Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) wears a black glove between reps during a preseason joint practice at the Paycor Stadium practice facility in downtown Cincinnati on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. | © Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
CINCINNATI — Joe Burrow is looking forward to playing against Aaron Rodgers this season.
Unfortunately, there may only be two matchups between the star quarterbacks.
Rodgers plans to retire after the 2025 season.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is it,” Rodgers said on the Pat McAfee Show. “That’s why we just did a one-year deal. Steelers didn’t need to put any extra years on that or anything, so this was really about finishing with a lot of love and fun and peace for the career that I’ve had.
“I played 20 frickin’ years. It’s been the long run. I’ve enjoyed it and no better place to finish than in one of the cornerstone franchises of the NFL with Mike Tomlin and a great group of leadership and great guys in the city that expects you to win.”
Burrow and the Bengals lost to Rodgers and the Packers 25-22 in overtime on Oct. 6, 2021. It was a wild game full of weird turnovers and missed kicks. Ultimately, the Bengals won the AFC that season and came up just short in Super Bowl LVI.
Burrow is looking forward to facing Rodgers now that he’s in the division this season.
“Yeah, that’ll be a fun, fun two games,” Burrow said. “Obviously, I got a lot of respect for Aaron and like him as a person. Only played him one time, so it’ll be nice to play him twice.”
Burrow praised Rodgers in January after the Bengals beat the Steelers in their season finale.
“I’ve been a fan of his for a long time,” Burrow said. “Watching him growing up, he was one of those guys that you love to watch, and when Monday Night, Sunday Night Football came around, you were hoping that he was on it.”
The Bengals play the Steelers on Thursday Night Football in Week 7 at Paycor Stadium. They head to Pittsburgh a month later for the second matchup against their division rival.
“He revolutionized how quarterbacks throw the football. I think the way that high-level quarterbacks coach it now, quarterback coaches coach it now, is because of how he did it,” Burrow said when asked about Rodgers in January. “I would love to sit down and talk to him about his journey of his throwing motion, how he figured that out. I think also he’s a really good person to look up to as far as just being yourself and how to handle this whole fame, football thing. It’s not easy. We go through a lot of things and adversity, and he’s seemed to stay the same through it all, and that’s something that I aspire to. You don’t have to agree with everything that everybody says or does to have admiration for how they do it.”
There’s always a chance they face each other in the playoffs. The Bengals played the Ravens in the 2022 postseason and also faced the Steelers after winning the division in 2005.
Check out the clip of Rodgers below:
Here’s the clip in which Aaron Rodgers acknowledge that this is expected to be his last NFL season: pic.twitter.com/5WrwStGoi2
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 24, 2025
