How Isaiah Rodgers came back better than ever after a 512-day layoff originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
He didn’t have a team. He didn’t have a coach. He had no teammates.
But he could fake it.
So during his 512-day absence from football — from the end of the 2022 season with the Colts to the start of OTAs last week with the Eagles — he spent his days away from the game in Tampa doing exactly what he would be doing if he I was still with a team.
“I just kept my schedule like I was still playing,” Isaiah Rodgers said. “Sundays I used as a game day, so I did cardio and stuff like that. I took Tuesdays off like I was still playing. So I just kind of stuck with the NFL schedule and continued to work and prepare for those moments.”
Rodgers spoke to the Philadelphia media on Thursday for the first time since signing with the Eagles in August, shortly after being suspended for a year for violating the NFL’s gambling policy and being released by the Colts.
You never want to get carried away by a few practices without spring protectors, but it’s kind of shocking how good Rodgers looks so far. He’s made plays in both practices, sure, but it’s really the lack of rust that’s been so evident.
Until these practices, he hadn’t been on a football field since December 26, 2022. Now it’s May 31, 2024.
“I think it’s a mindset,” he said. “You know, I imagined, every time I practiced, I imagined the AJ Browns and the DeVonta Smiths in front of me, so I think I kind of focused during my training and knowing that when I actually get back, there are going to be great receivers in front of me.
Whatever he did, it worked.
It’s too early to start breaking down the depth chart — a depth chart that clearly won’t include James Bradberry — but Rodgers has arrived and earned first-team reps since the jump, and in the meantime, Darius Slay sat out Thursday’s practice. fair , it says a lot that he gained the trust of the coaches so quickly after a long layoff.
“Seeing him out there, he didn’t miss a beat,” said Eagles receiver Paris Campbell, Rodgers’ Colts teammate from 2020 to 2022. “You could tell he stayed in shape. It shows. He is a skilled, intelligent, instinctive player, he has all the athletic ability in the world and I think he is a great piece for the team.”
It would be easy for Rodgers to be bitter about losing a year — and a year’s salary — for something that isn’t even a crime and didn’t hurt anyone.
But he ignored the apparent hypocrisy of the NFL suspending a player for placing bets, while the gaming industry has actually become the backbone of the NFL’s marketing and advertising world.
“Rules are rules and they exist for a reason,” he said. “Then you break them and receive the consequences.”
Rodgers, the Colts’ sixth-round pick in 2020, played in 45 games with 10 starts and three interceptions in three seasons in Indy before being released immediately following the announcement of his suspension.
It was the first time in his life that he wasn’t in football.
What was the hardest thing to deal with?
“I would say just being away from the locker room,” he said. “That feeling of brotherhood and just understanding that I made a mistake and served my time. And just being back with a great team and a great culture of guys and finally bringing that locker room environment back to my heart feels really good.”
Rodgers has the type of personality that can find the positive in any negative, and he did so while speaking to the media on Thursday.
“It brought me closer to my loved ones,” he said. “It brought me closer to the game. In fact, it made me not take this game for granted and just understand that the league doesn’t need anyone.”
Assuming Bradberry is gone, Rodgers is in the mix with Kelee Ringo, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean to star opposite Darius Slay.
And Rodgers says he’s a better player now than he was before sitting out the 2023 season.
“I would say I’m faster,” he said. “I think that’s the only thing I can say. I worked on my speed (during the) offseason. I worked on my hands. I think just making plays on the ball is something I’ve definitely influenced throughout this offseason, just increasing my speed.
Interestingly, Rodgers said the Eagles were the only team that contacted him after the Colts released him in late June of last year.
And even though he wasn’t allowed into the NovaCare Complex and couldn’t speak to his coaches, it helped to know he was an Eagle. Even though he really wasn’t yet.
“Just knowing that it was a team that wanted me despite all the suspension, just knowing that I had a place where I would continue working there during the off-season?” he said. “(It motivated me) to come back and be a better player.”
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