Steelers Owner Explains Why Aaron Rodgers Had Nothing to Do With Mike McCarthy Hire

The Steelers don’t know what Rodgers’s future holds, whether that’s in Pittsburgh, a different city or in retirement.

Steelers owner Art Rooney II claims that Aaron Rodgers wasn’t the main reason the team hired Mike McCarthy. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

While it is believed that a big reason the Steelers hired Mike McCarthy as Mike Tomlin’s successor on Saturday is because of his expected influence on the team’s quarterback room, Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney II emphasized in an interview with team reporter Bob Labriola that Aaron Rodgers wasn’t the prime reason to bring McCarthy to the organization.

Rodgers hasn’t explicitly made his decision about his future in the NFL or in Pittsburgh specifically, but the Steelers have kept the door open to bringing him back for the 2026 season if he’s interested. Tomlin was the main pull for Rodgers to become a Steeler, but now that his former coach is with the team, he could be interested to stay in Pittsburgh.

Rooney noted that the Steelers still don’t know what Rodgers’s future looks like. Bringing McCarthy to the organization wasn’t used as a ploy to keep Rodgers on the team. The Steelers believe McCarthy can bring them success, and his history as a winning coach (he ranks 15th all-time with 174 career wins) was the main reason Rooney and the franchise wanted to hire him.

“We decided to bring Mike on because we believe that he's the right coach for us at this point to help lead us to a championship,” Rooney told Labriola. “We don’t know what Aaron’s plans are right now, and that did not weight heavily in the decision. We’ll see where Aaron is, and we’ve left the door open, but obviously we all have to sit down and see if that makes sense. So, that’ll happen in the next month or so.”

If Rodgers either retires or elects to play elsewhere in 2026, then the Steelers will have to evaluate their current quarterback room, which includes longtime backup Mason Rudolph and rookie Will Howard, who saw no playing time this season.

McCarthy seems to be interested in building Howard up in the organization, which was a big reason the team hired him. The Steelers have been looking for a solution to their quarterback situation ever since Ben Roethlisberger retired four years ago. Could Howard be the long-term answer? McCarthy is in Pittsburgh to find out.

“He likes Will Howard, thinks Will has tremendous upside and is looking forward to working with him,” Rooney continued. “Obviously feels like Mason can be a contributor. We’ll have to sit down and discuss where Aaron is, if he decides to come back, and whether that all makes sense. I think Mike was very comfortable with the quarterbacks room and the possibilities with the quarterback room. In particular, the fact we have a young quarterback on the roster in whom he sees some upside.”

The Steelers answered one of their looming offseason questions by hiring McCarthy—all that’s left is to figure out the 2026 starting quarterback. McCarthy is ready to take on that lofty task, according to Rooney. We’ll see how this decision works out in the long run.

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