When the Pittsburgh Steelers hired Mike McCarthy to be the next head coach of their storied franchise, many fans were quick to jump to one conclusion that felt obvious: Aaron Rodgers is coming back.
Rodgers signed a one-year deal with the Steelers on June 6, 2025. This past season, he led the team to a 10-7 record (he missed one game due to injury and went 10-6 as a starter). Unfortunately, Pittsburgh was quickly bounced from the playoffs after a humiliating 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans.
Still, with no remnant of a starting-caliber quarterback in place, the thought was that, with McCarthy as the new HC, Rodgers could return for one final season as the Steelers look for a long-term option at the QB position.
Rodgers and McCarthy have butted heads at times over the years, but their relationship is said to have been mended these days (at least to the point where a reunion would make some sense). In fact, going with McCarthy after Mike Tomlin's departure might have been one of the only head coaching decisions that might have lured Rodgers back to Pittsburgh.
But the Steelers' latest coaching addition might have just put a halt to all the 'Rodgers return' talk.
Aaron Rodgers might not rejoin the Pittsburgh Steelers after Frank Cignetti Jr.'s hiring
On Monday, Steelers insider Gerry Dulac reported that Mike McCarthy is adding former Pitt and IUP offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. to his offensive staff. While Cignetti's most recent coaching run was at the collegiate level, he was once the quarterback coach of the Green Bay Packers in 2018 when McCarthy was the head coach.
This was a decision that Rodgers reportedly hated.
Recently, an old social media post from CheeseheadTV's Aaron Nagler resurfaced. Nagler claims that Rodgers was livid with McCarthy's decision not to renew the contract of quarterback coach Alex Van Pelt early in the 2018 offseason and to replace him with Frank Cignetti Jr. instead.
"Fun story, [Aaron] Rodgers was so p***** that McCarthy let Van Pelt walk he refused to speak to Cignetti, who for much of the year had to relay anything he wanted to say to Rodgers through [Tim] Boyle. Good times," Nagler posted in March 2023.
If this is true, the Steelers' decision to hire Cignetti could do the opposite of bringing Rodgers back to Pittsburgh—it could turn him away.
Of course, this is assuming Rodgers still has a grudge about working with Cignetti and letting Van Pelt go. However, using a backup quarterback as a means of communicating with your QB coach—in any situation—is wild.
Cignetti only lasted one season in Green Bay. Quickly after the Green Bay Packers fired McCarthy in December 2018, the team cleaned out its coaching staff, and new head coach Matt LaFleur brought his own coaches on board.
There's a large group of Steelers fans who want nothing to do with Aaron Rodgers in 2026, and perhaps that's for the best. After all, Rodgers will turn 43 years old during the season, and he's coming off a year in which he finished near the bottom of the league in average depth of target and air yards per completion.
But if the Pittsburgh Steelers were itching for a Rodgers reunion, they might have blown that shot with the latest Mike McCarthy hire.