Jordan Love needs to again prove himself to Packers coaches and teammates | Opinion
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Quarterback Jordan Love’s future with the Green Bay Packers isn’t certain.
What is clear is that if he’s still on the roster after the NFL draft, he must use the months of May and June to build the confidence and command of the quarterback position that has been missing from his game when Aaron Rodgers is in the building.
Coaches have spoken highly of the job Love has done preparing for training camp, especially last year when Rodgers stayed at home in protest while his teammates took part in offseason conditioning workouts and organized team activities (OTAs).
The team felt pretty good about Love’s development even though he hadn’t played in a preseason game or taken a regular-season snap. But when Rodgers returned for training camp, some in the organization said Love seemed to defer to the future Hall of Famer and didn’t show the same kind of leadership and command as he had when he was No. 1 on the depth chart during the offseason.
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Love will be back in the top spot starting next week when the Packers convene for the start of offseason workouts because Rodgers won’t be there. The veteran starter is expected to attend the team’s mandatory minicamp in June but nothing more, using his time before training camp to train on his own schedule.
Skipping everything last year didn’t hurt Rodgers’ performance in 2021, so the Packers have no problem with him working out on his own.
In the meantime, the Packers want to see Love take the ball and run with it. And then run with it some more in training camp so that they can know for sure he’s worthy of succeeding Rodgers should Rodgers decide to play more than one year. If Rodgers decides to play beyond ’22, they’ll figure out what to do with Love then.
All of this is on the condition the Packers don’t trade Love before, during or shortly after the draft.
There’s no indication the Packers are actively shopping Love, but you can bet they’re willing to listen. There’s only one reason they wouldn’t and that is they’d have to pick from a lousy corps of veteran free agents or rely on inexperienced Kurt Benkert to back up Rodgers.
The market for Love depends both on whether any teams value the Packers’ 2020 first-round pick more than any or all the quarterbacks available in this draft and whether any of those who are hungry for a quarterback feel like they aren’t in a draft position to get one of the top young prospects.
Opinions differ on Love. One scout said he’d take Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder and Ole Miss’ Matt Corral over Love.
“I wasn’t a fan of him coming out,” the source said.
Another high-ranking personnel official said that Love would easily have been the No. 1 quarterback prospect if he were coming out this year.
Another scout said he would rank him No. 2 or 3 among this year’s class.
Teams who will be considering picking a quarterback this year (their first-round picks are in parentheses): include Houston (Nos. 3 and 13), Carolina (No. 6), Atlanta (No. 8), Seattle (No. 9), New Orleans (Nos. 16 and 19) and Pittsburgh (No. 20).
It’s not that great of a draft overall at the top, so it’s possible teams wanting a quarterback won’t hesitate to use their highest picks on one, figuring they can do just as well at other positions in the second and third rounds. If that’s the case, it’s unlikely the Packers will receive much action on Love.
The Packers would want at least a second-round pick for Love and probably would jump at a first-round pick in 2023 since that draft is expected to be much better at the quarterback position. But some team would have to be convinced Love is the real deal and it’s hard to imagine that being the case given his underwhelming play against Kansas City and Detroit last year.
If the Packers did trade Love, it would probably happen shortly before the draft or during it. A team that misses out on the quarterback it wanted might decide Love is its best option and be willing to deal a future pick for him.
The way Rodgers’ contract is structured, the Packers are figuring Rodgers will either retire after this season or play through 2023. If he’s still playing at a high level, they can stick with him in ’24, but the salary cap hit they would endure after a third season would be massive and they would have to think hard about whether to exercise their option for that season.
Love has two years plus a club-option year left on his contract, so they are not in a hurry to deal him. If Rodgers chooses to play through the ’23 season, they’ll have to make a decision in May of that year whether to exercise the option and set his salary at more than $20 million in ’24.
The bottom line is that there isn’t a better time for the Packers to trade Love, given the poor quarterback draft class this year and the outstanding one next year, but there’s no reason the Packers must get rid of him. They need to wait it out and see if someone is willing to pay a good price for him.
Once the draft is over, there may be a team still interested in Love, but the Packers would have all the leverage since the other team would no longer have the draft as an option. So, chances of anything being done then are slim.
If Love is under center when OTAs begin May 23, the Packers will want to see some considerable improvement from a year ago. Though he got to play in two games last season, he didn’t look nearly as comfortable or confident as he did during his best moments at Utah State.
“Jordan’s come a long way,” coach Matt LaFleur said after last season. “I still think with any young player that hasn't gotten maybe the experience up to this point, there's still a lot of room for growth.
“So, I think it's going to be an important offseason that when he does come back, it's making sure that his footwork is sharp, that he is on the details of what we're trying to accomplish on each and every play, on all the concepts, really a mastery of the offense. And then just the command that he has.”
The last part is as important as any.
Showing some command of the offense, the huddle and the game aren’t things exclusive to Rodgers. It’s easy to see how Love might have felt the weight of Rodgers’ disappointment with Love's selection in the ’20 draft, but that time is over and now he needs to do his thing, try to establish something of his own.
If he’s doing it for some other team, so be it. But until then, he’s got to start over again proving himself to his coaches and teammates. And then carry it all the way through training camp.