Aaron Rodgers addresses injury, retirement with Pat McAfee

Green Bay Packers quarterback spent time on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday to combat the narrative that his performance against the Tennessee Titans was significantly impacted by his thumb injury. On Thursday Night Football, he threw 39 passes for 24 completions, 227 yards (5.8 yards per attempt) and two touchdowns.

“It wasn’t like it got better one week and then got worse the other week. It goes through things each week. It gets hit on various plays,” said the reigning back-to-back MVP of the NFL. “Even the Dallas game, when I fumbled I got hit right on the thumb and that bothered me.”

The week before the Titans games, Rodgers threw 20 passes for 14 completions, 224 yards (11.2 yards per attempt) and three touchdowns against Dallas. Since his injury in London on a Hail Mary attempt against the New York Giants, Rodgers has thrown 208 balls for 129 completions (62 percent completion percentage), 1,385 yards (6.7 yards per attempt) 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. To put that into perspective, that yards-per-attempt mark would be the lowest of his career for any season he’s been a starter for. The completion percentage pace he’s been on since his injury will only have bested his 2015 and 2019 seasons.

When asked by McAfee if Rodgers was a “broken thumb guy,” Rodgers stated that he’s broken other fingers in the past and has played through the injury. That doesn’t directly answer the question of if he currently has a broken thumb, which has been speculated in recent weeks. Rodgers also stated he wouldn’t use a glove on his throwing hand as he recovers from this injury.

Following the Titans game, Rodgers made a comment that he threw some “wobblers” against Tennessee. Rodgers clarified on Tuesday that he meant that the wind impacted some of his throws, as he didn’t want it to come off as an excuse about the health of his thumb.

Later on in the interview, McAfee asked Rodgers about a potential retirement on the horizon, to which Rodgers responded with, “The focus is on the season.” He later stated, “I don’t know when that’s going to be. I don’t know if that’s going to be after the season or after three more seasons or whatnot.”