There has been an influx of young quarterback talent entering the NFL over the last few years, but Thursday night's game between the Steelers and Bengals will spotlight the league's oldest signal-callers, Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco.
At 41, Rodgers is the NFL's oldest active player, and will turn 42 before the 2025 season comes to a close. Flacco, 40, is not far behind. Rodgers was well reminded of this at his press conference on Tuesday when Steelers teammate Cam Heyward chimed in saying, "Oldest quarterbacks playing this week. Icy Hot bowl, I love it."
The matchup between Rodgers and Flacco will mark the third between quarterbacks over the age of 40, following two such games between Tom Brady and Drew Brees in 2020.
“I think it’s great for all the old guys," Rodgers told reporters on Tuesday. "I know that when I watch sports, maybe because I'm the older guy, but I tend to pull for the older guys to win, win championships. I've been friends with Steph [Curry] for a long time. ... Anytime the Warriors are playing, I'm always pulling for Steph to ball out, for them to win. I've known Joe for a long time. He's been great coming to my charity event. He's been a great ambassador for the league, had a great career and it's fun that we're both still playing."
In a fitting intro to Aaron Rodgers’ weekly scrum, Cam Heyward heckled the QB and called the game against Joe Flacco the “Icy Hot Bowl”
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) October 14, 2025
Then Rodgers talked about the novelty of two 40+ QBs playing against each other.
“I think it’s great for all the old guys.” pic.twitter.com/Px0QIXmQzx
During his own presser, Flacco chuckled that for once he won't be the oldest quarterback in a game.He said of the matchup, "Aaron's been in the league a few years longer than me, but we both started playing in 2008. Been doing it for a long time, it's pretty cool."
Much has changed at the quarterback position since Flacco and Rodgers entered the NFL in the mid-late 2000s. While Rodgers was a pretty mobile quarterback during the prime of his career, the days where pure drop-back quarterbacks like Brees, Brady, Peyton Manning and Phillip Rivers rule the league have seemingly faded.
"He's one of the old-school, 2000s, 90s prototypical quarterbacks," Rodgers added of Flacco. "... The big guys who had the big arms. Now, there's some smaller guys, some really athletic guys playing the position. I think he would probably agree with me sometimes when you're watching other guys play, it feels like they're playing a different position because of the athleticism and the way the game is called, there's more read-option called, you're seeing more of the college game in the NFL."
It's unclear how much longer Rodgers and Flacco will play in the NFL, but even as younger quarterbacks have taken over a lot of the league, they've impressively made it into their 40s and will get to showcase this on the national stage Thursday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Aaron Rodgers, Joe Flacco Reflect on Facing Off as NFL's Oldest Quarterbacks.
