The Packers' playoff dreams are over, but before they can take a vacation (and hire a new coach), they need to figure out their two-week plan for Aaron Rodgers. 

Rodgers, who dealt with a knee injury earlier in the season and played through a minor groin injury that he sustained during Sunday's loss to the Bears, isn't in the MVP conversation. He doesn't have much to play for other than trying to end the season on a positive note after the team's season nosedived over the past couple months. It wouldn't be dumb to suggest the Packers should let Rodgers heal up on the sidelines while also improving their draft position as DeShone Kizer gets valuable reps that could matter in the seasons to come. The last two weeks under an interim coach in a lost season don't matter.

But it doesn't sound like the Packers will sit Rodgers in Weeks 16 and 17. For one, Rodgers wants to play.

And interim coach Joe Philbin sounds like he wants Rodgers to finish out the season.

"In the general sense, my philosophy is football players are paid to play football games, and football coaches are paid to coach football games, so obviously we have to go through the week and we would never put any player out there that wasn't physically ready to go," Philbin said, per ESPN. "But that's my general philosophy and overall philosophy whether it's Aaron Rodgers or anybody else. We're the Green Bay Packers, we're a football team and we're in the business of winning football games, and we want all our players who are healthy to contribute to the overall success of the team. Period."

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Philbin reiterated his approach.

"I think when you sign up for the 2018 NFL season, you sign up for a 16-game season and hopefully you earn the opportunity to extend that and to compete for a championship," Philbin said. "Obviously the extension part is over. That being said, you're a football player, you're part of a team and your one role is to the contribute to the overall success of the team. And the team has an opportunity to win a game Sunday against the New York Jets, and if our players, they should want to participate because they're good teammates and they should. I think that's their obligation to the team. So we'll see. If there are other discussions contrary to that, we'll certainly cross that bridge and discuss it.

"Again, I think it's bigger than Aaron Rodgers. This is a football team. You're a football player. You're employed by the Green Bay Packers just like if players or coaches were to say, 'Geez I'd like to go home tonight and not prepare as hard for this game because we're not going to the playoffs,' I mean, that's not a professional approach to the job, I don't think."

Just because Rodgers and Philbin are saying they want him to play now doesn't mean the front office can't step in and send Rodgers to the bench. The comments the coach and quarterback made above don't serve as a guarantee that Rodgers will be playing against the Jets and Lions to close out the season. The Packers' decision makers could decide that they want a closer look at Kizer. They could decide that Rodgers playing with a bad groin is too risky. Sending Rodgers to the bench could help them get a higher draft pick. And the groin injury gives the Packers the excuse they need to sit him. 

If all of this feels foreign, that's because the Packers haven't missed the playoffs with a healthy Rodgers since his first season as the starter way back in 2008. Rodgers also hasn't endured a season like this one ever before. Much has been made about his low interception count (2), but his touchdown rate has dropped all the way down to 4.3 percent -- a 2.4 percent decrease from last season -- which would be the lowest touchdown percentage of his career as a starter. As a result of his down season, which just happened to coincide with the ascent of the Bears, Rodgers is taking more criticism than usual.

We're not used to seeing the Packers miss the playoffs when Rodgers is playing. And we're not used to seeing Rodgers play like this. Nothing that happens in the final two weeks of the season can change any of that.