- - As Mike Tomlin extends 19-year streak without losing season, do Steelers need Aaron Rodgers to be great?

Jori EpsteinDecember 21, 2025 at 10:17 PM

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Flanked by Cam Heyward on his left and Aaron Rodgers on his right, Mike Tomlin walked off the field.

A 29-24 win over the Detroit Lions meant Tomlin had once again secured a .500 or better season in the NFL, his perfect track record officially extended to all 19 seasons of his tenure as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach.

So Tomlin was perhaps more ebullient than usual, and the quarterback Tomlin recruited for Year 19 was, too.

The division was not yet clinched, even if Pittsburgh controls its path to the AFC North title. But the standard that Tomlin has long upheld had yet again risen above its floor.

Rodgers pointed at Tomlin as he hyped him up to the cameras.

“He f***ing wins in the NFL right here,” Rodgers appeared to say in a clip just barely discernible.

Aaron Rodgers pumping up Mike Tomlin to the CBS camera on the way off the field. pic.twitter.com/TFIbv8VSrd

— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) December 22, 2025

Tomlin has long won in the NFL through a mix of the culture he’s established, the talent he’s hand-picked and the schematic excellence he’s overseen.

It’s a combination that yet again positions the Steelers to make the playoffs in what could be Rodgers’ last career year. And it’s a combination that spells an interesting recipe for what would be his 12th career playoff berth as a starter and first in three years.

In two of Rodgers’ last three playoff berths, his franchise role was paramount. The then-late 30s quarterback won his third and fourth MVP honors in those seasons. He led the league in touchdown and interception percentages both campaigns, Rodgers’ 2020 year also featuring league-bests in his 70.7% completion rating and 48 touchdowns (to five interceptions).

As the coach with whom he won a Super Bowl, Mike McCarthy, often said: It took 70+ guys each season to achieve the team’s success.

But Rodgers was routinely the most valuable player on his Green Bay Packers playoff teams just as four times he was the most valuable player across the league.

Walking off with the Heyward and Tomlin on Sunday evening, the picture looked different.

[Get more Steelers news: Pittsburgh team feed]

It was Heyward, not Rodgers, who recorded five quarterback pressures, four tackles, a tackle for loss and a sack on a day when the Steelers' defense did enough to hold off a usually explosive Lions attack.

It was Tomlin, not Rodgers, who had recruited and strategized the collection of winning playmakers — including the running back tandem that gashed the Lions' defense for a season-worst 230 rushing yards.

The organizational infrastructure that long predates Rodgers’ June arrival has provided him an experience vastly different from his two years with the New York Jets and dissimilar also from his 18 with the Packers.

Because while the Steelers want and will take all they can get out of the 42-year-old Rodgers' final career days, MVP-caliber play is not the backbone of their success.

And if their two-game lead on the Ravens turns into an AFC North title, Rodgers’ MVP caliber will not be the Steelers’ only recipe for advancing in the playoffs.

“Game’s got to look a certain way this time of year, and it certainly did,” Tomlin said. “We were able to run the ball and stop the run, and we kind of rode that wave in terms of controlling the game. Certainly, you got to give Detroit a lot of credit. Man, they stormed and fought. We knew they would.

“We knew what type of game we were coming into.”

And the Steelers knew that Rodgers was not their only option.

Head coach Mike Tomlin walks off the field with Aaron Rodgers and Cameron Heyward after a critcal victory in Detroit. (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images) (Nic Antaya via Getty Images)Steelers outrushed Lions by more than 200 yards to control game

To tie the game at halftime, yes, Rodgers threw the deep ball.

But even he didn’t think running back Kenneth Gainwell had caught the 34-air-yard heave that would land well inside of the right sideline path Gainwell was riding. The ball appeared to hit the ground as Gainwell fought through his defender to grab it. Gainwell figured he’d at least reach in hopes of drawing a flag. Instead, despite already hitting the ground and lying on his side, Gainwell managed to nab the ball just before it hit its seeming ground destination.

Untouched, he got up and ran the 11 remaining yards to the end zone.

“An unbelievable catch by Kenny,” Rodgers said. “If it’s just [pass interference], it’s three points. But to catch it, somehow get his hand under the ball, get up and score was incredible.

“He’s so damn smart. I mean, I was just telling him I wish I played with him for 10 years just because the kind of player that he is.”

Impressive work by Kenny Gainwell keeping the ball from hitting the ground en routo to Steelers TDpic.twitter.com/275u3vCU48

— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) December 21, 2025

And Gainwell wasn’t the only Steelers running back to uncork.

Three quarters into the game, Pittsburgh had tracked a solid if not spectacular 63 yards rushing. That was before Jaylen Warren reminded a depleted Lions defense how short-handed it actually was.

