Aaron Rodgers was talking about his one-sided affection for downtown Chicago four years ago — “I’ve always enjoyed the city, enjoyed the fans, even though they haven’t enjoyed me,” he said — when he wondered whether there would be a day that would all change.
“Maybe there’ll be a little more love when my time comes to an end playing here,” he said.
He won’t have to worry about that happening for at least another year. Word came Thursday that Rodgers agreed to sign a one-year deal with the Steelers in time to participate in their minicamp next week and be their starter this season. That sets up a matchup with the Bears, who host the Steelers on Nov. 23 at Soldier Field.
Rodgers wearing the Steelers’ hypocycloids on the side of his helmet will be weird — think Johnny Unitas with Chargers’ lightning bolts — but it won’t stop Bears fans from treating him like the villain he was from 2005 to ’22 with the Packers. The four-time MVP leaned into the rivalry for parts of three decades — after he ran for a touchdown to seal a win at Soldier Field in 2021, he shouted, “I own you. All my [bleeping] life, I own you. I still own you.”
For Bears fans, it hurt because it was true.
The Bears still aren’t far from his mind. Rodgers seemed to circle the Nov. 23 matchup in a podcast recording last month when a young fan asked if he’d ever consider signing with the Bears.
“No,” he said. “But I believe there’s a team that might play in Chicago for a road trip.”
Soldier Field might as well be home for Rodgers, anyway. In 15 games on the lakefront, he has lost only three times, each by a touchdown or less. He earned the second-biggest win of his NFL career there, beating the Bears in the NFC title game in 2011.
Rodgers is 24-5 all-time against the Bears in the regular season and 1-0 in the playoffs. He has a regular-season career passing rating of 109 against the Bears, with 64 touchdown passes and only 10 interceptions.
Rodgers saluted Soldier Field fans in 2022, the last game he’d play there as a member of the Packers. He has long loved taking walks downtown the night before games, usually ending up at Mastro’s Steakhouse for dinner. If he’s in their dining room Nov. 22, it will mean the 41-year-old’s season will have gone better than some predict. He hasn’t been one of the sport’s great quarterbacks for years. Now he’s barely a passable starter.
Rodgers went 5-12 with the Jets last season after missing all but the first quarter of the first game of the 2023 season because of a torn Achilles tendon. Among the 19 quarterbacks who threw at least 400 passes last year, Rodgers ranked 16th in passer rating, 17th in yards per pass and 18th in completion percentage. No one handled the blitz worse than Rodgers, whose expected points added per play against pressure ranked last in the NFL. Only eight teams scored fewer points than the Jets.
The Jets paid Rodgers $75 million to win five games in two years. They owe dead-cap charges of $49 million the next two years. And yet they still moved on, having decided that his production wasn’t worth wondering what next controversial thing he’d say on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
The Jets decided that Justin Fields, the Steelers’ backup last year, was a better option. The Giants signed Russell Wilson, the Steelers’ starter in 2024, leaving also-rans Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson and sixth-round pick Will Howard on the Steelers’ roster.
Rodgers flirted with the Steelers all offseason, visiting the team’s facility and later throwing with receiver D.K. Metcalf. The Steelers were patient but weren’t likely to add Rodgers without him agreeing to participate in mandatory minicamp next week.
Two sides that desperately needed each other will soon start focusing on Week 1. Rodgers’ opponent: the Jets.
