A broken wrist might not cost Aaron Rodgers much time.
The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback is dealing with a “tiny fracture” in his left, non-throwing wrist but is “pushing to play” Sunday against the Chicago Bears, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
“If he’s able to grip, if he’s able to receive the ball on the snap, it is actually possible that Rodgers could play this week,” Rapoport said Monday. “I had someone tell me that he was essentially 50/50 to play.”
The Steelers haven’t specified Rodgers’ diagnosis, and head coach Mike Tomlin is not scheduled to speak to the media again until Tuesday.
Following Sunday’s 34-12 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, Tomlin said Rodgers was set to be evaluated on Monday.
“He was excited about the win,” Tomlin said of Rodgers during his postgame press conference. “I just talked to him, but that’s all we talked about. We didn’t talk about his injury. We talked about the significance of the win.”
Rodgers’ left hand planted awkwardly as he took a hit late in the second quarter. Mason Rudolph replaced Rodgers in the second half and completed 12-of-16 pass attempts for 127 yards and a touchdown.
With the win, the Steelers improved to 6-4 and hold a one-game lead in the AFC North.
Rodgers, 41, joined the Steelers in the offseason after he was released by the Jets, with whom he spent the previous two seasons. Rodgers missed all but four snaps in 2023 due to an Achilles tear, then went 5-12 as the Jets’ starter last year.
In 10 games this season, Rodgers has thrown for 1,969 yards and 19 touchdowns against seven interceptions.
Rodgers, who spent his first 18 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, is 24-5 against the Bears in his career.
SANDERS STRUGGLES
Shedeur Sanders didn’t sugarcoat his struggles in his NFL debut.
“I don’t think I played good at all,” the Cleveland Browns rookie said after Sunday’s 23-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. “I think there’s a lot of things we need to look at during the week and go and just get comfortable.”
After starting quarterback Dillion Gabriel left Sunday’s game with a concussion, Sanders played the entire second half and completed 4-of-16 passes for 47 yards with an interception.
The Browns led by six points when Sanders took over but did not score on any of his drives.
On Monday, head coach Kevin Stefanski was non-committal about the Browns’ quarterback plans with Gabriel in concussion protocol. The Browns also employ veteran quarterback Bailey Zappe, who is signed to the practice squad.
“We’ll work through that in the next couple days,” Stefanski said.
If Gabriel is not able to clear the protocol, Sanders could make his first NFL start Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Sanders, the son of Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders, was initially projected to be a first-round pick in last April’s draft, but he fell to the fifth round in a shocking slide.
He began the season as the Browns’ third-string quarterback but was elevated to the backup role after Cleveland traded Joe Flacco to Cincinnati.
Sunday’s game marked Sanders’ first time working with the first-team offense.
“You learn from every single play that you’re out there,” Stefanski said Monday. “There’s always lessons to be learned. There’s always going to be good, and there’s always going to be bad, and that’s just part of playing and getting reps. And then part of learning is taking all the coaching points that come with those reps.”
MCCARTHY MISSES
It was another rough Sunday for Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
He threw two interceptions and missed badly on several other passes in a 19-17 loss to the Chicago Bears.
And while McCarthy did lead a late touchdown drive that briefly gave the Vikings the lead, he finished 16-of-32 for 150 yards as Minnesota fell to 4-6.
“There are some plays where he’s making it hard on himself,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said Monday. “That’s probably the most frustrating part for him. It’s talked about and repped and practiced at length, and then in those moments, in his fifth start, just the variance to it is causing his job to be more difficult than it needs to be.”
The Vikings used the No. 10 overall pick on McCarthy in 2024, but he missed the entirety of his rookie season due to a knee injury.
Sam Darnold delivered a breakout season on a one-year contract with the Vikings last year, but Minnesota opted to move forward with McCarthy on a rookie deal rather than extend Darnold.
That decision continues to receive scrutiny, as Darnold — even with a four-interception dud on Sunday — has the Seattle Seahawks off to a 7-3 start.
McCarthy, who missed five games with an ankle injury, has thrown for six touchdowns against eight interceptions.
“He’s made of the right stuff,” O’Connell said. “He’s gonna keep working at it. We’re gonna go back to work and continue to find every avenue, every way, to try to help build the consistency to his mechanics, and then I firmly believe the accuracy will come from that.”
CHIEFS CONUNDRUM
All of a sudden, the Kansas City Chiefs’ chances of making the playoffs are effectively a coin flip.
Sunday’s 22-19 loss to the Denver Broncos dropped the Chiefs to 5-5. They trail Denver by 3.5 games in the AFC West and are in ninth place in the AFC.
NFL.com’s probability model pegs the Chiefs’ playoff odds at 51%. ESPN is a bit more bullish at 55%.
It’s an unexpected spot for Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the Chiefs, who represented the AFC in five of the last six Super Bowls and won three championships in that run.
“We’re not quite as negative as the outside world is,” head coach Andy Reid said Monday. “We know what we need to clean up, and we need to do it. But the guys, they get it. Some of these guys have been through some pretty good seasons. It isn’t like this one’s lost.”
