Jets' Robert Saleh explains Aaron Rodgers decision for preseason finale

Per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers said earlier this week that he has "no preference" regarding whether he plays in the club's preseason finale against the New York Giants on Saturday. He sat out the team's first two exhibition contests. 

Jets head coach Robert Saleh confirmed while speaking with reporters on Thursday that he will keep Rodgers and other starters sidelined this weekend.

"Different reasons last year, as compared to this year," Saleh said about going in a different direction after he played Rodgers and others against the Giants last August, as shared by Andy Vasquez of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "I’m not going to get into those. But I feel like we’ve gotten so much work done, so much good work [in joint practices] with three quality opponents over the course of three weeks. Last year, we didn’t scrimmage with the Giants. This year, we’ve had three different scrimmages and I feel like the work we got in was productive."

Peter Botte of the New York Post and others noted how Rodgers and the Jets offense "picked apart the Giants first-string defense in a one-sided joint practice Wednesday in Florham Park." Nevertheless, many assumed Rodgers would make at least a cameo appearance in Saturday's matchup at MetLife Stadium considering he hasn't seen any in-game action since he suffered a torn Achilles four offensive snaps into Gang Green's regular-season opener last September. 

During an appearance on New York sports radio station WFAN last week, Rodgers spoke about possibly using the preseason to shake off some of the understandable rust he's accumulated over the past 11 months. 

"I don’t think I need to [play preseason]," Rodgers said at that time, according to Sarah Effress of Sporting News. "As long as I’m making the right reactions in practice… that’s important. There’s maybe a little change in speed and mindset because you can get hit, but preseason is not real football. It’s different." 

Saleh clearly thinks Rodgers showed throughout the summer he'll be ready to go for the Week 1 game at the San Francisco 49ers on Sept. 9. 

"You saw in (organized team activities) with all the 7-on-7 stuff, he was throwing the ball but he was doing it from the pocket," Saleh added about Rodgers, per Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. "He has plenty of mobility." 

It now seems that Saleh eliminating a "country-club style" training camp and running "much harder" practices this summer was all part of a plan that involved keeping Rodgers and other key contributors out of preseason games through this Saturday. The coach now will hope his players will reward him by leaving Levi's Stadium with a win on the second Monday of September.