Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is a four-time NFL Most Valuable Player, a Super Bowl XLV champion and Super Bowl MVP, and one of the most efficient passers the league has ever produced. He spent 18 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, endured a brief and injury-ravaged chapter with the New York Jets, and closed his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers — the franchise he beat for his only ring. At Steelers training camp in late July 2026, Rodgers said there was “zero debate” that the 2026 campaign, his 22nd, would be his last, per NFL.com.

Vitals
Born	December 2, 1983, Chico, California
Position	Quarterback
Teams	Green Bay Packers (2005–2022), New York Jets (2023–2024), Pittsburgh Steelers (2025–2026)
Draft	2005, Round 1, No. 24 overall (Green Bay Packers)
Contract	One-year deal with Pittsburgh for 2026 (announced May 2026), his stated final season
Number	8

Butte College and California

The late bloomer. Rodgers received almost no major-college recruiting interest out of Pleasant Valley High School in Chico and began his college career at Butte College, a junior college, in 2002. A season there earned him a transfer to the University of California, where he played for head coach Jeff Tedford in 2003 and 2004.

The USC game. Rodgers’ signature college performance came in 2004 against top-ranked USC, when he strung together one of the most accurate outings in Cal history and brought the Golden Bears to the brink of an upset. That season vaulted him into the first round of the NFL Draft and established the quick release and pre-snap command that would define his professional game.

Green Bay Packers

The draft slide. Widely projected as a candidate to be selected first overall in the 2005 NFL Draft, Rodgers instead fell to No. 24, where the Packers took him to sit behind Brett Favre. He waited three seasons, attempting just 59 passes before 2008, an apprenticeship that became part of his legend once he finally took the job.

The breakout. Installed as the starter in 2008, Rodgers threw for 4,038 yards and 28 touchdowns in his first year under center. His ascent peaked on February 6, 2011, when Green Bay beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31–25 in Super Bowl XLV; Rodgers completed 24 of 39 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player, per NFL.com.

The MVP years. Rodgers authored one of the great statistical peaks at the position. In 2011 he threw 45 touchdowns against six interceptions for a 122.5 passer rating; he added another MVP in 2014, then went back-to-back in 2020 (48 touchdowns) and 2021 (37 touchdowns, four interceptions). Four MVPs put him behind only Peyton Manning’s five. Yet the Packers reached only the one Super Bowl during his tenure, a gap between individual brilliance and team results that shadowed his Green Bay years. He left after the 2022 season having spent 13 of those years in Mike McCarthy’s offense.

New York Jets

The gamble. Green Bay traded Rodgers to the New York Jets in April 2023, a move framed as the final championship push of his career. It lasted four snaps. On September 11, 2023, on Monday Night Football against the Buffalo Bills, Rodgers ruptured his left Achilles tendon on the Jets’ opening drive and was lost for the season; New York won the game 22–16 in overtime, per ESPN.

The return. Rodgers came back for all 17 games in 2024 and threw for 3,897 yards and 28 touchdowns, but the Jets went 5–12 and missed the playoffs — the most losses of any season in his career. NFL.com later characterized the New York stint as “two fruitless years in New York” in its account of his 2026 retirement remarks. He departed after the 2024 season.

Pittsburgh Steelers and the farewell season

The arrival. Rodgers signed with Pittsburgh as a free agent in 2025 and played his first season in black and gold under head coach Mike Tomlin, then in his 19th season leading the franchise. He went 10–6 as a starter and led the Steelers to a playoff berth, throwing for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

The reunion and the last run. Tomlin stepped down after the 2025 season, and Rodgers returned on a one-year deal for 2026 under new head coach Mike McCarthy — the coach under whom he had spent 13 seasons in Green Bay. He stated the season would be his last, a decision he tied to McCarthy’s hiring and reaffirmed at training camp with the words “Yeah, this is it” and “zero debate,” per NFL.com. Along the way he passed Peyton Manning for third place on the all-time passing-touchdown list. Through November 2, 2026, he had thrown for 1,871 yards and 13 touchdowns in the campaign’s first eight games.

By the numbers

Regular-season passing, season by season, per StatMuse. The 2026 line is partial, through November 2, 2026.

Season	Team	GP	Yds	TD	INT	Rating
2005	GB	3	65	0	1	39.8
2006	GB	2	46	0	0	48.2
2007	GB	2	218	1	0	106.0
2008	GB	16	4,038	28	13	93.8
2009	GB	16	4,434	30	7	103.2
2010	GB	15	3,922	28	11	101.2
2011	GB	15	4,643	45	6	122.5
2012	GB	16	4,295	39	8	108.0
2013	GB	9	2,536	17	6	104.9
2014	GB	16	4,381	38	5	112.2
2015	GB	16	3,821	31	8	92.7
2016	GB	16	4,428	40	7	104.2
2017	GB	7	1,675	16	6	97.2
2018	GB	16	4,442	25	2	97.6
2019	GB	16	4,002	26	4	95.4
2020	GB	16	4,299	48	5	121.5
2021	GB	16	4,115	37	4	111.9
2022	GB	17	3,695	26	12	91.1
2023	NYJ	1	0	0	0	39.6
2024	NYJ	17	3,897	28	11	90.5
2025	PIT	16	3,322	24	7	94.8
2026	PIT	8	1,871	13	6	86.2

Career totals

Ranks

• 1st Career TD-to-INT ratio, NFL history
• 1st Lowest career interception percentage, NFL history
• 3rd Career passing touchdowns (540)
• 5th Career passing yards (68,145)

Honors

• Super Bowl XLV champion (2010 season)
• 4× NFL MVP (2011, 2014, 2020, 2021)
• Super Bowl XLV MVP
• 10× Pro Bowl
• 4× First-team All-Pro (2011, 2014, 2020, 2021)
• AP Male Athlete of the Year (2011)
• NFL 2010s All-Decade Team

Per StatMuse and NFL.com, through November 2, 2026.

The arguments

One ring, four MVPs. The central debate around Rodgers is the distance between his individual résumé and his team hardware. Supporters argue that a four-time MVP with the best touchdown-to-interception ratio and lowest interception percentage in league history belongs among the greatest quarterbacks regardless of a single championship. Critics counter that Rodgers reached just one Super Bowl across a long Green Bay prime, with repeated playoff exits — including several as a favorite — pointing to a gap between regular-season dominance and January results.

The Green Bay exit. His 2023 trade to the Jets divided observers. One view holds the move was a justified swing for a contender that cratered only because of the fourth-snap Achilles tear and could not fairly be judged on a 5–12 follow-up season. Another holds that leaving Green Bay for New York was a two-year detour that cost him the back end of his prime, and that the Pittsburgh chapter is the real coda. Both readings agree the Jets years produced no playoff appearances.

Off the field. Rodgers has been a lightning rod beyond football. His 2021 comments on COVID-19 vaccination — he said he had been “immunized” and later acknowledged he was not vaccinated — drew heavy criticism and a league fine for the Packers, and his outspoken public stances have been read by supporters as independence and by detractors as a distraction. Those episodes are part of how his era is debated, separate from the ledger of his play.

Why it matters

Aaron Rodgers leaves the game as one of its most precise and durable passers — a four-time MVP whose efficiency records may outlast his yardage ones, and whose career traces a near-complete circle: drafted to wait behind a legend in Green Bay, beating Pittsburgh for his lone title, and finishing in a Steelers uniform in a farewell season he insisted carried “zero debate.”