After Steelers’ Playoff Loss, Rodgers and Tomlin Futures in Flux

• The Steelers’ blowout loss to the Texans has put the NFL futures of QB Aaron Rodgers and head coach Mike Tomlin in question
• Rodgers, 42, has vacillated on whether to return over the past several seasons, seriously considering retirement
• Tomlin has been the Steelers’ HC for 19 years, and fans are getting restless with the Super Bowl drought and annual playoff losses
• Oddsmakers are speculating about both with similar expectations

Aaron Rodgers’ Future Seems Set

If one clip neatly summarizes what Aaron Rodgers endured in the Steelers’ 30-6 loss to the Texans, it’s this:

Now, at 42, having taken a beating, watching his team lose in the Wild Card, surrounded by an aging team that is in blatant decline, it’s clear that the only thing remaining for Rodgers is to straight out announce that his career is over.

Current odds are pointing overwhelmingly in that direction as to what Rodgers will be doing in Week 1 of the 2026 season.

Without looking at the inevitable slide in production, lack of mobility, and that the one team that he would presumably play for needs a dramatic overhaul, Rodgers has talked of retirement going back to 2021 when he was a guest host on Jeopardy! and received positive reviews.

Every year after that, he had a far-off, dreamy look in his eyes about his future, never committing beyond the next year. The torn Achilles tendon he suffered in his first series of downs as the Jets QB meant he was coming back the next year because he wasn’t going out that way.

The disastrous two-year run in New York with perhaps the most dysfunctional franchise in sports kicked open the next “not going out that way” door and led him to perhaps the most stable franchise in sports, the Steelers.

Now, what’s left? And what’s the benefit?

When he left the Packers for the Jets, he did so in part because he was getting the chance to play QB/GM as Tom Brady did when Brady escaped from Bill Belichick for the chance to have a greater voice in personnel and so as not to deal with the constant criticism that was a hallmark of the complicated Belichick-Brady relationship.

But since it was the Jets and Rodgers is not nor will he ever be Brady, it didn’t work. Brady won a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers. Rodgers spent two embarrassing years with the Jets.

Rodgers is a top-10 QB in NFL history, but he won one Super Bowl and his prickly personality alienated many.

He’s a complicated person with a complex analysis of his career in which he will be questioned as to why he only won one Super Bowl.

For the Steelers, he played in 17 of their 18 games. During the regular season, he had a passer rating of 94.8, had a completion percentage of 65.7, tossed 24 TD passes against 7 picks, and had a record of 10-6. He missed one regular season game, a loss with Mason Rudolph under center.

The playoff performance was disappointing, but D.K. Metcalf dropped two passes that could have changed the complexion of the game, and Rodgers was under siege from the Texans’ pass rush from the start.

Rodgers does not seem to be the broadcaster type. He’s a unique individual, implying a post-playing career future that cannot and should not be speculated on.

In the postgame press conference, he refused to respond to questions about continuing his playing career.

Still, despite some noise about potentially returning for another year, it’s almost certainly over. And while outsiders should not tell a grown-up adult what they should do, Rodgers should and presumably will hang it up.

Mike Tomlin’s Future is Less Clear-Cut

For the first time in his nearly two-decade run as Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin faced loud discontent from fans inside Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh during their Week 13, 26-7 loss to the Bills.

This is normal for almost every head coach and manager in sports, no matter what they’ve accomplished. But the Steelers are different.

Try to find a more stable organization from the top down.

You can’t do it.

Since 1969, they have had three head coaches.

Three.

Since the Nixon administration.

Three.

By contrast, the aforementioned Jets have had three head coaches since 2024, and there have been reasonable calls to fire current head coach Aaron Glenn.

The on-field results for both teams are indicative of the importance of stability.

Still, it’s hard to maintain that level of consistency in management given the fans’ ability to express themselves beyond booing at the stadium. It has extended to social media, podcasts, all-sports talk radio, and other avenues. The mainstream media loves it when coaches get fired because it gives them juicy topics to write about with the accompanying web traffic.

Many owners, like the Jets’ Woody Johnson, listen to the fans and media because he thinks like a fan.

The Steelers’ Art Rooney II does not do that. And he’s not about to cave to pressure from the outside.

But the odds suggest that Tomlin’s future isn’t exactly secure.

Fan anger and the random desire for change for its own sake aside, facts are facts.

The Steelers have not adapted to their new circumstances after Ben Roethlisberger showed wear, suffered a litany of injuries, and subsequently retired. They have tried one quarterback after another with none sticking. Rodgers was a stopgap to try and win with the current nucleus, a nucleus that is aging and battered.

T.J. Watt is 31.

Cam Heyward is 36.

Jalen Ramsey is 31.

Jabrill Peppers is 30.

That would be fine if there were young players on the rise to take their place.

There aren’t.

With Rodgers almost a certainty to retire and no viable option on the roster unless you have a strong belief in Will Howard, the defense as beaten down as it is, and the lack of depth, the team needs a reset.

Would Tomlin want to go through two or three years of fighting to finish at .500 for another championship window in five years? Would the team want that?

And this has nothing to do with money or power. He’s been there a long time. Around the league, even longtime rivals like John Harbaugh and Belichick were fired. Does he want to be the first Steelers coach in 56 years who’s fired? Both Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher left on their own.

Tomlin will be 54 in May. He would be a megastar in the broadcast booth with his quick wit and likability. If he chooses to depart, it would not be to take another job. He’s under contract through 2027. A parting of the ways would mean a contract settlement. And Steelers coaches don’t coach elsewhere. If he does choose to coach again, it will be after a break.

The odds suggest he’ll be in the broadcast booth with a reasonably good chance that he’ll stay on the Steelers sideline. The latter comes from the reality that if he wants to come back, he will come back. It’s up to him.

He’s likely to step away.