Two questions for the Pittsburgh Steelers following their Monday night wild-card round loss to the Houston Texans: 1) Was that Aaron Rodgers‘ last game in the NFL?, and 2) Was that the last game of Mike Tomlin’s stint as the head coach of the Steelers?
Well, regarding the second question, Rodgers doesn’t want to hear anything about Tomlin losing his job.
“This league has changed a lot in my 21 years. When you hear conversations about the Mike Tomlin’s of the world, the Matt LaFleur’s of the world, those are just two I played for. When I first got into the league, there wouldn’t be conversations about whether those guys were ‘on the hot seat,’ but the way the league is covered now and the way there are snap decisions and validity given to the Twitter experts and all the experts on TV now, who make it seem like they know what the hell they’re talking about [things have changed]. To me, that’s an absolute joke,” Rodgers said after the season-ending loss to the Texans on Monday night. “For either of those two guys to be on the heat seat is really apropos of where we’re at as a society and a league. Obviously, Matt’s done a lot of great things in Green Bay, and we had a lot of success. Mike T has had more success than damn near anybody in the league for the last 19-20 years.
“More than that, though, when you have the right guy and the culture is right, you don’t think about making a change. But there’s a lot of pressure that comes from the outside, and obviously that sways decisions from time to time, but it’s not how I would do things and not how the league used to be.”
When asked about his future after the game, Tomlin, who just wrapped up his 19th season as Pittsburgh’s head coach, said that he was “more in the mindset” of the Monday night loss.
Over Tomlin’s 19 years on the job, the Steelers boast a combined 193-114-2 regular-season record and 8-12 postseason record. Pittsburgh, which won Super Bowl XLIII, has never had a losing season under Tomlin, whose 193 wins are 10th among head coaches in NFL history and tied with Chuck Noll for the most in Steelers’ history.
There has been rampant speculation about Tomlin’s future this season, given the Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season, and with LaFleur, whose Green Bay Packers blew a 21-3 halftime lead to the Chicago Bears in the wild-card round and lost a combined five consecutive games to end the season; Rodgers played for LaFleur from 2019-22.
As for Rodgers, the 42-year-old quarterback and four-time NFL MVP said that he’s “not going to make any emotional decisions” based on one game about his future in the sport.
Regarding the wild-card round loss, a 7-6 Texans lead at the end of the third quarter ended in a 30-6 Texans victory. Rodgers finished the night with 146 passing yards, zero passing touchdowns, one interception — which was run back for a touchdown — and a 50.8 passer rating, while completing 51.5% of his passes (17 of 33). The Texans also got a scoop-and-score off Rodgers, as Will Anderson Jr. and Sheldon Rankins each got to the quarterback and Rankins ran the loose ball back 33 yards for a touchdown.
Pittsburgh’s offense never reached the end zone and was shut out in the second half. In all, the Texans outgained the Steelers 408-175 in total yards.
In 16 regular-season games, Rodgers totaled 3,322 passing yards, 24 passing touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 94.8 passer rating, while completing 65.7% of his passes. Pittsburgh won the NFC North, while finishing with a 10-7 record for a third consecutive year.
Over his 257 career NFL regular-season starts (2008-2022 as a starter with the Packers, 2023-24 with the New York Jets and this season with the Steelers), Rodgers owns the best passer rating in NFL history (102.2) and stands fourth in NFL history with 527 passing touchdowns and fifth with 66,274 passing yards. He’s also third in postseason passing yards (6,040) and tied for third in postseason passing touchdowns (45).
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