the Jets went 5-12, extending the league’s longest active playoff drought to 14 seasons at the time.
Now, with his Steelers deal in place and a final game season in front of him, Rodgers is aiming for a more even-keeled finish—while the earlier disputes and dramatic turns remain part of the record he’ll carry into a likely future in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Rodgers’ career began with waiting and then taking over. In 2005, as a Cal standout, he endured one of the more famous draft-day waits: he lasted all the way to the No. 24 selection despite being projected as one of the class’ top picks.
His first three seasons with Green Bay were spent as a backup to Hall of Famer Brett Favre. In March 2008, Favre retired, clearing the way for Rodgers to become the starter. But when Favre attempted to return months later. the Packers rebuffed him. and that eventually led to Favre being traded and Rodgers taking the full reins.
Rodgers discovered success early once he became the starter. His second season at the helm delivered the first of 11 trips to the playoffs and 10 Pro Bowl berths. In 2010. he helped the sixth-seeded Packers win three road playoff games to advance to the Super Bowl; Rodgers threw for 304 passing yards and three touchdowns in the 31-25 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
His first MVP award came the next season. In 2011, he guided Green Bay to a 15-1 record, throwing for 4,643 yards and 45 touchdowns against just six interceptions. The team’s postseason run ended in the divisional round when the eventual champion New York Giants upended them.
Even after Rodgers’ second MVP in 2014, the Packers began to struggle to replicate their early-career heights. Coach Mike McCarthy was fired toward the end of the 2018 season amid a rift with Rodgers.
In 2020, Green Bay stunned many by trading up to select quarterback Jordan Love with the No. 26 pick in the first round. General manager Brian Gutekunst made that move without informing Rodgers beforehand. Rodgers responded with his third MVP season, but he later acknowledged a distaste for how the decision was handled.
In 2021, Rodgers told ESPN’s Kenny Mayne, “With my situation, it’s never been about the draft pick, picking Jordan… I love Jordan; he’s a great kid. … I love my coaching staff, my teammates, love the fan base in Green Bay. It’s been an incredible 16 years.
It’s just kind of about a philosophy – maybe forgetting that it is about the people that make the thing go. It’s about character, it’s about culture, it’s about doing things the right way. A lot of this was put into motion last year. and the wrench was just kinda thrown into it when I won MVP and played the way I played last year. so this is just kind of like the spill out of all that.”.
That spring. Rodgers repeatedly referred to his future with Green Bay as a “beautiful mystery.” ESPN’s Adam Schefter published a story on the day of the NFL draft that the quarterback was seeking an exit. Rodgers did not report to mandatory minicamp, but he agreed to a reworked contract in July ahead of training camp. He won his fourth MVP award. yet Green Bay crashed out of the playoffs with a divisional-round loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
By March 2023, the partnership seemed to hit its breaking point. During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Rodgers publicly stated his desire to play for the Jets and acknowledged Green Bay had hoped to move ahead with Love as its starter.
When Rodgers arrived in New York, expectations were high. The Jets had been weighed down by the poor play of 2021 No. 2 overall pick Zach Wilson, and the franchise expected a significant leap at quarterback. Rodgers teamed up with offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett—his close friend who held the same role in Green Bay from 2019-21—and with former Packers targets Randall Cobb and Allen Lazard.
Then came the night that reshaped everything. Rodgers’ celebrated debut with New York against the Buffalo Bills on “Monday Night Football” ended abruptly when he tore his Achilles on his fourth play of the game. His inaugural season with the Jets ended there.
After he returned from the injury, Rodgers faced turbulence in 2024. The key figures who helped facilitate his arrival—head coach Robert Saleh, general manager Joe Douglas, and Hackett—were dismissed well before the end of the campaign.
In February, Rodgers’ tenure with the Jets ended with a release and a financial consequence. The team announced it would release him in a move that would saddle it with a $49 million dead cap hit to be spread out over two years. Rodgers publicly aired his displeasure with the duo. saying they had him fly across the country only to inform him that the franchise would move in a different direction behind center.
