Aaron Rogers says 'few weeks' postgame comment was 'tongue in cheek'
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers tosses the ball before a game against the Chargers at MetLife Stadium on Monday. Credit: Ed Murray
A few weeks? Try maybe “a few fortnights” – and that’s if everything goes right.
A day after Aaron Rodgers was seen during the postgame telling Chargers safety Derwin James that he hoped to be back from his torn Achilles in 'a few weeks', the quarterback clarified that his comments were in jest. The timeline is longer than that, Rodgers said during his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” Tuesday, though potentially not too much longer.
“I didn’t realize that was going to get caught there,” said Rodgers, who’s eight weeks removed from what is generally a season-ending surgery. “Obviously, that was said with a little tongue in cheek. It would be nice to be able to get back in a couple weeks. That’s probably not anywhere near a realistic timeline but 'a couple' could be a few, could be a lot. It’s more of a phrase that didn’t have a specific timetable. I said it smiling, jokingly…It's going to be a few fortnights.”
Rodgers inspired some hope Monday, executing a couple three-step drops on the MetLife Stadium turf before the Jets’ dispiriting 27-6 loss to the Chargers, and even gunning a ball 58 yards.
"I’ll always keep my conversation with Aaron between me and him," coach Robert Saleh said of the fortnight timetable. "The one thing I will say is he is working relentlessly to try and get back here. He’s awesome, man. He doesn’t have to, but he wants to and I think it’s a testament to his relationship with the locker room and how much those guys appreciate him and how much he appreciates his teammates. I’m not going to say anything that he’s told me. But I do know he’s working really hard to get back here."
Rodgers, meanwhile, said not to take all that much stock in the MetLife display, which he called a stress reliever.
“We’re not back,” he said, tempering McAfee’s enthusiasm. “It’s going to be a process of small gains every single day and then, hopefully, there’s a chance to have that conversation [about a return]. Obviously, we’ve got to be in the mix…I’ve got to be able to be healthy, to be able to move, to be able to protect myself, to be able to have strength in all the throwing positions. I can do a little simulated gun drop, left-right, left-right. I even did a little crossover last night. I feel a little strength in the Achilles, but I’m a long way off from being able to be under center.”
“Being in the mix,” though, has become an increasingly uncertain pursuit, as the Jets fell to 4-4 but, more than that, looked thoroughly overmatched on offense. Rodgers noted that their defense - ranked first in the league according to Pro Football Focus - held the Chargers to 191 yards, but they still lost by three scores, and that’s “a pretty wild thing to happen.”
He added that the offense simply needed to execute.
“It sucks not to be out there, for sure,” he said. “And it sucks when we have a poor performance on offense like that. I know what we’re capable of. I know how we’ve been practicing. I know the kind of talent we have and it’s not coming together consistently and that’s why we’re struggling… It just comes down to situational football. We’ve been bad on third down and bad in the red zone. So, if you’re bad on third down, you’re not going to get drives going. You’re bad in the red zone, you’re only getting field goals, you’re not going to put up points.”
The Jets only mustered two field goals Monday.
Still, while Rodgers is eager to return, it won’t be at the expense of his overall health; the eight-to-12-week mark, he said, was “a danger zone,” and he, doctors and training staff are cognizant of the need to push the Achilles just enough without overstressing it.
“I’m not healthy,” he said. “I’m just not ready…So yeah, it’s frustrating but I’m not healthy so it’s hard to even take my mind [to what it would be like to be out there] at this point.’’
With Al Iannazzone
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
