GREEN BAY, Wis. – Whatever happened to Aaron Rodgers’ toe during his COVID-19 quarantine – and he won’t say exactly what – kept him out of practice Wednesday and kept Green Bay Packers Coach Matt LaFleur from working on time he believes was lacking in offense when Rodgers returned last week.
Rodgers was asked repeatedly about his toe during his weekly appearance on “Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, and then sat down to practice Wednesday. While this is technically considered a running workout, Packers said he wouldn’t participate even if it were a regular workout.
The only thing Rodgers will say on Wednesday is his toe injury, and nothing else, has kept him out of training.
“I’m not sure how I’ll be tomorrow or Friday, but I want to get out of there if I feel good enough,” Rodgers said. “But it was definitely a better week than the week before being separated [during the quarantine], can go through all meetings. I plan to practice on the field tomorrow, but not sure how much I will participate. “
While he insists that won’t keep him out of Sunday’s game against the Vikings, Rodgers could go another week without any significant training time.
Packers Davante Adams and Allen Lazard also appear on injury reports for shoulder problems. Adams is listed as restricted and Lazard is not participating.
Those developments come after LaFleur said some of the Packers’ struggles over offense in their 17-0 win over Seattle Seahawks Football Team due to lack of practice time.
“We have to get back to the training ground,” LaFleur said earlier this week. “We need those people to keep working on the timing part, making sure that the details of our route depth and mission are all on point because I think right now if you just look at the behavior overall, there’s still an opportunity there for us I know we can perform at a higher level I know we can train at a higher level We just a bit lacking in some details and I think that really hurt us throughout really, especially [on Sunday] but even during the season. “
Rodgers hasn’t been to a full-length workout in nearly a month. His last regular training session came on October 22 – two days before the game against Washington. The Packers didn’t have any workouts – only half-speed sessions on a short spin – leading up to Thursday night’s game in Arizona on October 28. After the weekend, they only held one session. The following short jog Monday, November 1. After a day off Tuesday, Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and didn’t return to the team until the day before the game against the Seahawks.
The Packers picked up just three points in the first half against Seattle, and Rodgers finished the game without a touchdown pass and delivered an interception like no other in the late-game zone.
“It’s the smaller details,” says Rodgers. “If you watch the movie again, we made a lot of mental mistakes and little things that we didn’t do very well, and those things need to be cleaned up for sure. As for the timing, I don’t know. whether there’s a lot of timing issues we’ve had, it’s a lot of details and diagrams that we didn’t do well on Sunday.”
It’s been a long time for the Packers, who have two games left before saying goodbye to Week 13 – the last one could be the weekend. However, Rodgers said his only problem is his toe and he feels fine coming back from COVID.
“Obviously the body is looking forward to it, and so are my toes,” says Rodgers. “But we’ve had two games until then. That’s how I feel every day, whether I’m training or not, but I don’t find any problems with the recovery, day two. Normal two and Tuesday, like I did during the season. So I feel very good. I definitely took a few pictures on Sunday, but today I feel good on Wednesday.”
