Aaron Rodgers is lining up for what he has described as his last NFL season, this time back with the Pittsburgh Steelers at age 42. He will turn 43 in December as the playoffs come into view.
His age and the drop-off many have noticed in his game have left plenty of observers asking whether he still has enough left to get the Steelers to a Super Bowl. Some wonder if he can even get them into the postseason one more time.
A former NFL standout offered a memorable way of putting it Friday.
Keyshawn Johnson appeared on “The Schultz Report” with Jordan Schultz and delivered a line that quickly became the opening of an hour-long YouTube video.
“You can only get so much juice out of a dry lemon,” Johnson said. “And Aaron Rodgers is a dry lemon at this stage of his career.”
The comparison lands once you sit with it for a moment. Rodgers produced his best football with the Green Bay Packers, when there was still plenty of juice to squeeze. After he left Green Bay he immediately suffered a serious injury with the New York Jets in 2023.
He came back in 2024 but could not lift the Jets out of a 5-12 season.
Rodgers signed with Pittsburgh last year and threw for 3,322 yards and 24 touchdowns. Even so, he looked noticeably slower and less sharp in a Wild Card playoff loss to the Houston Texans. He later said he had been dealing with an undisclosed illness before that 30-6 home defeat.
Johnson’s point still holds: earlier in his career Rodgers might have played through something like that and still delivered.
This season brings a new set of questions for the Steelers. Mike Tomlin is gone. Mike McCarthy is the new head coach and is reuniting with Rodgers after their long stretch together in Green Bay. The two won a Super Bowl together — against the Steelers — but that was the 2010 season. In NFL years that feels like ancient history.
Predicting how Pittsburgh will look in 2026 is therefore difficult. The franchise has not posted a losing record since 2003, when Bill Cowher was still coaching. McCarthy’s most recent losing season came in 2024 with the Dallas Cowboys after Dak Prescott went down midyear.
The AFC now awards seven playoff spots, which gives the Steelers a realistic path to the postseason. Whether they take that path depends on how much more can still be squeezed from Rodgers.
Johnson’s lemon metaphor is blunt, but it captures the conversation surrounding a 42-year-old quarterback trying to squeeze out one more productive year. Rodgers has always been one of the league’s most precise and cerebral passers. Those traits do not vanish overnight.
What does change is the body that has to execute the throws, the legs that have to buy time, and the ability to recover from the hits that come with the position.
McCarthy knows Rodgers as well as anyone in the league. Their history in Green Bay included both championship success and later frustration. Bringing that relationship back to Pittsburgh is one of the more interesting storylines of the offseason. It also raises the stakes.
If the offense sputters, the questions about Rodgers’ remaining juice will only grow louder.
Steelers fans have watched the team stay competitive for two decades. They now get to see whether a veteran quarterback and a familiar coach can keep that streak alive. The schedule, the supporting cast, and Rodgers’ health will all matter. So will the simple question Johnson posed: how much juice is left?
Rodgers has defied age before. He has also shown signs that the years are catching up. This season will decide which version of him shows up most often. For now, the lemon metaphor is the one that is sticking.
