Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said that “nothing has been decided” about whether the team will rest its starters in Week 18 against the Minnesota Vikings, despite the Packers having nothing to
gain — in terms of playoff seeding — with a win in the final week of the regular season. When pressed about why, LaFleur stated, “There’s a lot of variables that get thrown into play.”
“You’re kind of limited, especially with our situation right now, with the number of injuries that occurred. Guys are going to have to play ball. So they better approach it in such a way that they’re getting their mind ready to go play ball.”
First of all, teams have 53-man rosters, with the possibility of calling up two players from the practice squad, which they have to choose from to make a 48-man gameday roster. At best, you can only rest five to seven players for a game. Every injured player on the 53-man roster shaves away another player you could theoretically rest, and the Packers are banged up.
On Saturday, three Green Bay players were held back for health issues and six more players were injured in action and didn’t return to the field against the Baltimore Ravens. There’s a real question about how many healthy scratch opportunities the team will even have this week, and you’d think that quarterback Jordan Love and running back Josh Jacobs would be near the top of the priority list.
