Rodgers Participates in Final Practice Before Facing Bears

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the first time since Nov. 19 – the Friday before the Week 11 game at Minnesota – Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers participated in practice on Friday.

“Limited and took as many reps as he could,” coach Matt LaFleur said after Friday’s practice, the final one before hosting the Chicago Bears on Sunday night. “I thought he did a really nice job. It was good to have him back out there.”

Rodgers started practice by hugging general manager Brian Gutekunst, then jogged over to the receiver lines. After spinning the ball on his finger basketball-style, he started throwing bullets across the practice field.

“It’s good to have him out there, it’s good to have his cadence,” center Lucas Patrick said. “As a young player who would fill in during weeks and then watch an older guy go and start, there’s a lot of value in (Kurt) Benkert and (Jordan) Love getting all those reps. That’s the toughest thing at this level is getting all those reps. You can’t get a rep versus every rep you’re going to get in a game but, yeah, it is valuable to have him out there. He’s pretty good at his job.”

Of course, last week’s bye is part of that three-week absence from the practice field. It’s also that bye that helped the toe feel healthy enough to practice after sitting out all three workouts before the Week 12 game against the Los Angeles Rams.

“I can’t tell you 100 percent. I’ve got to see how it reacts on Sunday when I get back out there and play,” Rodgers said on Wednesday. “But this was really, really positive – the time to heal and not doing anything for now going on 10 days. That’s been really, really helpful. So, we’re hoping that we can get on the other side of this. Again, we don’t know until Sunday after the game and Monday how it’s going to react to all the healing that’s taken place and then the pounding that will happen on Sunday.”

Rodgers, who chose not to have surgery during the bye week, has been exceptional on minimal practice time. After a sluggish first half at Minnesota, he was 10-of-11 passing for 197 yards and three touchdowns during a second-half comeback. He then accounted for three touchdowns in an upset victory over the Rams before the bye.

“I would say it’s just all the little intricacies, the nuances that go on within the huddle,” LaFleur said of the benefit of Rodgers practicing. “He’s great at giving guys reminders about certain coaching points, and then also just the timing element, whether it’s timing up motions or within the passing game. Obviously, that comes to mind. Just that command that he has, the ownership he has to the offense, helping out everybody else, the other 10 guys in the huddle.”

Rodgers is No. 3 in the NFL with a 105.3 passer rating. He is 6-1 against Bears coach Matt Nagy including five consecutive wins.

“This is about our team, and this is about us beating them, plain and simple,” Nagy told reporters in Chicago this week. “It has nothing to do with me versus Aaron Rodgers. There are a lot of other coaches that want to beat him and do their best.”

Only left tackle David Bakhtiari (knee) and receiver Randall Cobb (core muscle) didn’t practice on Friday and are out for Sunday. Bakhtiari has not practiced for one day shy of a month. Inside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell returned after testing positive for COVID last week and is questionable.

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