Aaron Rodgers looks right at home vs. Jets in Steelers debut with 4 TD passes in win
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Aaron Rodgers looked right at home as a visitor in his debut with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The 41-year-old quarterback threw four touchdown passes against his former team in a 34-32 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday.
Rodgers’ first game with Pittsburgh to begin his 21st NFL season came after a two-year stint with the Jets that included Super Bowl dreams and mostly disappointing results.
He got things started quickly by throwing a TD pass on his first drive that came after he was greeted by a chorus of boos from Jets fans who once cheered him. Rodgers was then sacked on the first play by Quinnen Williams.
But Rodgers then went to work on an efficient drive, capping it by finding a wide-open Ben Skowronek for a 22-yard touchdown to give Pittsburgh a 7-3 lead with 3:38 left in the opening quarter.
Rodgers jogged to the end zone with the rest of the Steelers players to celebrate the score — his first in black and gold.
With the Steelers trailing 19-10, Rodgers got his second TD pass of the game on Pittsburgh’s fourth series on a jet sweep toss to Jonnu Smith for a 3-yard score. The tight end reached across the goal line and the ball touched the pylon for a touchdown with 32 seconds left in the second quarter.
He threw two more TD passes in a 50-second span in the fourth quarter — a 5-yard pass to Jaylen Warren and, after the Steelers recovered a fumbled kickoff, a go-ahead 18-yard score to Calvin Austin III.
Rodgers finished 22 of 30 for 244 yards and the four scores.
He was released by the Jets during the offseason when the new regime of coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey decided to go in a different direction at quarterback and downplayed any revenge angles leading up to the game — as did the Jets.
During warmups two hours before kickoff, Rodgers — wearing a black cap and a black-and-gold Steelers hoodie — was greeted by several of his former teammates and got big hugs from Williams, running back Breece Hall, backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor and edge rusher Jermaine Johnson, among others.
Rodgers was the headliner in the season-opening matchup, and for good reason. After all, his trade to the Jets during the offseason in 2023 made them instant championship contenders and a constant topic of conversation.
But four snaps into his debut in New York — moments after he carried the American field onto the field in pregame introductions — Rodgers went down with a torn left Achilles tendon and the Jets’ Super Bowl dreams immediately fizzled.
Rodgers made it back last season and threw 28 touchdown passes with 3,897 yards passing — both rank third for a single season in franchise history. But he lacked some mobility early in his return and then dealt with a few additional leg injuries, including a significant hamstring ailment.
The Jets’ offense with Rodgers struggled to produce, the defense was a shell of its formerly dominant self and it cost both general manager Joe Douglas and coach Robert Saleh their jobs in the middle of a 5-12 season.
In what turned out to be his final appearance with New York, Rodgers threw a season-high four touchdown passes in a win over Miami on Jan. 5 at MetLife Stadium. He became the fifth player in NFL history to reach 500 regular-season touchdown passes in that game.
After Sunday’s performance, he has 507 — one behind Brett Favre for fourth all-time.
Rodgers was told in February he would be released by the Jets — and he later balked at how the team handled his departure. Four months later, Rodgers decided to continue his playing career and signed a one-year, $13.65 million contract with the Steelers.
And he faced Justin Fields, who was Pittsburgh’s starter early last season and led the Steelers to a 4-2 start before he sat in place of a healthy Russell Wilson. Fields, who signed a two-year, $40 million deal with the Jets in March, had two TD runs and threw a scoring pass in the loss.
The game marked the first time in NFL history that quarterbacks in Week 1 on both sides faced the teams for which they started the season opener the previous year.
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