Aaron Rodgers will start his farewell tour against the team with which he is most synonymous.
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2026 season – which also happens to be Rodgers last in the league – opens by hosting a preseason encounter against the Green Bay Packers at Acrisure Stadium.
A now 42-year-old Rodgers, will come up against the quarterback who succeeded him after an 18-year tenure in Green Bay in Jordan Love, who is entering his fourth year as a starter.
When Love was drafted in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, history appeared to be repeating itself, with the team having previously drafted Rodgers despite having Brett Favre under center at the time.
While Favre did not view the Wisconsin outfit’s choice to draft Rodgers very favorably, Love revealed that his experience sharing the QB room with the four-time NFL MVP was harmonious and offered a lot of learning.
“I think being able to sit behind Aaron, and see just the way he was able to control the line of scrimmage, see pressures, make protection adjustments and pick stuff up, was next level,” Love said to the media on Tuesday.
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“It gave me something to build up and to see and be like, man, that’s what I want to be able to do.
“It’s something that I had to put a lot of time in at practice and scout team, obviously getting my opportunities in the game to be able to understand what I have to work on and get better at. But it’s definitely the area I’ve probably came the farthest in.”
Although Love has taken a lot of learnings from his experience with the future Hall of Famer, neither Rodgers nor Favre were ever the same after departing the historic franchise.
Love has come of age in Green Bay
Love’s draft selection in 2020 was one of the most shocking of the night as the Packers pulled off a trade with the Miami Dolphins to jump up to the 26th overall pick to claim the former Utah State star.
For additional context, Rodgers was also coming off a strong 2019 campaign in which he completed 62 percent of his passes for 4,002 yards and 26 touchdowns to just four interceptions as he led the Packers to a 13-3 record.
Aged 37 in the 2020 season, Rodgers appeared to go out onto the field with a point to prove, and enjoyed one of the best years of his career in which he completed 70.7 percent of his passes for 4,299 yards and 48 touchdowns to just five interceptions.
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He would go on to win the MVP award that season, and secured back-to-back MVPs, before moving on from the franchise in 2022, allowing Love to make the jump from the backup to the starter.
Although the pressure mounted on the young signal caller as injuries limited him to just 10 starting appearances in his first two seasons as the primary option, Love has gone from strength-to-strength.
In the past three seasons, the 28-year-old has been available for all but four games, and has led the Packers to a winning season on each occasion with a record of 27-19-1.
They have also reached the postseason on all three occasions, though he has been unable to lead his team past the Divisional Round.
Over the course of his NFL career, Love has established himself as a very consistent performer, with a career pass completion average of 64.3 percent for a total of 12,536 passing yards and 97 total touchdowns to just 36 interceptions.
Rodgers speaks out on final meeting against GB
The preseason outing between the Steelers and the Packers on Thursday kicks off at 7pm ET on NFL Network.
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It is a match-up which Rodgers wished would have come in the regular season – and at Lambeau Field – before he calls time on a stellar career that has spanned over two decades.
“I was really hoping this one was going to be in Green Bay, not just to get back at Lambeau one more time, but to head out to Chives for a dinner and maybe head out to Green Bay Country Club for a quick nine or something,” Rodgers told Packers reporters on Wednesday.
“I was really hoping it was going to be in Green Bay, for a lot of reasons. … Yeah, I was definitely bummed out that we weren’t in Lambeau for this one.”
Although he is expected to feature in the Steelers’ preseason games, it is unclear just how many reps head coach Mike McCarthy will give him as he ramps up his preparations for one last pursuit at a second Super Bowl ring.
