Ever since Aaron Rodgers signed a one-year deal with the Steelers on June 7, I circled Week 8 on the schedule.

Not because it’s the middle of the season or because it’s on Sunday Night Football — although I really do like SNF. 

It’s simply because of Aaron Rodgers. You remember him right? The “complicated fella” that went to the dumpster fire that is the New York Jets before ending up in Pittsburgh. Rodgers, 41, has thrown for 1,270 yards with 14 touchdowns and five picks this season in leading the Steelers to a 4-2 record. 

He is about as mobile as a block of granite, but he can still deliver the football with precision and he remains one of the smartest people in the game. 

“He loves football,” said Steelers coach Mike Tomlin in training camp. “That’s the thing that’s on the tip of my tongue. He displays it daily. He has a love affair with this game — one that he’s willing to share with others. He’s passionate about it and I think it’s contagious.”

That was apparent when he only played four snaps in the 2023 season opener before tearing his Achilles. He could’ve easily hung it up and called it a career. Instead, he came back in 2024 and threw 28 touchdowns and 11 picks for an awful Jets team. 

On the other side of the field will be Rodgers’ apprentice. Jordan Love sat for three seasons behind Rodgers before getting his chance to start. He took copious notes and learned everything from presnap reads to cadence to even the wide assortment of different arm angles that Love has in his arsenal. 

“You’re taught your whole life how to play the quarterback position a certain way, and you see a guy kind of break some of those rules and make some of these passes,” said Love.

Love, 26, is seventh in the NFL in passer rating at 108.1 — two spots ahead of Rodgers’ 105. Love has thrown for 300-plus yards once this season but has eclipsed 70 percent completion percentage four times. And it shows, because his 69.3 percent is the highest of his career — 5.1 percentage points higher than his highest starting season output in 2023. 

For as much as this game is about both quarterbacks and their story arcs, this game is also about how they can avoid danger. Micah Parsons has 5.5 sacks with 23 of the Packers 84 total hurries. T.J. Watt has four sacks with 13 of the Steelers 74 total hurries. 

As much as we all want to make this game about No. 10 and No. 12, both Parsons and Watt will play a big part in this one. The Steelers are very ironic because they spent over $163 million just on their defense for guys like Watt, Cameron Heyward, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Jalen Ramsey. But Pittsburgh is ranked 28th in the league in yards allowed per game. 

“They were last in rushing,” said Heyward after the Steelers' disappointing loss to the Bengals last week. “And the way we gave it up today, that takes the cake.”

Rodgers and Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst would never admit it, but deep down, both really want this one. Rodgers wants to prove that he still had gas left in the tank when the Packers drafted Love in 2020 and perhaps Gutekunst wants to show Rodgers that ghosting an employer isn’t a great idea.