Rodgers ‘Gathering’ Opinions on Broken Toe
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is hoping rest and the upcoming bye week will be the cure to the pain of his fractured pinky toe.
“I know he’s gathering other opinions. So, we’ll see where that goes,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday, a day after Rodgers helped the Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams 36-28 on Sunday.
After the game on Sunday, Rodgers said he was going to do some more tests on Monday morning to “get a better view of what’s going on in there” and make a decision from there. According to NFL Network, the decision “at this time” was rest.
Rodgers was 28-of-45 passing for 307 yards and two touchdowns. Plus, he scored the opening touchdown on a 1-yard keeper. He was in complete control. In a performance reminiscent of last year’s MVP season, he mostly took what the Rams gave him. On passes less than 10 yards downfield, Rodgers was 24-of-26 for 172 yards and two touchdowns.
Rodgers suffered a broken pinky toe during his COVID quarantine. Because of the COVID timeline, he did not practice before returning to face Seattle in Week 10. Before the Week 11 loss at Minnesota, Rodgers didn’t practice on Wednesday and Thursday but did on Friday. Before the Week 12 game vs. the Rams, Rodgers didn’t practice at all.
Putting less stress on the toe was helpful, he said.
“The difference is I didn’t have to get shot up again at halftime, so definitely the healing this week, not practicing [was helpful],” Rodgers said. “Last week, I tried to do some stuff on Friday, felt like we needed maybe a little jolt and that kind of impacted Sunday a little bit from a pain standpoint. This week, I just did a walk-through on Saturday and, obviously, all the walk-throughs during the week, but no practice time I think really helped. It definitely helped looking at the scans. The healing, kind of get to a better spot. I’ve definitely felt better, but late third, early fourth (quarter) – and I got stepped on early in the game – there was definitely some pain I was dealing with.”
Last week, Rodgers said there were surgical options that could help the injury while not costing him playing time. Instead, he’s hoping time and a late-season bye will be just the ticket to get him back to full speed for the team’s run to the playoffs.
Whether that’s what actually happens, though, is the great unknown.
“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know the time frame for that to heal,” LaFleur said. “I know he’s battling through. I think you can see it at the end of the game, as the game wears on, he starts to have a more noticeable limp. But he’s as tough as they come, man. He’s played through so many things throughout the course of his career, and I think it’s definitely, like he’s a guy that wants to be out there at practice, too. He wants to be out there practicing with his teammates, not only for himself but for those other guys and making sure that everybody is on top of their game.”
Meanwhile, LaFleur didn’t know the severity of the groin injury that sidelined Randall Cobb for the second half. He caught four passes for 95 yards with one touchdown in only snaps.
“We’re still kind of gathering opinions,” LaFleur said. “He got hurt on that touchdown catch, and it was big-time credit to him to be able to hang on. And afterwards, I was kind of giving the guys some grief for, he’s in the end zone and they’re like pushing him around and he’s kind of hobbling and you can subtly see it on the tape.”
