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The Green Bay Packers' injury report from Wednesday's practice is lengthy once again, as five players from the 53-man roster were held out of practice entirely while three more starters were limited. As usual this season, injured players were the biggest topic in head coach Mike McCarthy's press conference as the team struggles to cope with more and more bodies piling up.
Here's the official injury report from practice:
Limited: Evan Dietrich-Smith, Nick Perry, Aaron Rodgers
Did not participate: Brad Jones, Eddie Lacy, Jamari Lattimore, Mike Neal, C.J. Wilson
Myles White to IR (knee injury)
Once the injury news was released, McCarthy took the podium to discuss the team's practice session and the plans for Sunday's game against the Dallas Cowboys. Not surprisingly, the first questions were about Aaron Rodgers and his collarbone, but there was nothing really new to report on the quarterback:
Aaron Rodgers practiced today in a limited fashion, we'll see how he is tomorrow and we'll set a plan for him tomorrow. Aaron has not been medically cleared...the topic of 'is he playing in the game versus is he medically cleared' are two different issues...I didn't think he was in pain today, but that's really a question for him.
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I'm certainly not reading anything into McCarthy's comment on whether Rodgers was in pain. Only #12 can answer that and he wasn't speaking to the media today.
As for Eddie Lacy's status and his backup plan:
Eddie Lacy will be in the rehab process today and tomorrow and we'll see where he's at on Friday...the projection is he may practice some on Friday...Kahlil Bell's doing a hell of a job, I'm hopeful he'll be ready to go if needed.
If Lacy can't go on Sunday, that running play at the end of the first half will haunt McCarthy for a long time.
On JC Tretter's progress from injury and whether he was activated with the intent of getting a few weeks of practice:
JC Tretter's on our 53-man roster, he's competing for a spot on the 46-man roster. We don't keep players on our roster just to practice...he's practicing, getting ready just like everyone else.
Tretter worked at center in practice, so it's feasible to think that he could be an option at that position if for some reason Evan Dietrich-Smith's injury flares up again or he gets hurt in another manner.
McCarthy was asked about Randall Cobb's status and whether it's possible he could be activated by Sunday:
Randall's doing more in his rehab, he's progressing, looks good...he definitely took a step...he didn't practice today, he has not been medically cleared.
So, in other words, probably not.
On Matt Flynn's performance against the Falcons:
The way Matt (Flynn) played last week and the benefit of having a full week of preparation, you saw the way he was comfortable...at the end of the day, it's important for the quarterback to manage the offense and complete footballs...keep us out of bad looks, he accomplished that, he threw for 75%, there's a lot to build off of out of the Atlanta game.
Finally, McCarthy was positive about the state of the inside linebacker position and the injured players there:
Feeling good about Brad (Jones) and Jamari (Lattimore), we'll be smart with their practices throughout the week, but our medical staff feels pretty good about those two guys.
Packers fans should hope that Lacy, Jones, and Lattimore are all back on the field on Friday and can go on Sunday. Without them, a victory on Sunday would be an even bigger challenge than it would be with just Aaron Rodgers missing (which appears very likely at this point).
UPDATE: In the players' media availability session, tight end Andrew Quarless told reporters the following:
#Packers TE Andrew Quarless said Rodgers did some work with the 1s: "12 looked real good today. It was good to see him out there."
— Tom Silverstein (@TomSilverstein) December 11, 2013
So who knows, maybe it's not out of the realm of possibility that Rodgers could play on Sunday. He still hasn't been cleared though, so don't get too excited about this just yet.
UPDATE #2: If you didn't interpret this from McCarthy's comments on Randall Cobb's progression, Cobb himself confirmed that he has at least been cleared to start running again:
Meanwhile, #Packers WR Randall Cobb said at the end of open locker room that he has now been cleared to run. Had not been last week.
— Jason Wilde (@jasonjwilde) December 11, 2013
