UPDATE: Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Friday that Aaron Rodgers has not been cleared by team doctors and will not play against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.
Aaron Rodgers injury: Packers QB ruled out for Sunday
Aaron Rodgers will not play against the Steelers, giving Matt Flynn a chance to score his third straight win as the Packers’ starter.
“He is not medically cleared, that is the case today,” McCarthy said during a Friday afternoon press conference. “As an organization, we don’t feel like this is the right time for him to play.”
The coach declined to comment on Rodgers’s status for Week 17.
A report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter Friday morning stated the Packers were expected to sit Rodgers on Sunday. Rodgers is making his way back from a broken collarbone he suffered nearly seven weeks ago. A source told Schefter that the quarterback would sit unless “something significantly changes with [the] doctor,” despite McCarthy’s insistence that Rodgers has been looking “sharp” in practice.
McCarthy said Matt Flynn would be the Packers' starter. Flynn played exceptionally well in the second half of last week's comeback win over the Dallas Cowboys, and has now led the team to two straight close wins. Still, the Packers would probably appreciate the return of their MVP-winning quarterback.
Despite a 7-6-1 overall record, the Packers control their own destiny to the playoffs. Win out, and they could earn the NFC’s No. 3 seed as the division champions of the NFC North. The fact that coaches are being so cautious with Rodgers with so much at stake suggests that he may truly have a ways to go in his recovery, however.
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