Aaron Rodgers is "feeling good" as training camp winds down, ready to lead the Jets under center following a devastating Achilles injury that ended his 2023 NFL season after four snaps last year.
But with New York's regular-season opener now just 19 days away, Rodgers still hasn't been hit since that ruinous evening against Buffalo , where edge rusher Leonard Floyd completed a tackle that incidentally snagged the quarterback's left leg on Metflife Stadium's infamous turf.
“I haven’t taken a hit. That’s kind of the main thing, thankfully. I respect and appreciate my defense for that," Rodgers told reporters on Tuesday "...We’ll see if we can get through tomorrow without getting drilled.”
Given Rodgers' age, the fact he is still yet to take a hit is a somewhat worrying admission. The Jets need him to get through the next season healthy, and how his body will hold up to contact is probably the main cause for concern, albeit one that is unavoidable.
Rodgers arrived in East Rutherford after a blockbuster trade with Green Bay , a move that ultimately handed New York the NFL's seventh-best odds at winning the Super Bowl . To kick off the Jets' most anticipated season in more than a decade, Rodgers led the team onto its home field holding an American flag, a seminal moment undone by his injury minutes later that consigned New York to a lowly 7-10 finish.
Rodgers did not appear during the remainder of the 2023 NFL season and continued his recovery through this summer's training camp. Rodgers described this year's training camp as "much harder" than last summer, with the starters taking an extra 300 repetitions and the veteran quarterback placing an extra emphasis on rollouts and extending plays.
It speaks volumes that Rodgers, who has been part of some great teams in Green Bay and been around a long time, contends that this has been one of the "hardest" training camps he can remember in recent memory. After seeing last year fall apart, the Jets are going all-in to make Rodgers' second year a success.
“I would say the camp is much harder this year and maybe the hardest in the last seven or eight of my career,” Rodgers declared. “I knew that. I had a little insight coming into camp that that’s what Robert wanted to do. So I think it’s been good for us.”
Still, Rodgers contends that the hardest part of this training period has been the lack of game action, held out of both Jets preseason games thus far by head coach Robert Saleh. But Rodgers noted that Saturday's rivalry game against the Giants likely won't reacclimate him to the NFL's booming hits.
“It doesn’t matter if you’ve played in the preseason or you’re in your 10th year or 20th year, it always helps once you kind of get that first shot out of the way,” Rodgers said. “It doesn’t have to be in the preseason. ... It’s going to be the first time you get kind of rocked and then it feels like, ‘OK, I’m good.’
“You’re not really going to get rocked in the preseason because even if we play a series or two, it’s not like there’s going to be plays where I’m holding onto the football for a long time or anything. So, it’s probably more risk of getting rocked in a practice.”
The Jets and the Giants will square off at Metlife Stadium on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET before Rodgers leads his squad into Monday Night Football on Week 1 against San Francisco .
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