It was the miraculous recovery that was never meant to be.

Just three months after tearing his Achilles tendon four offensive plays into his New York Jets career, Aaron Rodgers was back on the practice field with a goal of playing again this season. While many wrote it off as impossible or far-fetched, Rodgers proved doubters wrong when he looked spry on the practice field the last few weeks and was making a real run at playing for the Jets again this season.

But alas, it wasn’t meant to be. An upbeat Rodgers, appearing on the "Pat McAfee Show," Tuesday indicated he will not defy modern medicine and return to the Jets active squad this season. 

"If I was 100% today, I'd be definitely pushing to play," he said. "But the fact is, I'm not."

There is reason to hope for Jets fans. Rodgers reaffirmed his commitment to the New York Jets and playing in 2024 and possibly beyond. "I feel like I can play more years and I can be effective into my 40s, which is crazy. I thought that I'd probably be sitting on the couch somewhere at 40, but now I want to be a starter at 40. I want to be a starter at 41. I want to see what I can get out of this body."

Rodgers said a return to action would have been "an absolute no-brainer" for a playoff game. But the 5-9 New York Jets were eliminated from postseason contention on Sunday in an ugly 30-0 loss to the Miami Dolphins, and that cemented Rodgers' decision to take himself out of contention to play.

The Jets have until Wednesday to officially reinstate Rodgers to the 53-man roster or he will remain on Injured reserve for the rest of the year, which is what they will do.

Rodgers, who underwent surgery on Sept. 13, said it was always "unrealistic to think that I would be 100% to be medically cleared at any point during the regular season." But the four-time MVP was willing to play and take the risk if the Jets still had a shot at the postseason.

The Jets run of going 1-6 since beating the New York Giants has cemented that a postseason shot wasn’t in the cards.

Even though Rodgers doesn’t have a playoff run to worry about, he does not intend to slow things down and take a more conservative approach to his rehab leading into 2024. "There's always a fear about re-rupture if you're going too fast," he said Tuesday. "But this allows me to — I'm not going to slow my rehab down. I'm going to keep attacking it every single day, but now without a timetable to come back, obviously, we can be as smart as we need to be."

As far as this season goes, Rodgers is treating it the way most Jets fans are which is, in a word, “forgettable”. "I feel like this year is kind of a lost year now that I've only played a couple snaps and wasn't able to go out there and prove what I'm capable of and see what we're capable of as a team," he said.

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Featured image via Sam Navarro, USA TODAY NETWORK