Aaron Rodgers dropped a five-photo Instagram carousel on Monday showing him hanging with his mom Darla, dad Ed, brother Luke and a niece, captioned simply "Another bonding week. #fam." That sounds like nothing until you remember it's the first time he's ever posted his parents on a platform he's had since 2017. For a family whose rift went public a decade ago, that's a big deal.
Some background for anyone who wasn't paying attention in 2016: the estrangement became public knowledge when younger brother Jordan Rodgers appeared on The Bachelorette and the show cut to two empty chairs at a family dinner, standing in for Aaron and then-girlfriend Olivia Munn. Rodgers addressed it in his 2024 Netflix documentary, saying he valued his privacy and didn't love how public the whole thing got, but he never fully closed the door. Asked recently about reconciliation, his answer was blunt: "Yeah, of course. Of course." Now, on the eve of what he's called his final season, the door swung open.
The timing matters because Rodgers is about to report to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe for Steelers training camp, reuniting with Mike McCarthy, his head coach for 13 years in Green Bay from 2006 to 2018. At 42, this is presented as Rodgers' farewell tour, and the personal reconciliation reads like a guy trying to walk into his last camp with a clean slate — family squared away, football in front of him.
On the field, last season wasn't pretty by MVP-era standards: 3,322 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, 7 interceptions and just 61 rushing yards with one score across 16 games, good for 14.6 fantasy points per game, which ranked only 23rd among quarterbacks. That's low-end QB2 production in most leagues, and it's the baseline you're drafting against right now.
But the market is already moving on him. Rodgers is the biggest riser in best-ball ADP this offseason, up roughly 15 spots, as drafters buy into the McCarthy reunion and a retooled receiver room. Pittsburgh brought in Michael Pittman Jr. via trade from the Colts and used a second-round pick on Alabama's Germie Bernard, which sets up a real training-camp fight between Bernard and Roman Wilson for snaps — and gives Rodgers more bodies to work with in three-wide sets than he had a year ago.
For fantasy purposes, treat Rodgers as a streamer-with-upside, not a locked-in starter. He's currently getting drafted around the QB29 range, which is exactly where you want a name-brand arm with a favorable system change and a full head of family drama removed from his shoulders. Superflex and two-QB leagues get the most juice here — he's a fine QB2 stash with a ceiling if the new weapons click, but 1-QB managers can let him fall and grab him off the wire in Week 1 if the offense looks live.
The receiver competition is the real thing to monitor before rosters lock. If Bernard forces his way into the lineup early, that's a name worth speculating on in dynasty and deeper redraft leagues, since a rookie getting run in a McCarthy-Rodgers offense has spike-week potential. Watch camp reports out of Latrobe over the next few weeks — how Rodgers looks throwing to Pittman and Bernard will tell you more about his fantasy ceiling than any Instagram post, even one this heartwarming.