CLEVELAND — Aaron Rodgers will turn 43 with a month left in the season. As the Browns prepared to face him and the Steelers on Thursday night, they marveled at the quarterback’s career, legacy and timeless talent.
“I’s motivating. It’s inspiring to be able to see what he’s doing at the age that he’s doing it for so long,” Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson said Tuesday. “I was watching him as a young kid and just being able to now play against him. It’s super dope to see him on the other side and you can learn a lot from him. It’s cool to see one of the guys that you watched and looked up to for a very long time on the other side.”
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Watson turned 31 last month and has had surgeries over the last three years to repair a twice-ruptured Achilles tendon and a broken bone in the throwing shoulder. He would love to still be going in a decade.
“That’s the goal, man. God willing for sure,” he said. “I want to play as long as I possibly can until football tells me I can’t.”
Rodgers returned from a torn Achilles sustained in his first game with the Jets in 2023. He played 17 games in 2024 for the Jets and 16 last year with the Steelers.
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He’d toyed with retirement in recent years before declaring this will be his final season. After the Steelers got off to a shaky offensive start this season, Rodgers threw for 292 yards and three touchdowns Sunday in a 30-27 win over the Bengals that improved Pittsburgh to 2-1 and a four-way tie in the AFC North.
Rodgers has put together a Hall of Fame career, mostly with the Packers. He’s a four-time MVP, 10-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champ.
He was on the verge of moving up the record books Thursday night. He entered tied with Ben Roethlisberger (165) for fifth in regular-season wins in NFL history, behind Tom Brady (251), Brett Favre (186), Peyton Manning (186) and Drew Brees (172).
He was set to become the fourth quarterback to appear in 300 games, including the postseason, and was fourth in career touchdown passes with 576, including the playoffs.
“Oh, man, how cool is that? And then he still wants to do it,” Browns coach Todd Monken said. “I think that’s probably the biggest thing, is he still has it in him to want to do it. And he said it last year, to make the playoffs and play good again, and play at a level he feels like he’s capable of playing.
“When you talk about life in general, to be at the top, then have some of the frustrations that come in, you know, with the Jets, and then to go there and play at the level he did, really cool for him. One of the all-time greats, I mean, there’s no way around it. Everybody in the NFL is elite, but to be an all-time great, that’s special.”
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Rodgers is one of the best throwers in NFL history and, in his prime, could make big plays with his legs. But perhaps the greatest separator for him has been his processing ability.
“There’s not anything he hasn’t seen, you talk about a student of the game, not only has he seen it, but highly intelligent,” Monken said. “And so you have to do a great job with your disguises as best as you can and still be in position to make plays on the ball. And he’s certainly more than capable of changing the play at the line of scrimmage, getting the receivers on the same page.
“That’s probably the one thing I’ve seen over the years, what frustrates him the most is, ‘how don’t the guys see the game like I see it, how are they not on the same page as me?’ I’m just saying that he wants it to be perfect, he doesn’t like crappy football, either, it’s a pain in the rear end to him. … He’s the standard. He is.”
