Rodgers: It won’t be ‘farewell tour’
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers wants to make one thing clear about this season.
“I don’t want a farewell tour,” Rodgers said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen after the season, but I’m going to enjoy it with the right perspective, for sure, and not look at it as I’m getting through this. I’m going to enjoy the hell out of all of it.”
There’s also the sense that Rodgers is trying to savor this year as much as possible because the reigning MVP doesn’t know what the future holds.
Rodgers skipped the Packers’ organized team activities and mandatory minicamp as part of a standoff with team officials before reporting to training camp for his 17th season with the Packers. The three-time MVP has indicated he doesn’t know whether this will be his final year in Green Bay.
Rather than the beginning of a farewell tour, Wednesday’s joint practice with the New York Jets seemed more like a reunion. Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur is the younger brother of Packers head coach Matt LaFleur. Jets head coach Robert Saleh and Matt LaFleur worked together as graduate assistants at Central Michigan in 2004 and as Texans assistant coaches in 2008-09.
Rodgers spent some time talking to Jets rookie Zach Wilson as well as New York’s other quarterbacks such as James Morgan, who grew up right near Green Bay in Ashwaubenon, Wis.
“James is a big fanboy, he was getting a little nervous,” Wilson said jokingly. “I’m a big fanboy, too. We’ve all got to kind of pretend like we’ve been there before, but we enjoy just being out here and being able to talk to him.”
Missing receivers don’t worry Tua
When the Miami Dolphins practiced with and against the Atlanta Falcons on Wednesday, Tua Tagovailoa once again was without the three wide receivers listed as starters on the team’s depth chart.
The second-year quarterback said it’s not a big deal that veterans DeVante Parker, Will Fuller and Albert Wilson continue to miss practice.
“It gives a lot of opportunity to the other guys, for me to get work with them, and for them also to experience a lot of the different looks, the coverages,” Tagovailoa said after practice. “Whereas a lot of the veterans that are injured, they’ve seen a lot of that.”
Fuller has been out since the first practice of camp, while Parker and Wilson have been out of action for more than a week.
None of the three played in the Dolphins’ preseason opener at Chicago last week, and it’s unlikely they’ll play against the Falcons on Saturday.
Bears’ Fields held out of practice
The Chicago Bears are now without both of their top two draft picks.
Coach Matt Nagy said quarterback Justin Fields was out of practice due to a groin injury, while offensive lineman Teven Jenkins was facing back surgery.
The injury to Fields is considered minor, but Jenkins has been out all of training camp after suffering back injury symptoms in the four days rookies were allowed to practice just before the start of regular training camp.
Nagy didn’t consider Fields’ injury serious and holding him out of practice was precautionary. He wasn’t certain about Fields’ status for Saturday’s preseason game against Buffalo at Soldier Field.
Jets guard Lewis plans to retire
New York Jets guard Alex Lewis is retiring, according to a person with direct knowledge of the decision.
The 29-year-old Lewis last practiced Aug. 5, when he came off the field with what coach Robert Saleh said was a head injury. The offensive lineman was placed on the exempt/left squad list the following day.