The biggest news in the NFL through the first two weeks of the regular season was the injury that befell former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Week 1. Rodgers, on his fourth play with the New York Jets, suffered what ended up being diagnosed as a torn left Achilles.
That ended his season before it even got underway, as it is presumed that he will miss the entire 2023 campaign. There has been some hope shared that Rodgers will be able to get back on the field for a potential Jets playoff run and that he will be recovered in five months’ time.
If that occurs, Rodgers is a scientific anomaly as recovery can take up to a year in some cases with an Achilles injury. It is an injury that will have a major impact on the Packers, as it will be impossible for Rodgers to reach the 65 percent snaps played threshold.
As a result, Green Bay will now receive a second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, not a first-rounder, to complete the blockbuster trade. It was certainly an unfortunate injury, one that people within the Packers were certainly disappointed to see despite how it impacted the franchise.
One of the people who reached out to Rodgers after it happened was head coach Matt LaFleur. As shared by ProFootballTalk, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN, the Packers’ headman reached out to Rodgers via text.
“I feel for him. Never want to see anybody go through that. Anytime you have a player of his caliber not playing football, it’s bad for the game.”
LaFleur knows the grueling rehab that Rodgers is set to face to get healthy. In his first season as the Packers’ head coach, LaFleur tore his Achilles, so he has firsthand knowledge of the kind of challenges Rodgers is set to face.
Could that be the last we see of Rodgers on the field? In the opinion of Jets’ head coach Robert Saleh, it won’t be. Saleh would be shocked if Rodgers retired and walked away from the game after the injury.
