Aaron Rodgers has a couple of crucial milestones ahead of him before he can even consider a return to the field this season for the New York Jets.
One of them is completely out of his hands and seems notably unlikely to happen. In his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, Rodgers said that the first step toward his return relates to his health. The second is that the Jets need to be in the playoff hunt.
“Are we alive? Are we in it? Are we playing good enough to make a run?” Rodgers said. “Can I step in and protect myself and play at the level that I feel like I’m capable of playing? But the first part is the health.”
For weeks, the biggest question for Rodgers seemed to be “Can he really get himself back this quickly?”
Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images
After all, Achilles injuries have historically been one of the worst injuries an athlete can suffer. Rodgers, however, followed the lead of running back Cam Akers, who had a device called a speed bridge inserted to cut recovery time. Akers returned in fewer than six months. Rodgers hoped to defy the odds to an even greater degree after he ruptured his Achilles on the first drive of the Jets’ season.
That might have been possible if the Jets were able to hold it together in his absence. Rodgers is walking pretty well, albeit while wearing shoes that protect his heel from bending more than 90 degrees, and he can run on an AlterG Anti-Gravity machine set at 70 percent of his body weight at 8 mph.
Rodgers is now 11 weeks out from his initial surgery, and he told McAfee his doctors told him a lot of the healing happens between eight and 12 weeks.
“Obviously I’ve been ahead for the most part with this rehab,” Rodgers said. “So I’m excited about what’s next and how this thing keeps getting better.”
The 4-7 Jets aren’t eliminated yet, but unfortunately for Rodgers, that day doesn’t appear far off. Their next two games are against the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans, both of which are in the thick of their playoff races. After that, they face the Miami Dolphins, who have one of the best records in the AFC and beat them on Friday.
If the Jets somehow survive those three games, they have the Washington Commanders, followed by the Cleveland Browns (without Deshaun Watson) and the free-falling New England Patriots.
That schedule doesn’t suggest Rodgers will have a chance to return to a team with a shot at the postseason.
“Once I’m healthy, and then it’s where we’re at,” Rodgers said. “…Can I help the team and not hurt the team by being out there? Can I protect myself? Can I do all the things I want to do? If the answer is yes, then we move in that direction. If the answer is no, then I have to listen to my body.”
Rodgers added that the next step is “doing more real football things.”
“Being able to throw to my teammates and go through some individual parts of practice I think will be kind of the next step to see what my lateral movement is like,” he said. “And after going through some of these more football-related moves, how do I respond? How does my leg respond to that?”
There’s no guarantee that Rodgers’ leg will respond positively to all of the extra work he has put in. If it doesn’t, a small source of comfort for Jets fans might be that Rodgers will be able to take an entire offseason to heal rather than rushing back. If results hold true over the next three weeks, Rodgers might be able to book unlimited trips back to his “Achilles factory” in California to get ready for 2024.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.