After his final game with the Steelers, Rodgers made what appeared to be a pointed comment after the Jets chapter. “There’s only a few very special places in the league that have the tradition and the town and the organization, and I’m thankful to have played for two of them,” he said.
Rodgers’ Steelers finish was slower to arrive than the headline might suggest. He waited until just before mandatory minicamp to sign with Pittsburgh in June 2025.
His regular season in Pittsburgh was solid but not dazzling. He threw for 3. 332 yards and 24 touchdowns—career lows for any season in which he played at least 15 games—and seven interceptions. Pittsburgh made the playoffs. but the run ended in the wild-card round with a 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans. the largest deficit of any home playoff loss in Steelers postseason history.
Rodgers was involved in the loss in the ways that sometimes follow an aging star into the final act. He took four sacks and threw a pick-six—an outcome that could have been the last throw of his career. It was not. Rodgers will return for another season with Mike McCarthy. who was hired to replace Mike Tomlin after Tomlin stepped down following 19 seasons.
Off the field, controversies continued to color Rodgers’ late career. In a 2021 news conference, he was asked if he had been vaccinated against COVID-19. Rodgers said. “Yeah. I’ve been immunized.” When he tested positive for the virus in November. he was ruled out for 10 days in adherence with league protocol for unvaccinated players. which caused him to miss the Packers’ game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Rodgers said he was allergic to an ingredient in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and was concerned about potential side effects to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He sought a medical exemption from the league that would have allowed his homeopathic treatments to qualify him as fully vaccinated. The NFL denied his request. and he was later fined $14. 650 for violating the league’s policy for unvaccinated players by not wearing masks to his news conferences as well as a Halloween party.
In later years, Rodgers said he regretted his “immunized” comment. He also remained an outspoken critic of the league’s COVID-19 policies and claimed he was the victim of a “woke mob” and “cancel culture.” He later became an outspoken advocate for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. with Rodgers meeting with the eventual Health and Human Services Secretary about being his running mate.
Rodgers also criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci. the former chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden who became the face of the United States’ COVID-19 response. and he repeatedly needled Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Rodgers called Kelce “Mr. Pfizer” for appearing in a commercial commissioned by the company recommending the public receive the COVID-19 and flu vaccines at the same time.
In January 2024. Rodgers faced additional backlash after indicating on “The Pat McAfee Show” that Jimmy Kimmel had ties to convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. implying that his name would appear in court documents that had previously been redacted. After Kimmel threatened to sue him and an ESPN executive said Rodgers had made “a dumb and factually inaccurate joke. ” Rodgers clarified that he did not call the host a pedophile. but he also did not apologize for his remarks.
Through it all. the cadence of the story stayed sharp: elite production on Sunday. fractured relationships and public battles off it. then an attempt at a cleaner last landing. Now Rodgers is turning the page for good after this season—leaving behind a record book full of numbers and a trail of arguments that won’t fade quietly.
Aaron Rodgers retirement Pittsburgh Steelers NFL retirement four-time MVP Green Bay Packers New York Jets dead cap hit 2025 season COVID-19 controversy
Wait he’s leaving again? Thought he was set for like 3 more seasons.
I’m confused… he just re-signed with the Steelers and now he’s retiring? Makes zero sense unless the Steelers already messed up his knee or something. Also 22 years is crazy, but I swear it feels like he’s been around forever.
So the Packers part was like the real story, right? Like he already got the Super Bowl, so now he’s just done. But also I read somewhere he was retiring after the Jets? Idk, the internet makes everything confusing. Either way, Peyton is still the goat in my book.
This is kinda sad but also he looks like he’s been tired for a year. I didn’t even realize he was ranked 4th in TD passes and all that, thought that was different. He picked Steelers and then poof, retirement. I guess money and stats don’t matter once your “chapter” is decided… or whatever they’re calling it.