Pre-game warmups may have claimed another victim in Week 9.
Three weeks after the Indianapolis Colts scratched two players moments before their Week 6 game with injuries sustained in pre-game warmups, the Pittsburgh Steelers are hoping to avoid the same fate with quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
During CBS’s preview of the Steelers’ clash with those same Colts on Nov. 2, the network showed footage of Rodgers flexing his right (throwing) hand. Former NFL quarterbacks and current CBS analysts Matt Ryan and Tony Romo speculated that Rodgers may have injured his hand taking snaps during pre-game warmups.
‘You sometimes take a snap from a backup center,’ Romo said. ‘The other center’s got to go get tape, or he’s got to go in and do something before a game. But he jams your finger – the backup center jams your finger a lot more than the starting one does.’
Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Rodgers did, indeed, appear to jam his finger taking a snap from starting center Zach Frazier.
The Steelers did not rule out Rodgers prior to the Week 9 game, and the quarterback took the field to begin the first quarter.
Aaron Rodgers injury update
Rodgers appeared to jam a finger on his right (throwing) hand during pre-game warmups on Nov. 2.
Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the injury seemed to occur when the veteran quarterback took a snap from Frazier, the Steelers’ starting center.
‘[Rodgers] slammed the ball down on the grass and massaged his fingers before taking the next snap from under center,’ Fittipaldo wrote on X.
CBS cameras showed Rodgers continuing to throw for the rest of the team’s warmups ahead of the Steelers’ Week 9 game against the Colts.
Pittsburgh has not announced a change in status for its starting quarterback as of five minutes before the 1 p.m. ET scheduled kickoff.
Steelers QB depth chart
Aaron Rodgers
Mason Rudolph
Will Howard (IR – hand)
Skylar Thompson (IR – hamstring)
Rudolph, a six-year veteran, is the only other healthy quarterback on the Steelers’ active roster in Week 9. If Rodgers is unable to go or needs to be pulled from the game with his hand injury, Rudolph would take over behind center.
The backup quarterback has appeared in two games with Pittsburgh this season in his second stint with the team that drafted him. He completed both of his two pass attempts for 12 yards in Week 2 and kneeled the ball three times in Week 6.
Howard, the rookie the Steelers drafted in the sixth-round this year, broke a bone in his pinky finger during training camp. Head coach Mike Tomlin said he believed Howard suffered the injury during a center-quarterback exchange. Howard returned to practice two weeks ago, opening his 21-day window to return from injured reserve.