Packers injury updates: Expect Aaron Rodgers to play in Week 2 vs. Vikings

Expect Aaron Rodgers to play this Sunday in the Green Bay Packers’ Week 2 meeting with the Minnesota Vikings.

Last Sunday gave Green Bay Packers fans a huge scare when Aaron Rodgers went down with a knee injury.

The first of half Week 1 couldn’t have gone worse for the Packers. They didn’t score on offense. Aaron Rodgers got taken off the field on a cart. The pick-six thrown by DeShone Kizer right into the hands of Khalil Mack embodied this horrible start to the 2018 campaign.

Nevertheless, a hobbled Rodgers jogged out of the tunnel at half before leading the Packers on an epic 20-point comeback.

As the excitement surrounding last week has begun to fade away, the focus shifts to Week 2 and the impending matchup against the Vikings. Rodgers was one of the many players to suffer an injury last week.

Let’s check on the health of the Packers after the week of practices.

Offense

Rodgers’ injury was unofficially called a left knee sprain earlier in the week. There hasn’t been much elaboration beyond that point.

He did not participate at all in practice on Wednesday or Thursday, according to the team’s official injury report. The pervading feeling throughout the league is that Rodgers will be playing come Sunday afternoon. The Packers don’t practice on Fridays, but they do have a light practice/walkthrough on Saturday.

Regardless of whether or not Rodgers participates in Saturday’s practice, it seems likely he’ll be playing. Mike McCarthy said in a press conference this week that he thinks Rodgers could play even without getting any practice reps all week.

On top of that, McCarthy claims Rodgers’ knee has been steadily improving through his rest this week.

Davante Adams was also put on the Packers’ injury report this week after hurting his shoulder.

Adams did not practice at all on Wednesday but he had limited participation on Thursday. There hasn’t been much news surrounding Adams but he said that he felt good about his chances of playing this Sunday when talking to the media on Wednesday. Michael Cohen of The Athletic also reported that Adams seems likely to play as well.

Defense

Second-year safety Josh Jones has been ruled out with an ankle injury from Sunday night’s game. He did not participate at all in either of the two practices this week.

Rookie linebacker Oren Burks has been dealing with a shoulder injury this week, but his status for Sunday seems hopeful. He had limited participation during both Wednesday and Friday. Since he hasn’t sat out either of the two practices, I’d venture to say it seems likely Burks will see the field against the Vikings.

Vikings

The Vikings have five players on this week’s injury report.

All of them have been able to participate somewhat in practice this week. Mackensie Alexander, Trae Waynes and Roc Thomas all had full participation in both of this week’s practices thus far.

Minnesota’s starting center, Pat Elflein, had limited participation both Wednesday and Thursday but has been ruled out for Sunday.

Defensive end Everson Griffen was not listed on the injury report until Thursday, a day in which he had limited participation in practice. Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer was very confident on Friday that Griffen will play.