Aaron Rodgers's Potentially Historic Comeback Makes Week 10 MMQB Takeaways List

Albert Breer reacts as Jets' QB tells NBC reporter he wants to return next month

New York Jets' quarterback Aaron Rodgers makes news even when he's not playing.

The injured 39-year-old field general, who is working toward an historically quick recovery from Achilles surgery, was in attendance for the Jets' road game in Las Vegas on Sunday Night Football. Rodgers's presence alone is an instant news story and the fact that he looks more mobile with each passing week has everyone wondering about his targeted return date.

During Sunday night's game broadcast on NBC, sideline reporter Melissa Stark shared parts of a conversation that she had with Rodgers. Stark said that Rodgers is aiming to come back by mid-December. 

"He said, 'I know it sounds insane, but you do a good surgery, you have a good patient, it makes this possible,'" said Stark during her on-air report. 

With the surgery performed on September 13, Rodgers would make an unprecedented return from an injury that usually requires approximately 12 months of recovery time. From the beginning, Rodgers has vowed to "shock some people" in regards to healing process. He is said to have underwent an innovative "speed bridge" procedure.

Sports Illustrated senior reporter Albert Breer featured the Rodgers revelation as one of his 10 takeaways from Week 10 in the National Football League.

From NFL Week 10 Takeaways:

I love the idea that we could see Aaron Rodgers in a little over a month, which the Jets quarterback intimated is something that’s now in play. There have been rumblings he could be back for a few weeks of the regular season for a little while now, and it’s great to hear that confirmed, simply because that means he’s doing really well. 

The bigger question is whether or not he’ll have something to come back to.

On Sunday night, the Jets offense, once again, failed its defense. The Jets have held opponents to 18 points per game over the last seven weeks, and are 3–4 over that stretch because of an offense that’s beat to a pulp up front, and isn’t getting enough out of Zach Wilson. And because that’s left the margin for error so thin, a game like the one Sunday night in Vegas, against a Raiders team with an interim coach, is one you have to have.

Instead, Wilson was picked off by Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane with 1:22 left and, then, the offense couldn’t do much when the defense got New York the ball back with 53 seconds left. And now, this is what Robert Saleh’s crew is faced with: The Dolphins twice, a trip to Buffalo, and home games against the Falcons and the suddenly-hot Texans over the next five weeks. That stretch brings the Jets right to Christmas week.

Can they do enough, now at 4–5, to stay in the race and make it worth Rodgers’s while to come back? After Sunday, the road there is uphill, for sure. 

— Albert Breer

"I don’t know. If the doctors clear him, then we will clear him," said Jets' head coach Robert Saleh after the November 12 game.

The Jets move onto back-to-back AFC East games against the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins with their season hanging in the balance. 

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