Packers coach Joe Philbin talks Aaron Rodgers playing status
The Green Bay Packers have fallen to their second straight campaign missing the playoffs. It was confirmed after their 24 – 17 loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon.
This has brought into question Aaron Rodgers’ availability for the contest now the playoffs are out of the picture. He is now dealing with a groin injury that could put his chances to play in question. That is what the interim head coach Joe Philbin discussed on Monday night, according to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.
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“In the general sense, my philosophy is football players are paid to play football games, and football coaches are paid to coach football games, so obviously we have to go through the week and we would never put any player out there that wasn’t physically ready to go,” said Philbin, the Packers’ interim coach. “But that’s my general philosophy and overall philosophy whether it’s Aaron Rodgers or anybody else. We’re the Green Bay Packers, we’re a football team and we’re in the business of winning football games, and we want all our players who are healthy to contribute to the overall success of the team. Period.”
This is quite a difficult position. It’s complicated by the fact that both sides want to keep Rodgers under center for Sunday’s game against the Jets. However, it will come down to how he is feeling physically at this point in time.
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He had been working through the start of the year with the MCL sprain he suffered in the season opener. However, it has now turned to a groin injury that could push the Packers to side with precaution at this point in order to avoid him from suffering any additional injuries. If they were to go that route, it would see backup DeShone Kizer assume the starting job against the Jets.
Ultimately, Green Bay will likely let Aaron Rodgers go through the week of practice before making a decision on what direction to head for this week’s game.
