How the NFL navigated Aaron Rodgers uncertainty with schedule release

The NFL followed the tea leaves to set up a potential home-run Week 1 matchup.

While the league’s schedule makers — much like the rest of the NFL community — would have preferred to know where Aaron Rodgers will be playing in 2025, NFL vice president of planning and scheduling Mike North indicated the league accounted for him possibly landing in Pittsburgh to face his former Jets team to open the season.

“I think if the league knew (Rodgers’ team), we probably would’ve scheduled that game for a national television window,” North told CBS after Wednesday’s full schedule release.

“So at worst, it’s Justin Fields against his old team. At best, it’s Aaron Rogers going up against one of his old teams. Look at what we did with Aaron Rogers’ first game the last two years (both Monday night games). If we knew something, I think you would’ve seen it reflected in the schedule. That being said, still a good game.”

It seems Rodgers’ best path to a starting job in 2025 is either with the Steelers or the Saints, and the latter seems more likely to make a bid for the potential Arch Manning derby than make a Rodgers push.

The NFL has shown it will feature Rodgers in plenty of prime-time slots, as seen the last two years when the Jets opened against the Bills and 49ers, respectively, on “Monday Night Football.”

A Week 1 clash featuring Rodgers against a Jets team that he believes did not handle his exit gracefully is a storyline that writes itself.

Rodgers blasted new coach Aaron Glenn and the franchise for having him fly to New Jersey for an exit meeting that he felt could have been handled over the phone and lacked “ample respect.”

Many have said throughout the years that Rodgers is at his best with a chip on his shoulder — although that didn’t ring true in New York — and he surely would be fired up to try to dissect Glenn’s defense.

Should Rodgers not join Pittsburgh, there’s still the angle, as North mentioned, of Fields facing the Steelers, but that’s a game better situated for a 1 p.m. window than must-see television.

The Steelers are three-point road favorites for the game, even with the uninspiring quarterback room of Mason Rudolph and 2025 rookie Will Howard.

One other intriguing angle of the Rodgers-Steelers scenario is that Pittsburgh hosts Rodgers’ other ex-team, the Packers, in Week 8 for “Sunday Night Football.”

That would represent Rodgers’ first game against the team that drafted him and with whom he won his lone Super Bowl ring before they too moved on.

The Steelers’ schedule also features an Ireland game against the Vikings, a “Thursday Night Football” divisional road contest with the Bengals, a “Sunday Night Football” clash at the Chargers and a “Monday Night Football” home date with the Dolphins.