With heavy rain in the forecast prior to Thursday’s Jets-Commanders joint practice, Jets HC Robert Saleh made it an early decision to keep QB Aaron Rodgers out of action.
“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. … If it was clean outside, he would have practiced today. Call it overprotection, but it was just a decision that I made.”
Rodgers, who has been full-go throughout training camp, is returning from an Achilles tendon tear he sustained four snaps into the 2023 season. He is also 40 years old and has appeared in 231 regular-season games along with 22 in the postseason. While Rodgers wanted to practice, Saleh is playing the long game with his star signal-caller.
“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. He’ll have other opportunities coming up with Carolina and the Giants.”
