There are two very obvious things to look for when trying to find signs as to whether an important NFL player will take the field or not. One, what is the player's injury status? And two, what is Vegas doing with the line for the game? In the case of Aaron Rodgers and his knee injury, suffered in the first half of Week 1's game against the Bears before Rodgers returned after half to pull of a miraculous comeback, neither sign is looking fantastic.

For starters, there is the very public status of Rodgers, who is not practicing Thursday, Mike McCarthy said Thursday.

"Aaron Rodgers will work in the rehab group, obviously going to try to do more today than yesterday, but we'll see how that goes," McCarthy said.

Rodgers said, immediately following the game, that he was definitely going to play against Minnesota. But then he backed off that claim later in the week, making no promises about being on the field for the divisional matchup against the dangerous defensive team (and his first game against Minnesota since he broke his collarbone playing the Vikings last year).

"This is no layup, that's why it's a day-to-day situation," McCarthy added.

Asked about his knee earlier this week, Rodgers said he absolutely wants to play but that he was still "pretty sore the last few days."

"I want to play, but just take it one day at a time and see how it feels tomorrow and see how it feels Friday, Saturday and then, hopefully to ready to go Sunday," Rodgers said Wednesday.

Maybe the biggest red flag of all is the SuperContest line handed out by the Westgate, which made the Packers +7 for this game. 

Unlike an actual line you can bet on, the SuperContest lines are locked in on Wednesday and then don't move again for the rest of the week. The actual current line for the Vikings-Packers game is somewhere around a pick if it's listed at all. 

Now, perhaps that's in order to keep everyone from taking the Vikings if Rodgers doesn't play.

For example, if the line was a pick 'em, and Rodgers was ruled out before Saturday, literally everyone would take the Vikings and not think twice. Even if Rodgers played, holding the Vikings at a pick wouldn't be that big a problem -- they could still win the game. If you take the Packers as a pick 'em, you better be confident Rodgers will be out there.

Conversely, if the Packers are a seven-point dog, it's a lot harder to blindly take Green Bay. If you take Minnesota as a huge road favorite and Rodgers plays, you are NOT feeling good about life. Take Green Bay as a huge home dog without Rodgers and you're feeling even worse. No offense to DeShone Kizer.

Which is a long way of saying that perhaps this line does not actually represent real value in terms of what to expect from the betting market. OR perhaps it means that Las Vegas knows more than we do. 

The latter makes more sense if we're being honest.