As the Pittsburgh Steelers take the practice field for the start of mandatory minicamp, all eyes are on Aaron Rodgers. The four-time MVP officially inked his one-year deal with the team last week and is ready to get to work. Fans are interested to see Rodgers in a Steelers practice uniform for the first time as he looks to build chemistry with his defense, but now that he's here, there's a stunning realization that's impossible for fans to ignore once they see it.
Rodgers is old (by football standards, anyway). We know that. The long-time NFL veteran has more Pro Bowl appearances (10) than most players could dream of lasting in this league. Rodgers is currently 41 years old and will turn 42 in December. He's the oldest player currently active in the NFL and will become the oldest player to ever play for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But what's shocking is the unbelievable age gap between Rodgers and Steelers' rookie first-round pick Derrick Harmon.
Aaron Rodgers creates the biggest age gap we've ever seen on the Pittsburgh Steelers
Harmon was born on August 3, 2003—making him just 21 years old. We have to travel back two decades to when Rodgers was drafted by the Green Bay Packers on April 23, 2005. According to Planetcalc.com, when you plug in these two dates, Harmon was just one year, eight months, and nineteen days old when Rodgers joined the NFL.
When Aaron Rodgers was gearing up for his first-ever NFL training camp at 22 years old, Harmon was an infant in diapers. This is the rare type of age gap you see when you get an NFL legend who can stick around the league as long as Rodgers has.
Let's put this into perspective. Ben Roethlisberger entered the NFL just one year earlier than Rodgers in the 2004 NFL Draft. After a long, legendary career in his own right, Big Ben retired four years ago and is currently 43 years old.
Roethlisberger played his final season at 39 years old in 2021. At the time, first-round rookie running back Najee Harris was 23 years old, making a 16-year, zero-month age gap between the quarterback and the team's top rookie. In comparison, there is a 19-year, eight-month age gap between Rodgers and Harmon—nearly two full decades.
And if you really want to get technical, rookie running back Kaleb Johnson is 11 days younger than Harmon, which makes the gap between Rodgers and the Steelers' youngest rookie draft pick slightly larger.
We've seen a few situations like this in the NFL before, but never on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Aaron Rodgers is legitimately old enough to be Derrick Harmon's father with no questions asked, and it makes for a hilarious dynamic in the Steelers' locker room in 2025.