Warren veered left as he fielded a toss from Rodgers with 12:32 to play in the fourth quarter, zigzagging back right upfield as he hit well-blocked lanes en route to a 45-yard touchdown.

“I saw him running clean and I did absolutely nothing,” Rodgers said. “Now, I may have made the right check. But it was — anybody could have done that. It was like me on the sneaks: I don’t do a whole lot, as long as I don’t mess it up.”

With 6:50 to play and the Lions trailing by just five, Warren yet again set his eyes on home.

This time, he took a handoff around the left end before shaking defenders. Again, he covered 45 yards. Again, he scored.

The Steelers’ explosive fourth quarter cushioned their ability to outgain the Lions, 481 yards to 361, and edge Detroit on third and fourth downs by 55.6% to 41.6%.

But it was Pittsburgh’s line of scrimmage control that spelled the starkest difference: The Steelers rushed for a season-best 230 yards while holding Detroit to its season-worst 15.

Controlling the clock followed. Winning still necessitated Lions’ self-destruction via penalty, including a pair of offensive pass interference flags that overturned touchdowns on the game’s final drive.

When a lengthy conference among officials settled on the call that offensive pass interference wiped out the final play before it became a touchdown and the expired clock ended the game, Lions fans turned from cheering to groaning.

Rodgers’ response?

“Hate to see it,” he quipped, before walking off the podium with a sly smile.

DK Metcalf could face punishment from the league for an altercation with a Lions fan off the field during Sunday's game. (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images) (Nic Antaya via Getty Images)Can imperfect Steelers team help Rodgers to one last taste of playoff magic?

Completing 65.9% (27 of 41) of his passes for 266 yards and one touchdown, Rodgers’ raw numbers and his game management were solid for a quarterback of any age, and certainly at 42.

Rodgers didn’t flinch as his top receiver, DK Metcalf, drew more attention for an altercation with a fan off the field than he did through four catches and 42 yards on nine targets. (The NFL will review the altercation for potential discipline, after the officials did not see the interaction or throw a flag and thus no consequences were levied in-game.) Rodgers didn’t make mistakes and kept drives alive particularly in the second half, when Pittsburgh did not have any three-and-outs.

But the Steelers didn’t win primarily because Rodgers channeled the theatrics he once did to play Superman. And as their December wins come against teams not currently on track to make the playoffs, it’s worth asking how heavily the Steelers’ playoff hopes hinge on Rodgers’ greatness.

With a two-game division lead and a shifting cast of playmakers, can the Steelers win with a baseline of Rodgers' play below what his teams once needed?

“It’s been playoff-type football for us the last three weeks,” Rodgers said of wins over the Ravens, Miami Dolphins and Lions. “We had to win to shut down a team that had won four in a row and was hot [in Baltimore], and we had to win against a team with a lot of pride that has played in an NFC championship game in the last couple years [in Detroit].

“So it says a lot about the guys we got. Says a lot about the leadership, the organization and the players.”

It says a lot about Tomlin.

The Steelers escaped the potent Lions offense without key pressure-creators in All-Pro edge rusher T.J. Watt (lung) or linebacker Nick Herbig (hamstring). They hit explosive runs behind their fourth-string left tackle, and they won as Rodgers connected with veterans like Adam Thielen, who joined the Steelers less than three weeks ago but already synced with Rodgers to the tune of four catches for 49 yards on four targets.

Tomlin and Co. know their areas for growth were easy to spot, including the defense’s fourth-quarter struggles and their star receiver’s apparent emotional control or lack thereof.

Rodgers’ decisions still often trend toward screen passes that require significant yards after the catch for his skill players to move the chains, and the group started slowly in a game it needed.

But the Steelers won. And with the Ravens’ Sunday night loss, exacerbated by a back injury that sidelined Lamar Jackson the entire second half, Pittsburgh looks increasingly headed toward the No. 4 seed for what could be one last postseason adventure for Rodgers.

Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers: “Feels good to win. Everybody was picking us to lose, right?” pic.twitter.com/tVDrNDJVDU

— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) December 22, 2025

Tomlin will lead that charge, in hopes that the Steelers can return to not only hitting their above-.500 floor but also earning their first playoff win in nine years. Rodgers will believe in the coach who has perennially showed he can, as quarterback says, “f***ing win” in the NFL.

Don’t expect either of them to celebrate too much yet.

“Win or lose, you got to keep pushing and we will,” Tomlin said. “We’re coming in tomorrow to watch the tape. We ain’t got time for victory Mondays.

“That’s what I told the team.”

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Source: “AOL Sports”