Aaron Rodgers will retire after the 2026 season. It is going to be a big moment in NFL history, as it will formally close one of its most prominent chapters. But his return has also made for lucrative financial opportunities. The Baltimore Ravens have hiked up the prices for their Week 17 clash. This came after Rodgers said, “This is it.” As the season goes on, the NFL might be forced to make some adjustments to give fans what they want: an Aaron Rodgers farewell.

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio wrote that the league could easily reshuffle the Steelers’ schedule later in the year to maximize ratings. But could constant flex scheduling become a distraction for Rodgers and the Steelers during a playoff push in December? That possibility now hangs over Pittsburgh.

Rodgers made a peculiar choice of announcing his retirement before the season. In recent times, no franchise QB has handled his NFL retirement this way, including Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger quietly told people in private that 2021 would be his last year in the NFL.

Last year, the NFL built its schedule before Aaron Rodgers announced his commitment to the Steelers. NFL VP of broadcast planning Mike North later admitted that if the league had known Rodgers would sign with the Steelers, the team’s Week 1 matchup against the New York Jets likely would have landed in a national television window. The NFL may have adjusted several other games, too, if Rodgers or the Steelers had tipped their hand earlier.

The league might have expected that Pittsburgh and Rodgers would ‘owe them one’ this year, too.

But since the stakes were much higher, the league decided to play it safe and give the Steelers four primetime games. Only one of them comes before Week 10. But four is a good enough frequency for a team to create an impact. The league didn’t hand out those later standalone games to put QBs Drew Allar, Will Howard, or Mason Rudolph under the spotlight. Rodgers clearly remains the draw. 

Of course, the NFL can still flex those late-season games if the Steelers struggle. But the Steelers could have received more prime-time exposure had the league known Rodgers was returning. The Los Angeles Rams made for a better selling point with Matthew Stafford and got seven primetime games. He’d confirmed his decision to play the 2026 season in last year’s NFC Championship.

Whether or not Aaron Rodgers ends up taking that spotlight away and forcing the NFL to turn it his way will only be decided later in the year. However, there are some who are skeptical about the hype behind this grand goodbye for the Steelers QB.

Aaron Rodgers’ return ‘not relevant’

Of course, Rodgers deserves a proper send-off. Rodgers has been in the league for more than two decades now, with a career that puts him in the debate behind who is the NFL’s goat. But according to famed ‘Pardon the Interruption’ broadcaster Mike Wilbon, Rodgers’ retirement decision is being exaggerated, and has something relevant.

“He had a great career that’s going to result in the wearing of a gold jacket in the Hall of Fame, as it should be,” he said on ESPN’s Get Up. “This notion, that he and the Steelers are relevant, to what? Not even in their own division!

“They are gonna be the third team chosen in their own division behind Baltimore for sure, and likely Cincinnati. …It’s not relevant anymore.”

The Steelers’ schedule ranks in the middle when compared to all the teams. But within the division, theirs is the hardest. The most difficult stretch of games right after the Week 10 game, which includes the Bengals, Eagles, Broncos, Texans, Jaguars, and Ravens. There is a bye in between, but that probably won’t bring much relief. The Steelers will have to fight four teams that were in the playoffs last year, and two of them are division rivals.

Aaron Rodgers’ return, and proclaimed exit, masks the severity of this schedule. He is a big part of the picture for Pittsburgh; if the team has any shot at the Super Bowl, it will only be possible with him in play. But Rodgers alone will not move the needle for the team’s chances to be in the playoffs. If the league makes some changes to this part of Pittsburgh’s schedule, things might change.