Aaron Rodgers taking his rehab one yard marker at a time
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, left, and quarterback Zach Wilson, right, attend practice in the rain before an NFL game against the Giants on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
When the Jets were 1-3 and the whispers about Aaron Rodgers making it back this season started to get louder, it was easy to shrug and ask, “Why?”
But with the Jets 4-3 and Rodgers continuing to show remarkable progress from Sept. 13 surgery to repair a torn Achilles, it’s easy to ask, “Why not?”
Rodgers, speaking at a New York City event on Monday night to introduce a luxury watch he helped design (in a color that should make well-heeled Jets fans happy), is firmly in the “why not?” camp when it comes to taking the field again this season.
“That's the goal,” Rodgers told Newsday. “I’ve hit my goals so far. No one's been back [from this injury] really before, like, almost five months. I got Father Time against me. But I always like those odds stacked against me and doing something that people don’t think is possible. But I'm way ahead of schedule. That's not [expletive]. That's true. But a lot has to happen before I get to that point. I’ve got to be able to move around and protect myself, and if we're in it, hopefully I'll be healthy, and there’ll be a decision to be made.”
The Jets are more in it after they topped a struggling Denver team, shocked the Eagles, then beat the Giants in an overtime slogfest on Sunday. Rodgers attended the last two games at MetLife Stadium. He played catch on the field during warm-ups, then watched from the sideline with a headset on.
“It was ugly [Sunday], but a win is a win is a win,” Rodgers said. “And those are the kinds of games that show up late in the season that you're thankful you got the job done.”
Whether or not his presence on the sideline is helpful is debatable. But it can’t hurt, right? And Rodgers has to be bored with the drudgery of rehab, even if he has been able to keep up his weekly ESPN interview schedule and attend the occasional watch launch party with a gaggle of his teammates and Jets vice chairman Christopher Johnson.
“I would have lost my mind if I hadn't started setting like daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals,” Rodgers said. “So I kind of like, in my mind, set on Oct. 1 we’re going to walk back on the field with crutches. Oct. 15, I'm going to walk back on the field — no crutches. I have some other goals that I'm going to try and hit as well. But this gives me something to think about when I wake up in the morning to kind of get me through the tough mental grind of frustration if it's not responding the right way. Because every day is a little bit different in rehab.”
One thing that was different on Monday was Rodgers talked to Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, who suffered an Achilles tear Sunday. Rodgers also spoke to Jets teammate Al Woods, a defensive tackle who also tore his Achilles on Sunday.
It’s a fraternity Rodgers would rather not be a part of, but he’s doing what he can to help inform players about the innovative surgery he had to speed his recovery.
“I’ve known Kirk for a long time,” Rodgers said. “A lot of respect for him. Because of my recovery, and it's out there, I've heard from a few people who’ve torn their Achilles.”
So there Rodgers was on Monday, 6 1/2 weeks after surgery, walking without a limp as he climbed the stage to introduce the new wrist candy in partnership with Swiss watchmaker Zenith.
Rodgers started talking to the company in 2020 about becoming a brand ambassador and was able to visit their factory in Switzerland after the pandemic.
“We tried to teach him to do watch-making,” Zenith (pronounced Zeh-nith) CEO Julien Tornare said. “He tried to teach me to throw the ball.”
Tornare said Rodgers was intricately involved in designing the limited edition watch, of which only 250 are available at a retail price of $12,800. Rodgers picked the watch face color — green — because at the time he played for the Green Bay Packers.
Fortunately, Rodgers was traded to Gang Green. So sometimes the timing does work out. The Jets can only hope that's true with Rodgers' rehab, too.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
