What’s going on with Aaron Rodgers, the professional football player known for his immense skill and similarly immense strength of opinions? Well, he was injured earlier in the season and Jets fans have been waiting breathlessly for him to return. Unfortunately for them, it looks like it might be at least a few more weeks before he makes it back.
Rodgers hinted as much during a postgame exchange with Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. as the players and coaches from the Jets and Chargers shook hands. James embraced Rodgers and asked him about making it back to the field, asking, “When you coming back, man?”
Rodgers said, “Give me a few weeks.” If Rodgers meant “a few weeks” as in three or so weeks more and then he’s back in games, that would mean he’s coming back around week 12 of the season, when the Jets will play the Dolphins at home, or week 13, when the Jets play the Falcons, again at home.
“Give me a few weeks.”
This convo between Aaron Rodgers and Derwin James 👀 pic.twitter.com/Zh4fasl9yr
— ESPN (@espn) November 7, 2023
Speaking about the exchange with James later on a podcast, Rodgers said, “I’ve known Derwin (James) for a while. We’ve got the same agency. He came over, dapped me up during the game. … I didn’t realize that (statement) was gonna get caught there.”
Continuing, he noted that it could be much longer before he makes it back, saying, “Obviously that was said with a little tongue-in-cheek there. It’d be nice to be back in a couple of weeks. That’s probably not anywhere near a realistic timeline. It could be a few, it could be a lot. It’s more of a phrase that didn’t have a specific timetable. I said it smiling, joking.”
Rodgers previously told the same podcast, the Pat McAfee show, that he is significantly ahead of the normal rehab timeline, saying, “It’s pretty obvious I’m well ahead of the normal protocols when it comes to rehab for this kind of thing. [We’re] being as smart as possible, not trying to stress the Achilles but stretch the Achilles in a way that allows me to start doing movement quicker and to speed up whatever timeline has kind of been the standard for this type of injury.”
Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner, commenting on Rodgers’ recovery, told the New York Post, “It makes everybody just feel like anything is possible. It makes everybody grind and motivates us to be able to have a guy like that on the team. I’m pretty sure it motivates the other guys who are injured, because they probably think because he’s able to do that with the kind of injury that he had, they can do it as well.”
Regardless of exactly how many weeks it is before Rodgers makes it back onto the field for game time, he was able to fire some bullets across the field when warming up before the Jets-Chargers game, showing that though his Achilles might not be at 100%, he’s not likely debilitated for good.
Aaron Rodgers (in camouflage warmup) is cutting loose tonight — a couple of throws around 50 yards. Tonight marks two months from his Achilles injury. Pretty crazy. #jets pic.twitter.com/NPXCtw7moZ
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) November 6, 2023
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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