The Pittsburgh Steelers still do not have an answer from Aaron Rodgers about the 2026 season, but their new head coach is not pretending the storyline would be anything other than massive if it happens.
Mike McCarthy, who coached Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers from 2006 to 2018, was asked Monday about the possibility of reuniting with the four time NFL MVP in Pittsburgh. McCarthy did not announce any decision, and he did not claim to have any new information. He did acknowledge exactly what everyone else sees: the optics, the history, and the attention that would follow.
“Yes, it’d be a great story,” McCarthy said.
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McCarthy made the comments while in Green Bay for the celebration of life for late Packers president Bob Harlan. The ceremony was held in the Lambeau Field Atrium, with Kevin Harlan, Bob’s son, serving as the emcee. McCarthy was there to pay tribute, but the moment turned into football talk when Kevin Harlan asked the first year Steelers coach about Rodgers and the idea of them teaming up again.
“I don’t know. I would love to tell everybody [there is] breaking news,” McCarthy said. “It’s really cool to see Aaron at 42 and to see a young man at 22 and all that he’s been able to accomplish and where he’s at in his personal life and trying to make this decision.
“He’s in a really good place, but … I think he’s in a really good place.”
Rodgers, 42, is still weighing whether to return for another season, and the Steelers have not publicly set a deadline for him to decide. The quarterback’s timeline is already familiar to Pittsburgh. Last year, Rodgers did not decide to sign with the Steelers until right before their June minicamp. This offseason, the franchise has made clear it would prefer a cleaner, earlier answer, even if it is not forcing one publicly.
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Steelers general manager Omar Khan said last month he believes Rodgers will make his latest decision earlier than he did last season.
The context around the Steelers has changed since Rodgers’ first year in Pittsburgh. In 2025, Rodgers helped the Steelers win the AFC North title. Shortly after the season, coach Mike Tomlin stepped down, and the Steelers hired McCarthy as his replacement. That sequence is why the idea of Rodgers and McCarthy reuniting now carries the “good story” label even before anyone talks scheme.
McCarthy knows how this reads because he has lived the previous version. His tenure with Rodgers in Green Bay included a Super Bowl title, a long run of playoff expectations, and eventually a split that ended with McCarthy’s firing during the 2018 season. Now the same coach and quarterback are connected again through circumstance and timing, with Pittsburgh’s offseason roster decisions widely viewed as the kind of moves you make when you think you are one quarterback answer away.
The Green Bay setting also mattered because the day was centered on Harlan, a figure from the Packers’ leadership side who was part of the franchise through multiple eras. Harlan died March 5 at age 89. He ran the Packers when McCarthy was the team’s quarterbacks coach in 1999 and again when McCarthy was hired as head coach in 2006. Hall of Fame general manager Ron Wolf spoke at the ceremony, along with the two team presidents who succeeded Harlan, Mark Murphy and Ed Policy.
McCarthy also shared one specific memory from his 2006 interview trip, recalling exactly what Harlan said when he came to Green Bay to interview for the head coaching job.
McCarthy said Harlan told him: “Welcome home and good luck.”
McCarthy did not say whether he would use those words if Rodgers decides to play another season, but the idea fits the moment: Pittsburgh is trying to build a new chapter, Rodgers is trying to decide whether he wants one more chapter, and McCarthy is fully aware that if those two paths intersect again, it will not be a quiet development.
For now, the Steelers remain in the same holding pattern. Rodgers has not declared his plans. McCarthy is not promising anything. But he is not denying the obvious either. In a league that runs on storylines as much as standings, he said the quiet part out loud.
“Yes, it’d be a great story.”
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