Aaron Rodgers discusses potential re-injury concerns surrounding return to football

Aaron Rodgers said Tuesday he’s basically closing the door to returning to the field this season. With the Jets now out of the playoffs, there’s no reason to risk reinjuring his Achilles.

Rodgers said all this during his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. Even before he talked, it seemed obvious the 40-year-old probably wouldn’t risk trying to come back for the Jets game against the Commanders. After all, his team was mathematically eliminated from the playoffs when the Jets lost 30-0 to the Dolphins.

“We talked about this the entire time, about the difference between stretching and stressing,” Aaron Rodgers said. “You got to allow that Achilles to heal up completely before you’re stretching it. But there’s, you know, again, there’s a lot of different ways to attack this rehab.

“I tried to get on my feet quickly and kind of cut a lot of protocols in half, just to see if I could do it a different way. And I wanted to push it for the first two months, as hard as I could and get to that eight week mark and see where I was at and then adjust accordingly the rehab schedule after that.

“So like at eight weeks, I felt really really good. I was walking basically normal. I was able to start jogging on the ultra G as far as I could. (And) I wouldn’t have done anything. I wanted to you know to get back.”

But Rodgers said that as of Tuesday, he’s not 100 percent. And he probably won’t reach that point for another four weeks or so.

“There’s ways fear of reinury.” he said. Then he conceded, there’s now no timetable for him to come back in 2023.

Aaron Rodgers said that he now plays on playing at least another two seasons. He plans to start at age 40, he said, and at 41. And he credits the rehab for his Achilles to how to better care for his body.

Rodgers’ announcement comes a day before the Jets needed to make a key decision on his season. The team could either place him on the active roster. Or, the Jets could keep him on injured reserve. They’d opened the 21-day window late last month so that the quarterback could begin practicing with his teammates.

Over the weekend, news broke that Rodgers was nearing medical clearance. But there always was a caveat to him playing. The game needed to be meaningful. But the Jets made that a moot point with the shutout they suffered at the hands of the Dolphins. The team has even more issues at quarterback. Zach Wilson is in concussion protocol. And if he can’t play, the Jets likely will turn to Trevor Siemian, a journeyman backup. This is his second stint playing for the Jets.

It doesn’t sound like Aaron Rodgers did live reps with the offense in the past three weeks. He said he didn’t participate in any 11-on-11 drills since he first started practicing.

The Jets traded for Rodgers in the off-season, with the hopes the veteran quarterback was the lone piece the team needed to be a playoff team. However, Rodgers, the long-time Packer, tore his Achilles on the fourth offensive snap in the season opener.