Aaron Rodgers is close friends with Cardinals offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. As the Steelers grow impatient with the 42-year-old quarterback and Arizona’s starting job remains uncertain as Jacoby Brissett avoids the team for more money, speculation arose on Monday that a Rodgers-Hackett reunion could make a lot of sense.
And let’s not forget that the Cardinals are now coached by Mike LaFleur, the brother of Packers coach Matt LaFleur, who coached Rodgers for four seasons in Green Bay. Basically, the Cardinals have a coaching staff that Rodgers would probably find enticing. In Pittsburgh, he would be reuniting with Mike McCarthy, but those two ended things on a sour note in Green Bay. They buried the hatchet since then, but if Rodgers has his choice, he might prefer to join Hackett in Arizona.
Steelers owner Art Rooney II had hoped Rodgers would give the team an answer by now and May 18th has emerged as an unofficial deadline for the quarterback to decide on his future. If not Rodgers, Pittsburgh is expected to hold one of the least-inspiring QB competitions ever between Will Howard, Mason Rudolph, and Drew Allar.
But if Rodgers isn’t ready to retire, the Cardinals do make sense.
Brissett thinks he should be paid as a starter — he’ll make a little over $7 million this year if he hits all his incentives — and obviously the Cardinals are hesitant to agree that he’s that good. The team also has Gardner Minshew and Carson Beck, but few believe that those two are good bets to start in Week 1.
That is … if the Cardinals even want to win any games next season.
Arizona’s moves have been very “tanks-y” this year, potentially setting themselves up for a Raiders-like fall to get the number one pick in 2027. Does Rodgers vibe with a team that hasn’t done hardly anything that would suggest they want to win games next season? The team that cut Kyler Murray, drafted a running back third overall, and hired a head coach that nobody else was after?
And is that how Rodgers plans to spend his last season(s)? Playing for the fourth place team in the NFC West?
How much better does Rodgers make the Cardinals and vice versa? There are intriguing pieces on offense (Jeremiyah Love, Trey McBride, Marvin Harrison, Michael Wilson, Paris Johnson, Chase Bisontis, Tyler Allgeier, Kendrick Bourne) but can Arizona finish ahead of any other team in the division?
Maybe Rodgers would do it for money. Maybe to reunite with Hackett. Maybe to face the challenge of surprising the NFC West similar to how Kurt Warner and Carson Palmer once did in their later years.
It seems like baseless speculation. If Rodgers wants to roll the dice on having more fun than he did with the Steelers last year, it could become a reality.