Aaron Rodgers hedging on 2023 return with Jets’ season spiraling

Jets coach hedging on 2024 return due to……

Aaron Rodgers hedged slightly about whether he’s actually going to return to play this season during his weekly Tuesday appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” as he rehabilitates his ruptured left Achilles tendon.

Rodgers, who turns 40 on Saturday, has returned to the Jets’ training facility in Florham Park, where he plans to continue his rehab with hopes of playing again in 2023.

“It’s always been first, am I healthy?” Rodgers said. “And then, are we alive? Are we in it? Are we playing good enough to make a run? Can I step in and protect myself and play [at a high] level. Can I protect myself? Can I move around the way I want to move around?

“So, there’s a natural progression here to the rehab. That’s going to involve actually getting back onto the field to start to do some things that are more football related. But, we’re still not where I can make a decision on playing because health-wise, I’m improving steadily, but I’m not in a [position to] play at this point.”

Rodgers said he and the Jets “will revisit where everything is’’ soon and added, “Whenever [I’m] healthy enough to get back on the field, then it’ll be a full discussion and conversation about everything. Once I’m healthy, then that’s … are we in it? Can I help the team by being out there? Can I protect myself? Can I move around and do things I want to do?

“Every week, I’m doing better,’’ Rodgers said. “I think the ability to not travel to Buffalo [for the Jets game against the Bills] probably helped me the most just because of being able to get those 10 days straight of rehab without the travel. As much fun as it is to be with the guys and support the guys, [the travel] also does set me back a little bit on rehab.

“Because I was going to come back here and exclusively be back here post-Thanksgiving, that gave me a really good jump to go from where I’m walking almost normal now and jogging and increasing speed and the body weight on that.

“So, that’s kind of natural progression. It’s 11 weeks [Wednesday] since surgery, and we said that eight to 12 weeks is when a lot of the healing of the actual Achilles kind of finalizes. So, I’m excited about kind of what’s next and how this thing keeps getting better.