Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will play on Sunday against the Bills, despite a fracture in his left wrist.
Make that fractures.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Rodgers has at least three fractures in his non-throwing wrist, suffered two weeks ago against the Bengals. None, per the report, are displaced. As reported on NBC’s Football Night in America at the time, Rodgers wanted to keep playing during the game in which it happened. He wanted to play last week. Finally, he’s getting his wish today.
The easy talking point is that teammates are impressed that a football player wants to play football despite having a football injury. The more subtle observation is that the situation underscores the inside-information problem in pro sports.
The NFL mandates bare-bones injury reporting, with no requirement to disclose whether bones are broken. Some clutched their pearls recently when Chargers running back Omarion Hampton disclosed that his ankle injury included a fracture. But the Chargers said what the rules required them to say. He had an ankle injury, and he was placed on injured reserve with it.
The Steelers also complied with the rules. The question is whether the current rules provide sufficient transparency. People are making wagering decisions with sportsbooks that sponsor the NFL (and in which NFL owners may hold equity positions of up to five percent) based on the information, or lack thereof, that the teams disclose. Why not let the bettors have all of it?
It’s one thing to say “wrist.” It’s another to say “wrist fracture.” It’s quite another to say “at least three wrist fractures.”
This doesn’t mean teams should be required to post X-rays or MRI scans on social media. But there’s a balance to strike, in order to limit inside information while protecting player privacy and not putting a bull’s-eye on the injured body part. The process should start with the teams being required to do more than list the body part that is injured. They also should be required to provide the full description of the injury.
Anything less than that creates inside information as to what the injury truly is. Which sets the stage for the kind of issues with which the NBA is currently dealing. Issues that can directly undermine the integrity of the wagering process. Which, given the manner in which the NFL profits from the wagering process, also impacts the integrity of the game.
On Sunday against the Steelers, the Bills won’t have both starting tackles. The Steelers will be missing one of theirs, too — for Week 13 and beyond.
The Steelers have placed left tackle Broderick Jones on injured reserve. He suffered a neck injury last Sunday against the Bears. He’ll be required to miss at least four games. Jones can return in Week 17, at the earliest.
A first-round pick in 2023, Jones had played in every regular-season game of his three-year career.
Coach Mike Tomlin said Andrus Peat will replace Jones against the Bills.
“I’m always ready to play or start,” Peat, a former first-round pick of the Saints, said Friday, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. “I’ve been a starter most of my career, so I always try to prepare like that and keep myself in that mindset.”
Peat has one appearance this season — a start in last month’s Sunday night loss to the Chargers.
Peat will be protecting the blind side of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who will play only two weeks after suffering a fracture in his wrist in a Week 11 game against the Bengals. Rodgers missed last weekend’s loss to the Chicago for the now 6-5 Steelers.
Last weekend, Aaron Rodgers missed the game against the team he owns. This weekend, Rodgers is on track to play against the team that has come the closest to owning him.
Rodgers has a 3-4 career record against the Bills. Via NBC Sports research, the Bills have held Rodgers in those games to his lowest career TD-to-interception ratio ratio (seven to seven), his lowest completion percentage (57.4), and his lowest passer rating (75.7) of any opponent he has ever faced, including the postseason.
One of Rodgers’s three wins came in Week 1 of the 2023 season. That’s when Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles tendon on the fourth play from scrimmage. The win that day was engineered by Zach Wilson, making Rodgers’s practical record against the Bills 2-4.
With Sean McDermott as coach of the Bills (and leaving out the four-snap game), Rodgers has a 1-3 against the Bills. In his most recent game against Buffalo, Rodgers and the Jets lost badly, 40-14.
This time around, the stakes are high for both teams. The Bills, at 7-4, are fading in the AFC East race. If they fall to 7-5, they risk slipping out of the wild-card scramble. The Steelers, at 6-5, have both the Ravens and Bengals on their heels in the AFC North.
Rodgers will play in the Week 13 game despite being only two weeks removed from suffering a fractured bone in his wrist.
The Bills made a roster move on Friday in advance of their Week 13 game against the Steelers.
Buffalo announced it has signed wide receiver Gabe Davis from the practice squad to the active roster.
The Bills placed WR Curtis Samuel (elbow/knee) on injured reserve in a corresponding move.
Samuel is required to miss a minimum of four games before becoming eligible to return in Week 17 against the Eagles.
Samuel has seven catches for 81 yards and one touchdown this season. He missed the Week 12 game against the Texans and was already ruled out for Sunday’s game.
Davis rejoined the Bills’ practice squad from injured reserve earlier this season and was elevated in Weeks 11 and 12. He recorded four catches for 62 yards in those two games.
Aaron Rodgers is set to return to the Steelers’ starting lineup on Sunday.
Rodgers missed Week 12 with a fracture in his left wrist, but Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said early this week that there was optimism that the quarterback would be good to go against the Bills. On Friday, Tomlin said that Rodgers was a full participant in practice and will have no injury designation because he is “all systems go.”
That puts Rodgers on track to make his 11th start of the season and Tomlin had positive updates on a couple of other injured starters as well.
Wide receiver DK Metcalf (ankle) and edge rusher Alex Highsmith (pectoral) are also set to play as the Steelers try to reclaim first place in the AFC North. Left tackle Broderick Jones (neck) will not play and Andrus Peat is expected to take his place in the starting lineup.
