History of Quarterbacks Who Reconnected with Coaches Later in Their Careers

As the Pittsburgh Steelers re-signed quarterback Aaron Rodgers for one more season, the future hall of fame quarterback has declared that 2026 will be his final season. Rodgers will retire in a unique situation. He is reuniting with his head coach, and he began his career with Mike McCarthy.

McCarthy and Rodgers spent years together that culminated in one Super Bowl victory and with the Steelers replacing Mike Tomlin with the Pittsburgh born and raised McCarthy, Rodgers had spoke with Steelers General Manager Omar Khan telling him he should consider McCarthy as the new head coach. Right there should have been an indication that Rodgers may return for one more go around with the Black and Gold and be able to retire playing for his old head coach. It remains to be seen how this reunion works for the team this forthcoming season.

I had previously wrote an article for Abstract Sports in a negative aspect with an opinion that I would rather see Will Howard or rookie draft pick Drew Allar get the starting job but also mentioned if Rodgers did come back as he has, he would have better weapons to work with other than what he had in 2025. While this reunion takes place in Pittsburgh the Rodgers/McCarthy duo is not the first time a run it back situation has occurred between a quarterback and a former head coach or positions coach. What follows are several similar occurrences and perhaps there might be more, but these are some significant players and coaches. I will also review how each of these football people performed when they did reunite.

Philip Rivers & Shane Steichen

With most of his career being played in San Diego for the Chargers, Philip Rivers had Shane Steichen as his quarterbacks coach. When hired by the Indianapolis Colts, Steichen had experience multiple quarterback injuries during the 2025 season, so he called up on his former QB Rivers and asked him to come work out and sign a contract if he had anything left. The Colts would finish the season with a record of 8-9 and started the season with the newly signed Daniel Jones behind center.

Jones suffered a serious injury and was done for the season after 13 games and with both Riley Leonard and Anthony Richardson unavailable, Steichen turned to Rivers. Rivers played in six games and spit them with a 3-3 record. In that span he attempted 92 passes and completed 58 good for 544 yards, and he tossed four touchdowns while throwing three interceptions. He did get sacked five times. After losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars in week 17 of the 20025 season, Rivers retired for the second time after returning to the field for the first time since 2020. Had he not come back he would have been eligible for the Hall of Fame this year. Now he must wait another five years.

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Drew Bledsoe & Bill Parcells

A hall of fame coach and a man who might best be remembered for being replaced by Tom Brady and never getting his starting job back in New England. When Bledsoe arrived in Dallas Parcells made him the starter and his former quarterback played in all 16 games as the team finished 9-7 but missed the postseason. 

Bledsoe had a solid season despite not making the playoffs throwing for 3,629 yards and 23 touchdowns but also threw 17 interceptions. Unfortunately, the veteran quarterback was sacked 49 times, but he led the Cowboys to four final quarter comebacks and was calling the signals for five game winning drives. The following season he played in just six games and won three. 

Bledsoe’s played was limited because of the emergence of Tony Romo. While Romo had a completion percentage of 65.3, Bledsoe’s was much lower at 53.3.  With Romo at the controls the Cowboys made the playoffs with a 9-7 record again but lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the first round 21-20.

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Vinny Testaverde & Bill Parcells

Bill Parcells makes this twice because in 2004 the year before Bledsoe arrived in Dallas Vinny Testaverde was brought in and became the starter for that season. Testaverde’s career was nothing to write home about and in fact in Pittsburgh he was often known as Vinny “Intercept-a-verde.” In 23 seasons Testaverde played for seven different teams (Jets, Bucs, Browns, Ravens, Cowboys, Panthers, and Patriots). He was with the New York Jets the longest (seven seasons) but played just one year with Parcells in Dallas but had the Cowboys head coach leading the way with the Jets.

In his one season with the Cowboys, the team finished 6-10 and Testaverde suffered all 10 of those losses and was on the winning end only five times. He would also lead the NFL in interceptions thrown with 20. Those were three more than the number of touchdowns he would throw that year. He was also sacked 34 times. His quarterback rating was a low 76.4.

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Trent Green & Dick Vermeil

Trent Green’s career lasted just 11 seasons, but he did start 113 of 120 games for the Washington Redskins, St. Louis Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Miami Dolphins. For six seasons in Kansas City, Green and Vermeil were a team after Green played one season with Vermeil as the head coach of the St. Louis Rams in 2008 where he only appeared in three games.

In Kansas City Green played six seasons as Dick Vermeil was the head coach. The first season was a losing one finishing 6-10. Green started every game but led the NFL in interceptions with 24. With 17 touchdown passes Green also threw for 3,783 yards and on another low note he was sacked 39 times while his quarterback rating was a low 71.1.

In 2002 Green and the Chiefs improved by only two games to 8-8. Green’s stats improved dramatically and had the league’s longest pass that year of 99 yards and also had the highest mark for yards per attempt at 7.9. His sack total dropped to 26. The following season Vermeil and his Chiefs hit paydirt losing only three games and winning 13. 

