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The Green Bay Packers got some good news on Wednesday, as a number of banged-up players were practicing. Starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers was there and throwing, as Mike McCarthy said on Tuesday that he would. According to most reports from the portion of practice open to the media, Rodgers looked good.
#Packers practice: Rodgers throws a lot and well in individual drills. But throws were short or intermediate. Lots of zip on the ball.
— Tom Silverstein (@TomSilverstein) December 4, 2013
One of the other interesting notes was that Matt Flynn was taking snaps from Evan Dietrich-Smith, while Rodgers was receiving snaps from practice squad center Garth Gerhart. The impact of this is twofold: (1) Flynn is clearly being prepared to start and (2) EDS is back at practice and appeared to be on track to play on Sunday himself. Given the Packers' struggles without him in Detroit, this would be a critical factor moving forward.
It sounded like EDS would have participated fully on Wednesday, but McCarthy said in his post-practice press conference that he twisted his ankle midway through and was held out of the rest of the session. Hopefully this is not a lingering issue that will keep nagging him throughout the week.
The full Packers injury report is below.
Full participation: TE Brandon Bostick, ILB Jamari Lattimore
Limited parcitipation: C Evan Dietrich-Smith, OLB Nick Perry, QB Aaron Rodgers
Did not participate: OLB Mike Neal, DE C.J. Wilson
Mike McCarthy addressed practice today, saying the following:
Aaron Rodgers went through a limited practice, basically he did everything he was cleared to do medically, I thought he looked good in what he was able to do...they have a plan for him to progress, and hopefully he comes in here and is able to do more tomorrow.
On Matt Flynn:
As far as some of the throws that Matt's made...some of them are anticipation, timing, he had one today that I thought was an excellent throw...as far as his arm strength I think he's fine, I think it's more of getting in tune with who he's throwing to.
On the reason for Jerron McMillian being released:
What we sat down and talked about was the consistency of his performance, but there's the other side of it was with our roster, where we needed to make a change (because of) the distribution of players on our roster.
We'll have more news from practice later this week, and hopefully Rodgers and Dietrich-Smith will get better news in the next few days.
UPDATE: Rodgers apparently hasn't made much progress in the last few days, at least not if his own description of his shoulder has anything to say about it. Rodgers said this to reporters after McCarthy's press conference:
Aaron Rodgers also reports that he doesn't feel any better (or worse) than when he practiced last week.
— Doug Russell (@RussellOnSports) December 4, 2013
