Rodgers Expected To Start For Packers On Sunday

Added on Oct 14, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

The injury plagued Green Bay Packers got some much needed good news on Thursday as starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers returned to practice after he was cleared by medical personnel following the concussion he suffered against the Washington Redskins last week. He practiced on what was described as ‘a limited basis’ but took most of the snaps with the first team offense and is expected to get the start against the Miami Dolphins on Saturday. He’s been upgraded to ‘probable’ on the most recent NFL injury report.

Of course neither the team or Rodgers can just come out and *say* that he’s getting the nod, but the quarterback was optimistic as he talked about his health:

“I’ve gone through the process that the NFL requires. I’ve been cleared by our doctors, by an outside source. And I think it’s just a matter of how I feel tomorrow. And I’m very optimistic.”

He called the concussion ‘a learning experience’:

“Having never had a concussion before, it was definitely a learning process to understand how my body feels. Because obviously I’ve been dinged in the head a number of times, everything from in high school seeing the stars and stuff to the different shots you take along the way. I think it was just a great learning process to understand how my body reacts to different situations.”

In a surprisingly civil answer to a downright stupid question, Rodgers says he doesn’t regret reporting the injury:

“With any other injury, there’s definitely that temptation to be your own evaluator and to be very optimistic. But when it comes to your head I think you can’t be too careful. That’s something I definitely thought about on Sunday, and something from here on that’s going to be on my mind.

“Head injuries are different than the standard extremity injury, because you’re talking about the rest of your life and being able to function and have normal brain activity is more important than risking having a setback because you come back too early.”

“When I started to really look into more information about this, that’s when the severity of this injury hit me. And I realized, ‘You know what, I’d love to be out there on Sunday for my guys, but I have to get cleared. And this has to be a process where I’m completely honest with our medical staff and they’re honest with their assessment of how they feel I’m reacting and improving or not improving.”

And, of course, Coach McCarthy had to go all cloak and dagger like any good NFL coach:

“The protocol as far as all the testing and so forth from the medical staff and the off-campus doctor has been completed. But it’s like anything. There may be potentially a setback or something. That’s why we limited him today at practice.”

Assuming Rodgers doesn’t step on a rake inadvertently left on the practice field or some other freak occurrence, he’ll be under center when the Packers play the Dolphins on Sunday.