When the postseason began it was one and done for the Chiefs losing to the Indianapolis Colts 38-31. Green had a great season with 24 touchdown passes and a total of 4,039 yards passing. He was picked off just 12 times and 20 times was sacked. It was back to losing in 2004 as Kansas City missed the playoffs with a 7-9 record. 

2004 was a passing frenzy for Trent Green, leading the NFL in attempts with 556. With 369 completions that accounted for 4,591 yards. He had 27 passes caught for touchdowns. Returning for one final season with Dick Vermeil coaching in 2005, Green led the offense again but the team despite a 10-6 record did not qualify for the postseason.

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Matt Hasselbeck & Mike Holmgren

Interesting is that while the Steelers starting quarterback for last year and this year is Aaron Rodgers, Rodgers got a late start in Green Bay because of one man…Brett Favre. Waiting for his turn to replace Favre, Matt Hasselbeck suffered the same fate his first two years in Green Bay while Favre was the starter. 

With the Packers having hall of fame quarterback Favre under center, in 2001 Green Bay decided to trade Hasselbeck to the Seattle Seahawks on March 2, 2001 sending the quarterback and their first draft pick for that year was came as the 17th pick overall and in return Green Bay received Seattle’s 10th overall pick and their third round slot.

As for Mike Holmgren, he quit as coach of the Packers in 1998 because Seattle had made him an offer he could not refuse. The ‘Hawks handed Holmgren an eight-year $32 million contract. Reunited with his old coach in Seattle, Hasselbeck started 12 of 13 games winning just five. For the next seven seasons following 2001 Hasselbeck and Holmgren were a quarterback tandem that culminated in the team reaching the promised land in 2005 when they got to the Super Bowl only to lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-10. 

In 2003 the Seahawks made the playoffs to face the team both Holmgren and Hasselbeck had once been a member of…the Packers. Green Bay defeated Seattle 33-27 in overtime. Hasselbeck threw for 305 yards but no touchdowns and was sacked twice throwing one interception. Like he did in Green Bay, Mike Holmgren quit his position as head coach of the Seahawks on January 22, 2008, but would finish out his contract for the 2008 season giving way to Jim Mora who became the next coach of the team. 

As for Hasselbeck, he played two more seasons in Seattle before going to the Tennessee Titans and then the Colts before retiring in 2015.

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Derek Carr & Dennis Allen

Derek Carr was drafted into the NFL by then Raiders head coach Dennis Allen in 2014. However, Allen lasted just four games into Carr’s rookie season fired by the Raiders after losing all four games with a fourth game loss to Miami by a score of 38-14. Carr started all 16 games his rookie season and the Raiders would win just three games. Still his numbers by season’s end were not bad. 

Dennis Allen would later be hired by the New Orleans Saints where he coached on the staff of Sean Payton. Payton would retire in 2022, and Allen was appointed new head coach. Two seasons later in 20024 Allen was fired again as a head coach this time after a 2-7 start to the season that including seven straight losses. 

So, Derek Carr played for Allen twice and both times saw his head coach lose his job. In two years with the Saints Carr won 14 games and lost 13. In the 2023 and 2024 seasons Carr tossed 40 touchdowns with 13 interceptions and was sacked 39 times. Following the 2024 season Carr’s NFL came to an end.

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Steve Beuerlein & Mike Shanahan

Steve Beuerlein was for the most part a journeyman quarterback in the NFL although with the Carolina Panthers he was a starter in 51 of 59 games. But playing with the Cardinals, Cowboys, Broncos, Jaguars and the Raiders, he played in 88 games but started only 51 of those. Drafted by Mike Shanahan in 1987 as a fourth-round pick, Beuerlein started eight out of 10 games his rookie season and won four of those games losing the other four. 

Beuerlein played the next season in the same amount of games then following the season because of a contract dispute he sat out the entire 1990 season returning in 1991 to play with the Dallas Cowboys. Beuerlein’s final two seasons in 2002 and 2003 saw him being called back by Mike Shanahan now the head coach in Denver. Shanahan brought him back only to back up starter Brian Griese. There he would see action in just 12 games over two seasons starting five of them. After that season in 2003, just like Carr above he was out of the NFL.

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Earl Morrall & Don Shula

As Don Shula is the winningest coach in National Football League history, he will always be remembered for being the head coach for the only team in history to finish a season undefeated then go on to win throughout the playoffs and cap it off with a Super Bowl victory. A 17-0 season that Miami completed has never been duplicated. A part of that amazing season was Earl Morrall. Having played under Shula in Baltimore, Morrall had to share time with Bob Griese in Miami.

In 1972, Morrall started nine games and played in 14 and obviously won all nine. While Griese played more than Morrall still in five seasons with Don Shula, Morrall played in 69 games and started 12 losing just once. Morrall was well traveled playing in Detroit, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and three seasons with the New York Giants. A 21-year career, most of his time was playing for the Lions (seven years) and in Miami with those five seasons. 

In 255 career games, Earl Morrall started in 104 and finished his career with 20,809 yards passing with 161 touchdown passes. He died on April 25, 2014. His long-time coach Shula passed away six years later on May 4, 2020, at 90 years of age.

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With those stats above if you combine all these quarterback’s numbers they add up to 28 seasons played and these are the numbers they all put up in those 28 campaigns:

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