Aaron Rodgers – Photo Courtesy of: UPI/Bill Greenblatt
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will have surgery on his broken right collarbone “in the near future”. That was the message from coach Mike McCarthy on Monday.
Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said Monday that Anthony Barr’s hit on the Packers quarterback was “above board,” and said the Vikings are not a dirty football team. Mike McCarthy has different thoughts on Barr’s hit.
“He’s out of the pocket, he’s clearly expecting to get hit,” McCarthy said. “To pin him to the ground like that, I felt it was an illegal act. To sit here and lose any of your players on something like that, it doesn’t feel very good. Yeah, I didn’t like the hit. It was unnecessary, totally unnecessary, in my opinion.”
Rodgers was rolling out late in the first quarter. After he released the ball, he was hit by Barr and the Vikings linebacker continued to drive him into the turf.
As of Monday afternoon, surgery had not been scheduled according to McCarthy. But no decision on Rodgers roster spot will likely be made until after the surgery.
McCarthy is meeting with Brett Hundley today (Tuesday), to formulate a game plan for his young quarterback. Last week’s game plan was designed for Aaron Rodgers while Hundley only ran the scout team during practice. So in effect, Hundley didn’t get any work with the Packers offense last week and when he had to play, he wasn’t as prepared as he could have been had the circumstances been different.
McCarthy will make sure Hundley is well prepared this week, with a game plan designed just for him. Hundley’s backup, Joe Callahan will assume Hundley’s role, running the scout team in practice and doing as much as he can mentally to make sure he’s ready if he were called on to play.
Who will play around Hundley is a question mark. David Bakhtiari (hamstring) and Bryan Bulaga (concussion) both left the Vikings game early, as did left guard Lane Taylor (knee & ankle injuries). Mike McCarthy said he’s not sure how many of them, if any, will be ready to go this week.
McCarthy said he’s groomed Hundley for three years and Callahan for two years, just for this moment. But if the Packers health doesn’t improve, success for either quarterback will be hard to come by.
The Packers are also thin in the defensive backfield. Placing Quinten Rollins on I.R. leaves them with three healthy corners entering this week’s game against New Orleans. Kevin King (concussion) and Davon House (quadriceps) were both inactive last Sunday, as was safety Morgan Burnett (hamstring).
Two players, cornerback Demetri Goodson and linebacker Vince Biegel, are eligible to begin practicing this week after spending the first six weeks on the PUP list. Either one or both could give the Packers a boost as they return to the practice field on Wednesday.