The Pittsburgh Steelers are now just days away from kicking off their 2025 NFL season on the road against the New York Jets. It will be a return for Aaron Rodgers to the team where he spent the last two seasons, one of which was spent rehabbing his torn ACL and the other which ended up being a disastrous campaign for the future Hall of Famer.
Still, the Steelers have put a lot of their eggs into the Rodgers basket this offseason, and recently, the team doubled down on that commitment with a special move ahead of the new season.
“#Steelers players voted Aaron Rodgers their offensive captain,” reported NFL insider Tom Pelissero on X, formerly Twitter.
At the age of 41, Rodgers does indeed have by far the most experience of anyone on the Steelers roster, although his reputation as a locker room leader has not exactly been stellar throughout the course of his career, which has included multiple league MVP's as well as a Super Bowl title back in 2010.
Can the Steelers compete?
The Steelers have spent most of their resources this offseason acquiring veteran talent on both sides of the ball, including Rodgers on offense as well as Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay on the defensive side of the field.
This is all in the hopes of vaulting the team back into Super Bowl contention, as Pittsburgh has not won a playoff game in nearly a decade despite consistently being in the mix under head coach Mike Tomlin.
The Steelers have gotten blown out of the Wild Card round of the playoffs in each of the two postseasons, and there have been murmurs that Tomlin's seat could be getting warmer if this year isn't a success, despite the fact that he's never had a losing season as head coach in Pittsburgh.
At age 41 (soon to be 42), it's unclear how much Rodgers has left in the tank and if he can conjure up any of the former MVP version of himself.
Fans will get their first chance to find out on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET when the Steelers hit the road to take on the Jets.
