The tibial plateau fracture suffered by Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the opener of the 2018 season was a much different injury than the one that ended J.J. Watt’s season in 2017.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Dustin Schuett provided Packers Wire with some background knowledge of the injury, based on what Rodgers said in an interview with ESPN Milwaukee this week.

The Packers quarterback revealed he suffered an indent tibial plateau fracture and a sprained MCL in the first half of Week 1 last season.

Schuett described Rodgers’ injury as a “very significant injury” that undoubtedly affected his ability to play the quarterback position at a high level in 2018.

The key word from Rodgers, according to Schuett, was “indent fracture.”

“Rodgers gave a major clue to the exact nature of his injury when he called it an indent fracture,” Schuett said. “Typically we call these impaction fractures. Impaction fractures are essentially dents created in a bone’s surface often cause by an excessive amount of force on one part of a bone.”

Watt, the Texans defensive end, suffered a more serious injury in October 2017. His injury was categorized as a “displaced fracture,” which Schuett described as “unstable” and requiring surgery to “regain normal function.”



“Think of the tibial plateau as the top of a golf tee,” Schuett said. “When you hit a golf ball off a tee and chip off part of the tee, that’s the type of tibial plateau fracture J.J. Watt had. This tee couldn’t hold a golf ball and a tibial plateau like this couldn’t support a femur for normal knee function.”

Watt required an ambulance to get to a hospital, where he had season-ending surgery.

The mechanics were the same for Rodgers’ injury but far less impactful.

“When most of Roy Robertson-Harris’ 294 pounds came down on Rodgers’ knee, it drove his knee into a valgus (force from the outer side of the knee towards the inner side of the knee) position,” Dr. Schuett said. “This caused Rodgers’ lateral femur to impact into his lateral tibial plateau causing an impaction fracture. The same force stretched out his MCL (medial collateral ligament), causing a grade II sprain.”

Rodgers departed the Week 1 game but returned after halftime. He led the historic comeback, throwing for three second-half touchdowns to help the Packers escape a 20-0 hole and win, 24-23.

However, the injury suffered in the opener almost certainly affected Rodgers the rest of the season, which he mostly admitted in the interview with ESPN Milwaukee. It hurt his mobility and likely affected his ability to consistently deliver the football, especially after he reinjured the MCL in Week 5.

“For a right-handed quarterback, the left leg is the landing leg which receives all of their weight in the final stages of the throwing motion,” Schuett explained. “Pain in that knee like Rodgers had would likely make a quarterback attempt to avoid the full weight transfer onto that leg altering his throwing motion. This likely was the cause of a number of his overthrows and balls that seemed to sail as he cut off his throwing motion halfway through or slowed it down. Attempting to compensate for this by aiming lower very likely caused a number of the balls Rodgers threw at the feet of wide-open receivers.”

Rodgers finished the 2018 season completing only 62.3 percent of his passes, his second-lowest completion percentage in a season since he took over as the Packers starting quarterback in 2008.

Schuett confirmed impact fractures rarely require surgery. Rodgers played the entire 2018 season without surgery, and team doctors determined he wouldn’t need surgery this offseason.

Rodgers had no concern about making a full recovery, both from the fracture and MCL sprain. Schuett agreed, stating his belief that both injuries should be “completely healed” well before the start of the 2019 season.

“With a full offseason to recover, I have no doubts that Rodgers will be back to 100 percent for this coming season,” Schuett said. “His MCL and tibial plateau impaction injuries will be completely healed.”