Mike Tomlin remains optimistic that Aaron Rodgers will return to the starting lineup after missing last week’s game with an injury to his left wrist.
“Aaron worked his tail off to get to us last week, but as I mentioned, over the course of the weekend it was the prudent and appropriate decision,” Tomlin said via the Steelers’ YouTube. “We’ll start this week with great optimism, although we certainly will limit him at the early portions of the week [and] provide opportunities for the other quarterbacks while preserving him. But again, we’re comfortable with the general trajectory.”
As always, Tomlin mentioned that practice participation and the quality of that participation will be the best guide for their decision. It’s worth noting that he had limited practices on both Thursday and Friday last week, and some beat writers classified his Friday session as very close to full participation. We should be looking for the team to list him as a full participant later in the week as a sign that he is likely to play.
Rodgers was pushing to play last week, but team doctors were reportedly worried about the risk of making the fracture worse and potentially costing him most or all of the rest of the season. Fractures don’t completely heal in just one or two weeks, so some of those same risks would likely be present this week, albeit with less swelling and pain to deal with for Rodgers.
It’s possible that we enter the weekend with another questionable designation and another Sunday morning announcement before the game. While the decision wasn’t made public until a couple hours before kickoff, Tomlin said after the game that he made up his mind about Rodgers on Saturday.
Mason Rudolph didn’t have his best game, with a noticeably worse performance than coming off the bench in the second half against the Cincinnati Bengals the week prior. With the Steelers at 6-5 and now outside of the AFC playoff picture against another Wild Card contender, Pittsburgh needs to pull out all the stops this week. I would expect Rodgers to ultimately play.
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