Vikings Insider Drops Notable Aaron Rodgers Hint
Last year, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was one of the hottest items in the Vikings rumor mill. And he’s back this year, as the club hasn’t solidified its quarterback position due to J.J. McCarthy’s struggles in his sophomore season.
The long-time nemesis is a free agent and if he wants to play another season at the age of 42, the Vikings are evidently a possible employer for the future Hall of Famer.
This week, ESPN’s Vikings reporter Kevin Seifert chatted with KFAN’s Dan Barreiro about the Rodgers scenario.
“I mean, there’s there’s still some people in the building, I think, who are fans [of Rodgers]. People have said, ‘Well, if Rodgers is going to play next year, it’ll be with the Steelers because of Mike McCarthy.’ And I do think that they have managed to patch up whatever was plaguing them at the end of their time together in Green Bay. But I don’t know if that’s a lock,” Seifert commented.
Rodgers spent more than a decade in Green Bay with Mike McCarthy. Now that McCarthy has been named the head coach of Rodgers’ 2025 team, it’s easy to see why the general expectation is that the two would reunite for one more season.
Seifert continued, “I don’t know if Aaron Rodgers wants to play at all. I don’t know if he knows if he wants to play it all. But I think there’s probably some people [with the Vikings] who still feel like they’d be better off doing that. So I wouldn’t rule that one out.”
The comment also fits the broader tone coming out of the Twin Cities. Seifert recently reported that “all bets are off” regarding McCarthy’s situation, which suggests the Vikings are at least open to exploring different quarterback scenarios. If that’s the case, it’s not surprising that Rodgers keeps resurfacing.
Last offseason, the Vikings were thinking about Rodgers. How far that thought process went remains a mystery. The reporting at that time never went into specifics and it could’ve been chats with Rodgers, or maybe he was just on a list of 40 names of potential passers.
Either way, the Vikings are once again looking for a new QB. Rodgers wouldn’t join a team without being guaranteed the QB1 job, which complicates things for the Vikings. J.J. McCarthy visibly improved during the 2025 season and at the age of 23, an offseason jump can’t be ruled out. Sending him to the bench, especially for a 42-year-old one-year stopgap, would be unusual.
There’s also the question of whether Rodgers would be the necessary upgrade the Vikings are seeking. Sure, he is an all-time great signal-caller, but age and current performance still matter more than past accolades.
If the Vikings are seriously evaluating a one-year Rodgers swing, the key question isn’t his legacy — it’s his current level of play. The numbers from 2025 paint a more complicated picture than the touchdown-to-interception ratio alone suggests.
In 2025, Rodgers completed 65.7% of his passes for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions. He led the Steelers to a 10-6 record in his 16 starts before experiencing a miserable playoff game against the Houston Texans, with numbers of 17/33 for 146 yards, no touchdowns and one pick. The Steelers couldn’t move the ball all game.
The touchdowns-to-interception ratio was fantastic, but the yards were not. A deeper dive into the advanced metrics suggests the fit might not be as clean as the surface stats indicate.
Among 38 quarterbacks with at least 200 dropbacks, Rodgers ranked 29th in PFF grade between the likes of Joe Flacco and Justin Fields. Alarmingly low was his average depth of target of 6.6 yards, ranking him 37th of the 38 passers, which matches the eye-test. His time-to-throw was 2.58 seconds, the fourth-quickest in the NFL. Just for comparison, McCarthy’s ADOT of 9.5 ranked him 5th and the TTT of 3.01 seconds 10th.
The Steelers deployed a dip-and-dunk offense and it’s fair to say that big-play-hunting coach Kevin O’Connell isn’t a fan of that approach. Whether they did because OC Arthur Smith preferred it that way or because Rodgers can’t consistently attack downfield (or doesn’t want to get hit anymore) is a fair question. It’s also worth noting that his receiving corps was DK Metcalf and players that wouldn’t have cracked the rotation in many other places. He ranked 29th of 38 QBs in EPA/Play and 24th in completion percentage over expected.
At this point, it’s unclear whether Rodgers wants to add another season to his Hall of Fame resume. If he does, he has to decide if his future remains in Pittsburgh under the new coaching staff.
The Vikings, meanwhile, have to decide whether to add a quarterback for just one season, who’s coming off a mixed season and isn’t getting any younger. He’ll turn 43 during the 2026 campaign. And then there’s the potentially awkward scheme fit.
Rodgers, at this point, remains more of a high-profile possibility than a concrete plan. But with “all bets off” around McCarthy and the Vikings clearly evaluating the quarterback market, it’s easy to see why his name refuses to disappear from offseason discussions.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.