Aaron Rodgers' New Receivers Give Him A Better Opportunity in 2026

At his peak, Aaron Rodgers may have been the best pure thrower of the football we've ever seen. The combination of game intelligence, arm talent, and functional mobility was just about unmatched, and it played out in his 10 Pro Bowls, four First-Team All-Pro nods, four NFL Most Valuable Player awards, and his future status as an absolute first-ballot Hall of Famer.

However, Rodgers' 2025 season with the Pittsburgh Steelers could only be seen as a relative disappointment. Rodgers finished 21st in the NFL in DVOA, 19th in DYAR, 20th in EPA per dropback, and 14th in passer rating. Rodgers turned 42 last December last December 2, and for the most part last season, he looked like it.

Explosive passing plays were not a big part of the Steelers' offense in 2025 – Rodgers completed 21 of 57 passes of 20 or more air yards for 644 yards, nine touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 104.8. To put that in perspective, Drake Maye of the New England Patriots had the most deep completions last season with 48, and nine quarterbacks had more than 30 deep completions. Rodgers' average time to throw of 2.62 seconds per play after the snap was the NFL's quickest among starting quarterbacks, which tells you that Rodgers was expected to play more like a point guard distributor than a full-field thrower under offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

Now that former head coach Mike Tomlin has moved along, to be replaced by born Yinzer and longtime Rodgers head coach Mike McCarthy, Rodgers has once again decided to grace the league with his presence on a new one-year deal worth up to $25 million. The obvious hope is that in reuniting with McCarthy, who was his head coach and offensive shot-caller with the Green Bay Packers from 2006 through 2018, Rodgers can regain some of that old form, and get the team past the recent seasons of relative mediocrity that have been evident since Ben Roethlisberger's salad days.

There are reasons for encouragement beyond that particular reunion. Last season, the Steelers had very little at receiver beyond D.K. Metcalf, and that proved out with severe authority when Metcalf served a two-game suspension at the end of the regular season after a fracas with some Detroit Lions fans in Week 16. Without Metcalf on the field, the passing game fell off a cliff, because the team didn't have the right kinds of receivers behind Metcalf on the depth chart.

This offseason, the Steelers traded for ex-Indianapolis Colts receiver Michael Pittman Jr., and they also selected Alabama receiver Germie Bernard with the 47th overall pick in the second round. Both Pittman and Bernard are bigger, tough receivers who have no issue with contested catches, and neither one of them shies away from traffic in the middle of the field. Adding their skills to Metcalf's unique size/speed/catch radius combination amounts to a major upgrade with the Steelers' receiver corps. Neither Pittman nor Bernard are killer downfield guys with deep targets, but it's highly unlikely that they'll be asked to do that with any real frequency.

"I do prefer the bigger targets," McCarthy said in late March. "I think it's common sense. I mean, you look at completion percentage. You want your quarterback north of 70%; you want the ball just distributed. You want 55 combinations of completions and rushes to be 55 plus a game. So those are things that I believe in of how you play on offense, and that's why tight ends, big tight ends, it's easier to throw these passes than the ones out there. Those are common-sense practices that I keep in touch with.

"The bigger receivers, the outdoor climate, and the ability to be nasty on first and second down in a run game. We sat through the meetings here, and [we] talked about the big plays and the statistics. The big play numbers are down. That's something as a coach… you're always looking to try to enhance your big-play opportunities on first and second down, and bigger receivers definitely help in that area."

Given Rodgers' limitations at this stage of his career (his average depth of target of 6.6 yards ranked 40th among quarterbacks who took at least 20% of their offensive snaps in 2025), it's about getting the ball out and working for extra yards after the catch, and the Sleeters now have three receivers who can do exactly that. Last season, Metcalf ranked ninth in the NFL with 449 yards after the catch, Pittman led the Colts with 272, and Bernard had 394 of his own.

The Steelers are also hoping for an improved offensive line and run game to further bolster Rodgers' efforts, but the biggest and best thing they did was to up the talent – and the right kind of talent – in the receiver room. That above all else could put Rodgers in the exceedingly rare position of being a true asset to his team at age 42… and beyond.

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This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 3:55 AM.