Aaron Rodgers on Ravens' Lamar Jackson's Week 18 Availability: 'I Think Sit Him'
To sit or not to sit?
That's the question hovering around M&T Bank Stadium as the Baltimore Ravens prepare for their season finale game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday afternoon.
The biggest question surrounding head coach John Harbaugh's group luckily isn't surrounding seeding, or playoff scenarios - the team clinched both early in the process.
No, the big question is whether the team will decide to sit starters like quarterback and MVP front-runner Lamar Jackson in the final game of the year, and a meaningless one against a division rival.
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
That debate is one that plenty of NFL circles have had over the last few days, and a few other legendary quarterbacks have given their two cents.
"I think sit him," Aaron Rodgers said on the Pat McAfee show Tuesday. "You've gotten this far with these studs. Take care of them and sit 'em down. You're not playing for anything. There's not a lot that can come from playing them."
Rodgers is 3-2 in the divisional round after having a first-round bye in his career - all of those games coming with the Green Bay Packers. The current New York Jets quarterback also made it a point to note that the mere conversation of the debate between resting starters or not was another media-driven circus.
"It's one of those ridiculous media taking points whether it's a win-win," Rodgers explained. "If you play him and the guy gets hurt, 'you're an idiot and you should never have played those guys.' The other win is if they start a little slow and rusty in the divisional round, then they say 'Oh you should have played them.' It's ridiculous."
The future Hall-of-Fame quarterback clarified that while he doesn't believe in the "rust" factor that can come from teams having not played a game in two weeks, should Baltimore decide to play their starters, they should only see "the first half."
Baltimore has been in this situation only once before in their team's history. In 2019, the Ravens were a dominant 14-2, and backup quarterback Robert Griffin III started against the Steelers.
The Ravens ended up being upset in the divisional round of the playoffs that year by the Tennessee Titans, 28-12.
For this season, Jackson has put up as impressive a year as he did when he won the MVP award in 2019. The scrambling quarterback has totaled close to 4,500 yards of total offense and 29 touchdowns.
Leading a Ravens squad without a 1,000 receiver or rusher is probably the most impressive part though.
The debate of "rest vs. rust" has been hotly contested over the years with results on either side pointing to a very obvious truth. As good as some teams have been, not all have played well enough when it matters most.
For the Ravens to change their fortunes from 2019's struggles, they won't be proving anything in the final week of the regular season.
That's why, according to Rodgers, they shouldn't look to sit some of their more important players.
