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Rodgers OK after taking beating from Vikings

GREEN BAY — Aaron Rodgers already was nursing a sprained right shoulder, then took a beating from the Minnesota Vikings’ pass rush on Sunday.

So he must have been pretty sore Monday morning, right?

“A lot of people think that, but not really,” Rodgers said Wednesday. “I took some shots, but after I got my massage yesterday I felt OK.”

And ready to get back to practice.

Rodgers’ participation in Wednesday’s practice was listed as limited, but Packers coach Mike McCarthy estimated that Rodgers participated in at least 90 percent of drills.

“It was good to have him out there throwing as much as he did, just to continue to work on getting the timing down with the perimeter exercises and the game plan that we’re going to use this week and so forth,” McCarthy said. “This is the most he’s practiced since the injury.”

Rodgers rarely practiced in the weeks after injuring his shoulder in the Packers’ loss at Tampa Bay Sept. 28, but he has steadily increased his workload. McCarthy noted that Rodgers has played well in some games despite not practicing but generally believes that a quarterback who misses practice is doing himself a disservice.

“The first thing in my experience for quarterbacks that goes is, your footwork is not as sharp as it can be, and your timing can be off,” McCarthy said. “This is no excuse. He’s played well when he didn’t practice, and he didn’t have his best games when he didn’t practice. You can do what you want with that.”

Rodgers said he has been doing his best to work on fundamentals with quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, an attempt to stay sharp even when he can’t fully participate in practices.

“Well, if you’re not working on the fundamentals every day there’s potential for those to drop off a little bit,” Rodgers said. “That’s why Tom and I have been spending a lot of time on those. That definitely could be a factor, but I’m going to continue to work hard and as I continue to do more practice then I don’t expect that to be an issue at all.”

Cliff notes

Some Packers players, most notably cornerback Charles Woodson, seem to not miss a beat on Sundays despite sitting out practice to rest their injuries during the week. But after a subpar performance at Minnesota on Sunday, it appears that left tackle Chad Clifton might not be one of them.

Clifton, a nine-year veteran, often has sat out practice to rest his ailing knees this season. But McCarthy said Wednesday that Clifton might benefit from more work during the week.

“I think it will help Chad if he practices more during the week, and I think Chad would probably say the same thing,” McCarthy said.

Clifton fully participated in Wednesday’s practice, but McCarthy won’t abandon his philosophy of resting veteran players.

“Do I want everybody to practice? Absolutely,” McCarthy said. “But I’m not naive to the fact that when you get seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 years in the league, there are certain things that probably don’t benefit your body during the week. We do everything possible in the best interest of the player to get them ready to play, and that’s really the bottom line.”

4-way call

If McCarthy had his choice, he’d never answer another question about Brett Favre. So he bristled slightly after fielding three straight questions about Favre on a conference call with Chicago-area reporters Wednesday.

But McCarthy did reveal that he got a congratulatory message from his former quarterback after the recent birth of his daughter—an indication, perhaps, that the frayed relationship between Favre and the Packers’ front office can be repaired sometime down the road.

“I don’t understand what this has to do with the game,” McCarthy said. “As far as Brett Favre, I have no negative feelings toward Brett. I got congratulations from him when my daughter was born, so I’d like to move on to the game if we can.”

Notes

-- CB Will Blackmon (quadricep), CB Jarrett Bush (ankle) and DE Jeremy Thompson (groin) did not participate in Wednesday’s practice. McCarthy said Thompson would likely be questionable for Sunday’s game against Chicago.

“Jeremy is not as good as we would like (him) to be,” McCarthy said. “It’s going to be a challenge for him to practice this week, so he’s definitely questionable for the game.”

Blackmon’s injury is a bruise, and doesn’t sound particularly serious.

“They just wanted to be smart so it didn’t lead to anything else,” McCarthy said. “Based on the medical report this morning, I anticipate Will would probably practice tomorrow.”

-- McCarthy said the Packers weren’t moving immediately to fill the roster spot of injured linebacker Nick Barnett.

“As of today, no,” McCarthy said. “We have talked about a number of different options. We are healthy too, so we don’t feel like we need to just run out and sign somebody to sign him. Also, we have guys on our practice squad that we are excited about as well.”

Perhaps concerned about drawing other teams’ interest to the Packers practice squad players, McCarthy added, “I probably shouldn’t have said that.”