Aaron Rodgers Becomes The Second NFL Player To Hit $400 Million In Career Earnings

Before last season, Aaron Rodgers told "The Pat McAfee Show" that 2025 was probably his last year in the NFL. The four-time Super Bowl MVP had been playing since 2005—"20 fricking years," as he put it—and seemed ready to hang up his cleats after a final season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is it. That's why we just did a one-year deal," Rodgers told the show in June 2025. "Steelers didn't need to put any extra years on that or anything, so this was really about finishing with a lot of love and fun and peace for the career that I've had."

It turns out Rodgers isn't done quite yet. More than three months after the confetti fell during Super Bowl LX, the oldest active quarterback in the league is returning to the Steelers on a one-year deal worth up to $25 million, per ESPN's Adam Schefter. It also puts Rodgers into a rarefied quarterback class.

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This new deal, which includes a base salary between $22 and $23 million, will propel Rodgers above $400 million in career earnings. After the season closes, he'll be around $409.8 million, per Spotrac. Only Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams has made more during his career.

Rodgers collected the bulk of his fortune with the Green Bay Packers, the team that drafted him in 2005. He spent 18 years in Green Bay, winning Super Bowl XLV. During that span, Rodgers made just north of $305.6 million in on-field earnings.

After his relationship with the team soured, Rodgers joined the New York Jets in 2023. He played a grand total of four snaps before tearing his Achilles. Though he returned the following year, his New York tenure was largely a bust. Still, he made over $75 million as a member of the Jets.

And now, Rodgers is wrapping up his career with the Steelers. During that June appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show," Rodgers said he was looking forward to finishing with "one of the cornerstone franchises of the NFL" in "the city that expects you to win." He specifically named Mike Tomlin, then-head coach of the Steelers, as a strong reason for joining the team.

A year later, Tomlin had resigned, and Pittsburgh signed Mike McCarthy in his place. Rodgers and McCarthy are no strangers on the field, having spent 13 years together in Green Bay before the team fired McCarthy during the 2018 season.

The Packers saw sustained success with Rodgers and McCarthy, including that Super Bowl victory during the 2011 season. Now, they'll try to pull off one more year of magic together.