During his most recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, former New York Jets and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said that he is still undecided about his future in the NFL, adding that he hasn’t closed the door on retiring.
“I’m open to anything and attached to nothing. Retirement could still be a possibility, but right now my focus has been — and will continue to be — on my personal life. And that’s what I’ve told the coaches,” he said. “There’s still conversations that are being had. It’s all been very honest lines of communication.”
Interestingly, Rodgers also revealed his price tag, a surprisingly low $10 million.
“I told every single one of the teams I talked to, it ain’t about the money,” he said. “I’ll play for $10 million. I don’t care. I never once said I need a multi-year deal, $30, $40 million. That’s absolute bullsh*t. I said I’ll play for ten. Whatever.”
Aaron Rodgers told the @PatMcAfeeShow: “I’m open to anything and attached to nothing. Retirement could still be a possibility.”
But no decision about 2025 so far.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 17, 2025
There have been several rumors linking Rodgers to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who only have two quarterbacks currently on their roster (Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson). He said that he’s operating on his own timeline in regards to making a decision to sign with them.
“This entire time I haven’t felt like I owe anyone a decision at any point,” Rodgers explained. “This is my life now… I’ve been upfront with them about that. If you need to move on, if you need to do something, by all means… I don’t think it’s fair to the Steelers or anyone while I’m dealing with a lot off the field. I want to keep the lines of communication open. The people who need to know, know.”
He then opened up about what has been going on in his life since his season ended.
“I’m 41 years old. I’m in a serious relationship. I have off-the-field stuff going on that requires my attention,” Rodgers said. “I have personal commitments I made, not knowing what my future was going to look like after last year, that are important to me. And I have a couple people in my inner, inner circle that are really battling some difficult stuff. So, I have a lot of things that are taking my attention, and have beginning in really January, away from football. That’s been where I’ve been focusing most of my attention.”
Does the NFL Draft affect anything with Aaron Rodgers?
“Oh, no,” Rodgers says on @PatMcAfeeShow.
In other words, if the #Steelers draft a QB, it won’t alter anything.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 17, 2025
It was at this point that he talked about what his departure from the Jets was like. His comments were scathing.
“To make a commitment to a team is a big thing, whether you’re a first-year player or a 20-year vet,” he said. “And I had a lot of great conversations with a lot of teams. Not one of those was the Jets because that wasn’t a great conversation.”
Rodgers described the icy meeting he had with new Jets head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey.
“I felt like there wasn’t an ample amount of respect in that meeting, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised based on some of the things I saw over the two years,” he said. “I figured that, when I flew across country on my own dime, that there was going to be a conversation. And the confusing thing to me – and the strange thing – was when I went out there, I meet with the coach, we start talking, he runs out of the room. I’m like, that’s kind of strange.”
Rodgers clearly not a fan of Aaron Glenn, suggesting that Glenn expressed concern in the meeting that he might undermine his authority. Not a surprise. As we suspected all along, Rodgers/Glenn was never going to be a marriage. #Jets
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) April 17, 2025
“Then he comes back with the GM, and I’m like, ‘All right.’ So, we sit down in the office, and I think we’re going to have this long conversation,” he continued. “I’ve flown across the country and, 20 seconds in, he goes… ‘So, do you want to play football? And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m interested.’ And he said, ‘We’re going in a different direction at quarterback.'”
Rodgers claimed that the way the meeting was handled was surprising.
“I was kind of shocked. Now I’m not shocked because I didn’t think that was a possibility. Listen, of course, if they want to move on, that’s totally fine, but shocked because I just flew across country,” he said. “You could have told me this on the phone if we weren’t even going to have a conversation.”
When Glenn asked Rodgers how he wanted the messaging of his release to be handled, the former Super Bowl MVP told Glenn, “I don’t give a sh*t about the messaging.”
