Aaron Rodgers talks about what he can and can't do after Achilles injury

Aaron Rodgers suffered an Achilles injury on September 11, four plays in his first start for the New York Jets. Then, he started a race against time to return during the 2023 season. It wasn't possible, for several reasons. The most important is that Rodgers wasn't close to fully healthy, and more than a month after the Jets' finished their season, he still can't sprint at full speed.

"It feels good, it feels good. I can do everything except sprint at a top speed," Rodgers said during an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast. "The cool thing is I really attacked the rehab the first few months and kinda wanted to go as hard as I could for two months to see where I was at, and also see where the team was at, because my goal was to come back. Nobody has come back really quick from that injury. Most of them time, when it happens, especially during the season, there's no need to push a rehab. (But) because it happened in the first week of the season, I said 'let's push it as hard as I can and see if I can come back in December'".

Rodgers wouldn't have had the ability to run around much. Even playing under the center would be a tough proposition. So when the Jets' season went south, and the team had no realistic shot at making the playoffs, the decision became easier.

"I felt really good, I made back to the practice field in 11 weeks," Rodgers mentioned. "I was hoping I could come back. Now, I couldn't sprint, still can't at top speed, but I felt like there's been times my career was played in a small circle, I could have been able to be effective. That didn't happen. (...) I had a lot of things working against me, my age being the biggest one. But I learned a lot about health."

Rodgers said that he played in 2014 and 2018 with lower-leg injuries for the Green Bay Packers, so his initial expectation was that he would have been able to play in shotgun and pistol.

"I was able to do all the quarterback stuff. Move in the pocket, throw, step into my foot," the quarterback pointed out. "I don't have the explosion, I don't have the ability to get up on my toe. The biggest hurdle was calf/leg single strength."

Why?

Aaron Rodgers is 40 years old, so it's particularly tough to return from serious injuries. But the age was also a reason for the quarterback to push so hard trying to come back as soon as possible. Rodgers knows he doesn't have much time left in the NFL.

"There's the competitor part, where I see that window closing," he stressed. "There's not many guys who have played as long as I have. There's a few, obviously Tom (Brady) did it for a long time. But there's kind of an age where Father Time is winning, so I didn't wanna miss an entire season."

Now, Aaron Rodgers has more time to recover. The Jets don't play a regular season game for next seven months, so the veteran quarterback is expected to be fully healthy by training camp.

In addition to Rodgers' individual recovery, the Jets will have more opportunities to improve the roster. As the quarterback didn't play at least 65% of the offensive snaps, the Jets will send a second-, not a first-round pick to the Packers. New York will have the 10th overall pick in the draft.