Aaron Rodgers named team captain for Pittsburgh Steelers ahead of first season franchise

Aaron Rodgers was named one of the four team captains for the Pittsburgh Steelers ahead of his first season with the team. Cameron Heyward, Miles Killebrew and TJ Watt were the other three.

This is a much anticipated season for Rodgers, given the disaster of the last two years with the New York Jets. On the surface, the future Hall of Fame QB seems refreshed, healthy and ready to guide the Steelers back to the postseason.

It’s been pretty standard for years now, but Rodgers did not see any preseason action for Pittsburgh this summer. He was reportedly working to ease concerns about potential “rust,” according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

“The plan is to rest him at least in preseason game action,” Fowler said SportsCenter in mid-August. “He is not playing this weekend. Next week against Carolina, he might sit, as well. Mike Tomlin could simply err on the side of caution here. He wants to preserve Rodgers for a 17-game season. He’s got a quarterback in his 40s, he knows he has to do that to some extent. But there are some questions about how much work Rodgers needs because he wasn’t around for the offseason program. You couple that with no preseason game action, he’s going into the season relatively rusty.

“But luckily for Rodgers, from what I’ve been told, he has really tried to be involved in all the practice action, not taking a lot of rest days. He’s been getting a lot of reps with D.K. Metcalf, those two tight ends that you’re going to see a lot of in this offense – Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith. So they feel like the offense is in a good place despite some of the inactivity on game day.”

The Steelers pursued Aaron Rodgers for much of the offseason before he ultimately signed a one-year contract ahead of mandatory minicamp. The deal is worth $13.65 million and $10 million guaranteed, but he has incentives in the deal that could take it up to $19.5 million.

Rodgers spent the last two years with the New York Jets after coming over from the Green Bay Packers, though his first season in New York ended on his first drive due to an Achilles injury. He threw for 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2024, marking two straight full seasons with at least 10 picks.

Nick Schultz contributed to this report