The Pittsburgh Steelers finally have a starting quarterback for the 2025 season. Aaron Rodgers signed a one-year, $13,650,000 deal with the franchise after an offseason full of speculation about whether the veteran would return to football or retire altogether.
One of the main reasons the deal came together was head coach Mike Tomlin, a figure Rodgers has openly expressed deep respect for. With the veteran quarterback now officially in Pittsburgh, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith pointed out that the pressure on Tomlin, who has never had a losing season, has now grown even greater.
Pressure Rises Over Mike Tomlin as Aaron Rodgers Joins the Steelers
Year after year, the Steelers have found themselves in a complicated spot in the NFL. The team’s last playoff win came in 2016, yet they haven’t had a single losing season since, a clear sign that Pittsburgh hasn’t been good enough to contend for a title but just talented enough to beat the teams they’re supposed to beat.
That reality has placed the franchise in limbo, watching their division rivals establish themselves with elite quarterbacks — Lamar Jackson in Baltimore and Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. That’s why, in 2025, Tomlin made his move, bringing in Rodgers in hopes of finally competing on even footing.
Smith argued that now, with Tomlin choosing to part ways with both quarterbacks from the 2024 roster in favor of Rodgers, the pressure to deliver will only intensify. After all, the team has been bounced from the playoffs without much of a fight in each of their last three appearances.
“You haven’t won a playoff game in nine years, and when you see one franchise after another find a quarterback, but yet you’re incapable of doing so. That’s problematic. And so even though Aaron Rodgers is no savior, in the same breath, if you let Russell Wilson and Justin Fields walk out the door, Aaron Rodgers had damn well better be better than what they were,” Smith said.
Last season, the Steelers started strong with a 10-3 record but collapsed down the stretch, losing their final five games, including a playoff defeat to the Ravens. The team began the year with Justin Fields at quarterback for the first six games, but when Russell Wilson returned from injury and took over, Tomlin made the call to ride with the veteran.
While the move initially paid off, the team lost momentum late in the year and fell short when it mattered most, and Smith explained how that can affect Tomlin’s approach in 2025:
“They nosedived the last five games of the season, and then they lost in the playoffs… You look at all of those things, and you say, wait a minute, that’s not something that can happen again. And so I’m just, I think that we’ll be looking at Mike Tomlin differently if this Pittsburgh Steelers team is, dare we say, even worse than we thought,” Smith added.
Tomlin has long been praised for guiding underwhelming rosters to winning seasons, even with quarterbacks like Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph. Once Wilson began playing better last season, there was a brief stretch where Pittsburgh looked like it was finally clicking.
That’s exactly what the franchise is hoping to see from Rodgers: production above what recent quarterbacks have provided, even if it’s not at an elite level. Tomlin sees in the veteran a stabilizing presence, someone who, while no longer in his prime, still makes smart decisions and owns one of the most impressive individual résumés in NFL history.
Naturally, this move adds extra pressure. Another nine-win season might be the breaking point for this current era in Pittsburgh, something many fans believe is overdue. But if Tomlin’s bet pays off, it could mark Rodgers’ final run and a historic triumph for one of the NFL’s most successful head coaches of the past two decades.
