The New York Jets activated quarterback Aaron Rodgers from injured reserve in a procedural move with no intention of putting him on the field for another game this season.

The Jets want Rodgers to continue practicing with the team but insist he’s not an option to replace Zach Wilson (concussion) for the Christmas Eve game with the Washington Commanders.

Rodgers, 40, held out hope he’d be able to return this month from the torn Achilles he suffered in the opening week of the season, but with the Jets eliminated from playoff contention, head coach Robert Saleh put an end to that speculation on Wednesday.

“We’re still going to keep him on the active. … It’s all part of his rehab,” Saleh said about the four-time league Most Valuable Player. “Just having him on the football field is a plus for everybody. It’s a plus for him, it’s a plus for his teammates.”

Rodgers said this week on the “Pat McAfee Show” that he’s not physically ready to play. An Achilles tear and surgery typically brings a recovery and rehab period of between 10 and 12 months.

Saleh said the Jets had the “roster flexibility with all the different things that have happened to us the last couple of weeks” to make the move.

Rodgers returned to practice on Nov. 29, opening the 21-day window to either return to the active roster or be placed on season-ending injured reserve.

The Jets are shorthanded when it comes to quarterbacks. Wilson is in the NFL’s concussion protocol. If he can’t play against the Commanders (4-10), the Jets (5-9) likely will turn to veteran backup Trevor Siemian.

–Field Level Media

If Aaron Rodgers receives medical clearance and wants to play this season, New York Jets coach Robert Saleh said the four-time NFL MVP will take the field.

“Aaron’s a big boy, a grown man, and no one’s going to know Aaron’s body like Aaron knows his body,” Saleh said Wednesday. “And if he feels after all the doctors clear him — I’m sure there’s a million of them, I have no idea — but if Aaron says he wants to play, he’s going to play.”

Rodgers, who turns 40 on Dec. 2, is attempting to come back from a ruptured Achillies and is targeting a mid-December return.

“We’ve got to be in the mix, and I’ve got to be healthy, and I definitely still want to come back,” Rodgers said Tuesday on ESPN.

Part of his decision will depend on whether the Jets (4-5) can stay in the playoff hunt. On a two-game losing streak, the Jets play a pair of rivals ahead of them in the AFC East, the Buffalo Bills (5-5) on Sunday and Miami Dolphins (6-3) on the day after Thanksgiving.

Rodgers has been rehabbing in Los Angeles and flying to attend Jets games. He said he’s planning to fully rejoin the team next week.

“I would imagine he’s going to want to acclimate to the meetings and reconnect himself,” Saleh said. “There’s been a lot of changes to the system since he’s been out, and just trying to figure things out with the guys that we have.

“I have an admiration for him. We’re very young on the offensive side of the ball and his veteran presence is always welcome. [He’ll be able to] just get himself back in the building, get reacclimated around his teammates, re-involved in meetings. Then whenever his clock starts, it starts — if he’s able.”

If cleared to resume practicing, Rogers will have 21 days to be activated. If the Jets don’t activate him, he will remain on injured reserve for the rest of the season.

–Field Level Media

New York Jets coach Robert Saleh has no qualms about playing veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the team’s final preseason game.

“You can’t coach scared, you can’t play scared,” Saleh said Tuesday about his plans for Saturday’s game against the New York Giants in East Rutherford, N.J.

“You can slip out of your car and have something happen to you. Knock on wood, it will be fine. It’s not uncommon (to play first-string players in the preseason), you can always play the hindsight, fearful game. It’s in the best interest of our team to go out together and prepare for the season.

Rodgers, 39, hasn’t played in a preseason game since 2018 — and that includes the Jets’ three contests this month. The four-time NFL MVP said early in training camp that he would play this summer if that was in line with what Saleh wanted.

“I wouldn’t mind playing in the preseason,” Rodgers said at the time, per the New York Post. “I wouldn’t mind if Robert said, ‘Hey, we are going to go. Let’s do it.’ Most coaches have that fear where they want to get you to Week 1 and not risk it, but I believe there is a chance for the last one.”

Saleh made it clear on Tuesday that he wanted Rodgers to get his feet wet before the season opener.

“For us as an organization, he’s new, though he’s been in the league a long time,” Saleh told reporters. “We didn’t want Sept. 11 (the regular-season opener against the visiting Buffalo Bills) to be the first time he stepped into MetLife. Giants-Jets, whether in the preseason or regular season, we expect a good turnout and anticipation in the building. We didn’t want his first time in new team colors, with new teammates and in a new stadium to be on Sept. 11 for the first time.”

Rodgers enters his 19th NFL season with 59,055 career yards, 475 touchdown passes and a 147-75-1 record as a starter.

–Field Level Media

New York Jets coach Robert Saleh said Friday that he expects Aaron Rodgers to remain with the team beyond this season. In fact, Saleh said he’d be “shocked” if he didn’t.

“I don’t want to back him into a corner and make him commit to something (long term),” Saleh said Friday after practice. “I just want him to have fun and know that when he walks in this building to let loose and have a little bit of fun, (chat) with the guys, come in the office, come talk to us and just enjoy playing football.

“Odds are, if you enjoy playing football, you’re going to want to keep doing it. I wouldn’t put pressure on him to commit to something like that anyway, but I’d be shocked if he doesn’t play multiple years. He looks like a little kid out there.”

Rodgers, who will turn 40 in December, perhaps showed his hand when talking on 98.7 FM ESPN New York prior to Friday’s practice.

“I’m not a big cliche guy,” the four-time NFL MVP said. “Most people would say, ‘I’m just taking this one day at a time or one year at a time.’ But the Jets gave up a lot for me, so to just play one year I think would be a disservice. Now, if that one year turns out to be a magical year, who knows? But more than that, it’s how my body feels.”

To acquire Rodgers, the Jets swapped first-round picks with the Green Bay Packers in the 2023 NFL Draft. They also sent a second- and sixth-round pick in that draft and a conditional 2024 selection (second round; first if Rodgers plays 65 percent of the snaps this season). The Packers also sent New York a fifth-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft to complete the deal.

–Field Level Media

Jets coach Robert Saleh called quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ interest in playing for New York “pretty cool” during an interview Sunday with NFL Network.

“Two years ago when we first got here, just thinking about where we were and how far we’ve come,” Saleh said. “To have a guy like him want to play for us is pretty cool and shows how far we’ve come. But we still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do.”

Some of that work includes officially acquiring Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers.

Earlier this month, the four-time NFL MVP said he intended to play for the Jets in 2023.

“The Packers would like to move on. They’ve let me know that in so many words, they’ve let other people know that in direct words,” Rodgers said during a March 15 appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.”

“And because I still have that fire and I want to play, I’d like to play in New York. It’s just a matter of getting that done at this point.”

Rodgers, 39, signed a three-year, $150.815 million contract extension in March 2022. He is set to make $59.5 million in 2023.

Rodgers was named league MVP in 2011, 2014, 2020 and 2021, but is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career in 2022. He completed 64.6 percent of his passes for 3,695 yards, 26 touchdowns and 12 interceptions as the Packers (8-9) missed the playoffs.

There are familiar faces waiting for him in New York. The Jets signed former Packers receiver Allen Lazard to a reported four-year, $44 million deal earlier this month, and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett held the same position in Green Bay from 2019-21.

–Field Level Media