Aaron Rodgers says this year with Steelers will be his last in the NFL: 'This is it'

There will be no further offseasons of intrigue around Aaron Rodgers’ playing status.

So says Aaron Rodgers. The Pittsburgh quarterback, fresh off of signing a one-year deal to return to the Steelers, told reporters Wednesday that he intends for this upcoming season to be his last as an NFL quarterback.

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“Yes,” Rodgers said when asked if this would be his last year. “This is it.”

Rodgers made his declaration in his first public comments since agreeing to return to the Steelers on Saturday.

Rodgers, 42, is re-joining the Steelers for his second season in Pittsburgh. The four-time MVP with the Green Bay Packers will be playing his 22nd NFL season.

He returns to a Steelers team that hired his former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy to replace longtime head coach Mike Tomlin, who retired in the offseason after 19 seasons as Pittsburgh’s head coach.

Per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, Pittsburgh’s decision to hire McCarthy played a role in Rodgers’ decision to return for another season.

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"I thought that was probably it for me in Pittsburgh,” Rodgers said of Tomlin’s retirement. “But when the decision was made to hire Mike, I started opening my mind back up to coming back."

He said that he made his decision to return after April’s NFL Draft and that he suggested McCarthy as a coaching candidate to Steelers general manager Omar Khan.

Rodgers told reporters that working with McCarthy is “surreal” and that his meeting with the head coach Monday morning was a “pinch me” moment that reminded him of his first season alongside McCarthy in 2006.

This story will be updated.