The New York Jets were planning to keep Aaron Rodgers on the bench for the entire preseason, but it seems that those plans could soon be changing.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh admitted this week that there's a chance Rodgers could end up playing in the team's final preseason game, which will come Aug. 24 against the Giants. Saleh said he'll sit down with several members of the organization, including Rodgers, before making a decision about whether the QB will play.
"He's going to be included in the conversations along with the coordinators and [general manager Joe Douglas] and we're going to make the best decision for the team," Saleh said Thursday, via the team's official website.
Saleh had said in late July that his "instinct" was telling him that Rodgers probably shouldn't play, but that he would possibly leave the door open for the final preseason game. Based on his most recent comments, it seems the door is now wide open.
Although Rodgers may play in the preseason, he didn't participate Thursday during the Jets' joint practice with the Commanders. When Saleh saw it was going to be raining for most of the practice, he decided to give Rodgers the day off.
"Woke up this morning and saw the weather," Saleh said. "He's taking every rep in practice, so I just felt it was unnecessary. Heightened environment, unfamiliar foes in terms of taking care of one another. I just didn't want to expose him to do it."
Rodgers may be able to talk his way into playing against the Giants in the preseason, but there was no way he was going to talk Saleh into letting him practice against the Commanders on Thursday.
"He pushed back," Saleh said. "He wanted to go, but in the grand scheme of things trying to keep forward thinking with regards to Week 1 and we got a long way for that."
The Jets are clearly being as protective as possible of Rodgers, which makes sense considering he's 40 years old and coming off a serious injury. If Rodgers doesn't play on Aug. 24 against the Giants, that means he won't throw his first live-action pass of the season until the Jets' regular-season opener, which is in San Francisco on Monday, Sept. 9.
