The Pittsburgh Steelers will travel to MetLife Stadium to square off against the New York Jets in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season, and it will be a revenge game for new Steelers signal-caller Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers, who played just one full season with the Jets before being released by the team in March, revealed his honest thoughts on playing New York to open the season with Pittsburgh.
The 41-year-old quarterback is also excited to play the NFC North teams, including the franchise he spent 18 seasons with, the Green Bay Packers.
“That’s the way I go sometimes. Of course,” Rodgers said of the Steelers’ Week 1 matchup in an interview with NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt. “Now, did they have any inside information? I don’t know who [they were] talking to. I’d love to know, but to start off and I look at it deeper, start off with the Jets, then play Seattle, where DK [Metcalf] just came from.
“Go to Chicago, which, I mean, obviously we’re playing the NFC North, but go to Chicago. Green Bay in Pittsburgh. Some weird uniforms though, that’ll be strange. But excited we get to play the Jets, play the Packers again, play the Bears, play the Vikings. It’ll be fun.”
The NFL schedule was released before Rodgers even signed with the Steelers. However, the expectation for months was that the future Hall of Famer would eventually land in Pittsburgh, which led many to believe that the schedule makers placed the Pittsburgh-New York matchup for opening weekend because of the Rodgers’ storyline.
NFL scheduling executive Mike North shut down the narrative that Rodgers played a massive part in the Steelers’ schedule.
“We tried to play it down the middle,” North said. “We don’t know anything more than anybody else. The schedule was built for Coach Tomlin and for the Steelers. If Aaron decides to play, it probably just makes many, if not all, the Steelers games a little more interesting.”
Nevertheless, Rodgers is set to play for the Steelers in 2025 and will take on his former team to open what will likely be his final season in the NFL.
