GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Aaron Rodgers says he doesn’t need any preseason action to be ready for when the games start to count. And while the Green Bay Packers' two-time NFL MVP quarterback will get at least some work over the next several weeks, it doesn’t appear he’ll play in Friday night’s exhibition game against Cleveland.
Rodgers took his normal complement of snaps during Tuesday night’s practice, but Wednesday, he spent most of his day running the scout-team offense, a relatively clear sign that he probably won’t be playing against the Browns.
“Made some plays,” a smirking associate head coach/offense Tom Clements said of Rodgers, who used to run the scout team while backing up Brett Favre. “I think he enjoys that.”
He probably enjoys it more than he does preseason games. Rodgers was not slated to play Sunday in the canceled Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, and in recent years has been limited in his preseason game snaps after getting plenty of work in the summer of 2008, his first season as the starter.
That year, Rodgers played 16 series and 93 snaps in four preseason games, although he only played one snap in the preseason finale against Tennessee, throwing a 68-yard touchdown to Greg Jennings on the opening play.
The next four years, Rodgers’ snaps were roughly the same each summer: 77 snaps in 13 series in 2009, 78 snaps in 13 series in 2010, 75 snaps in 12 series in 2011 and 79 snaps in 14 series in 2012.
The Packers started curtailing Rodgers’ snaps in 2013, when he played just five preseason series and 45 total snaps, sitting out the preseason finale -- a practice the Packers have continued the past two years and will almost certainly do again this year.
In 2014, Rodgers played in only the middle two preseason games, with a workload of eight series and 69 snaps. Last year, he played in the first two preseason games and sat out the last two, playing just 47 snaps in five series.
Rodgers, 32, is entering his 12th NFL season and ninth as the Packers’ starter. Asked this week when he’ll know that he’s ready for the Sept. 11 opener at Jacksonville, Rodgers replied, “I feel like I’m ready right now.”
He did add, though, that he will see some game action at some point this preseason. That might be a little more important this year with wide receiver Jordy Nelson coming off the season-ending knee injury he suffered in preseason a year ago, and wide receiver Ty Montgomery and new tight end Jared Cook coming off the physically unable to perform list Tuesday after missing the first two weeks of practice.
Nelson has yet to be activated from the PUP list, but Rodgers joked, "I can throw to him to spots probably with my eyes closed sometimes." Time with Montgomery, who missed all but five games last season with an ankle injury, and Cook, who signed as a free agent from St. Louis this offseason, will be more important.
“It’s nice to get a few [game] reps out there over the course of the four weeks, [especially because] we’ve got some guys coming back from injury at some point with Jordy and Jared and Ty,” Rodgers explained. “It’ll be good to get some reps from those guys in a game situation.”
How many, though, remains to be seen.
“Once you get to that age, you’ve got two MVPs under your belt, you look like you’ve looked in practice thus far ... I think he’s been unbelievable so far in this camp with his accuracy, his decision-making. I mean, he’s ready to roll,” quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said.
“For a guy that’s done it as long as he has, like I said, if he didn’t play a snap and started [the opener], or if he plays all the games and starts, I’m not worried about it. I think he’s going to be ready to go – however it plays out – on opening day.”
Van Pelt agreed with Rodgers’ argument that practices are actually more valuable than preseason games, because he sees more exotic defenses from his own guys than he will against the vanilla defenses the Packers’ preseason opponents will run. But, Van Pelt said, there are other benefits to playing Rodgers at least a few series in preseason.
“It’s the timing, the rhythm of running the offense again in a game situation,” Van Pelt said. “Those dress rehearsals I think can help, not just for him, but for the other guys as well. Hearing him, how he’s going to command the huddle, how he’s going to change a play if he decides to, those things would be important.”