As the Pittsburgh Steelers' season drifted away into the January night with the franchise's seventh consecutive postseason loss, an uncertain offseason commenced.
Among the prevailing questions are whether the Steelers' 30-6 Monday night wild-card loss to the Houston Texans will be the final game of Aaron Rodgers' surefire Hall of Fame career and head coach Mike Tomlin's tenure in the Steel City.
Unsurprisingly, neither was ready to make any declarative statements following such a dismal ending to the 2025 season.
"I'm not even in that mindset as I sit here tonight," said Tomlin, who's been Pittsburgh's coach for 19 seasons, when asked about approaching a decision on his future. "I'm more in the mindset of what transpired in this stadium and certainly what we did and didn't do. Not a big-picture mentality as I sit here tonight."
Rodgers entered his first and potentially only season with the Steelers stating that it would likely be his last. He left it with no firm commitment to what will follow in the aftermath of what was statistically the worst postseason loss of his career.
"No, I mean, I'm not going to make any emotional decisions," Rodgers said when asked if Monday's result would affect his decision on next year. "Disappointed obviously. Such a fun year. A lot of adversity but a lot of fun. Been a great year overall in my life in the last year, and this is a really good part of that, coming here and being a part of this team. So, it's disappointing to be sitting here with the season over."
If Monday proves to be Rodgers' final NFL game, it would be a most unfitting conclusion to such a sterling career. His final pass will have been caught by Calen Bullock, the Texans defensive back who returned a Rodgers interception 50 yards for the first pick-six of the quarterback's playoff career.
Rodgers was 17 of 33 for 146 yards, the interception and a 50.8 passer rating. His yardage and rating -- along with the six points scored -- were all career postseason lows.
Rodgers' Monday night counterpart, C.J. Stroud, had an equally disastrous evening, fumbling five times with two lost in addition to an interception. However, Rodgers and the Steelers offense's inability to cash in was ultimately Pittsburgh's undoing in a game led by Houston, 10-6, entering the fourth quarter.
The Texans racked up 23 fourth-quarter points, with the knockout blow coming when Rodgers was engulfed by Will Anderson Jr. and Sheldon Rankins for a sack -- one of four Rodgers took -- with Rankins subsequently rumbling 33 yards for a score on a fumble recovery. Hence, Rodgers was unable to muster any Steelers touchdowns, but the Texans scored two off his turnovers, marking the game as the first since the Chicago Bears' 73-0 NFL Championship Game win over Washington in 1940 that a team -- the Texans -- scored multiple defensive TDs and allowed zero in a playoff contest.
It added up to Pittsburgh's NFL-record fifth-consecutive playoff loss by double-digit points.
With yet another one-and-done Pittsburgh playoff showing, questions about Tomlin's tenure -- the longest currently in the NFL -- will abound. There has been constant chatter regarding the matter throughout a mercurial 10-7 season in which the Steelers rallied for the AFC North title. NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport has reported throughout the season that Tomlin would not be fired and if he didn't coach in 2026, it would be by Tomlin's choosing, perhaps to take a year off.
Rodgers believes calling into question Tomlin's security -- or even that of his former Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur -- is a rather asinine reality of the current NFL landscape.
"This league has changed a lot in my 21 years," said Rodgers, who won four AP NFL MVPs with the Packers from 2005-2022. "When you hear a conversation about the Mike Tomlins of the world, Matt LaFleurs of the world, those are just two that I played for. When I first got in the league, there wouldn't be conversation about whether those guys were on the hot seat. But the way that the league is covered now and the way that there's snap decisions and the validity given to the Twitter experts and all the experts on TV now who make it seem like they know what the hell they're talking about, to me that's an absolute joke.
"For either of those two guys to be on the hot seat is really apropos of where we're at as a society and a league because obviously Matt's done a lot of great things in Green Bay and we had a lot of success. Mike T's had more success than damn near anybody in the league for the last 19, 20 years. More than that, though, when you have the right guy and the culture is right, you don't think about making a change. But there's a lot of pressure that comes from the outside and obviously that sways decisions from time to time, but it's not how I would do things and not how the league used to be."
Just when Rodgers lets it be known what comes next for his career will be anybody's guess. His season-to-season future has been in question for years now and he's been apt to avoid answering it until long into the offseason.
It wasn't until June of 2025, just ahead of minicamp, that Rodgers finally made his decision to sign with the Steelers on a one-year pact.
Rodgers missed one start this season due to a broken left wrist, but returned despite the injury and threw for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Helping the Steelers rally down the stretch for four wins over the final five games, Rodgers has previously left the door open for a potential return to play in 2026, with Rapoport reporting Saturday that the Steelers would be open to another season with him.
"I'm not gonna talk about that," Rodgers answered when asked if he would want to play in Pittsburgh if he chose to keep his career going.
Tomlin indicated he didn't really say much to his squad following Monday's unflattering end.
"You know, it's not time for talk," Tomlin said. "We agreed that we'd meet tomorrow and go from there. When you're in this single-elimination tournament, there's not a whole lot to talk about. You win or you go home."
Once again, the Steelers and Tomlin are going home. For Rodgers, the 2025 season produced his first playoff appearance since 2021. It also finished with his third consecutive postseason loss.
Whether he -- or Tomlin -- chooses to go out on such a sour note as Monday's showing bestowed upon them was a topic neither was ready or willing to discuss. So, the questions will linger into an uncertain offseason for both.
Rodgers left little, if any detail, on how or when he will address his future.
"Just get away and then kind of have the right conversations," he said.
Rodgers, Tomlin and the Steelers had no right answers for the Texans. The head coach and his quarterback had no definitive answers about what lies ahead, either.
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