The Green Bay Packers went 13-3 last season, won the NFC North and reached the NFC Championship Game for a second straight year. The Packers lost to Tampa Bay, though, 31-26, in the conference title game and the offseason has been packed with drama.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers wants out of Green Bay and the sportsbooks in Las Vegas are now bracing for his retirement. Stay tuned for more theatrics in the days ahead.
With or without Rodgers, Green Bay will start training camp practices on July 28. Throughout the rest of the month, I will count down the ‘30 Most Important Packers’ heading into the 2021 campaign.
At No. 6 is quarterback Jordan Love. With the status of Rodgers in limbo, it makes it tough to predict exactly how much Love will be needed in 2021.
If Rodgers is actually finished in Green Bay, Love climbs to No. 1 on this list. If Rodgers returns this week — or even before the regular season begins on Sept. 12 — Love falls in the 15-20 range.
For now, we’ll place him at No. 6. The other players that have been revealed in the top-30 are listed at the bottom of the story.
No. 6
QB Jordan Love
Last season: Love, the 26th pick in the 2020 draft, had a truncated offseason during his rookie year due to COVID-19. Preseason games — which could have been enormous for Love’s growth — were later canceled. And eventually, Love was inactive for all 18 of Green Bay’s games.
During OTA’s and mini-camp this spring, though, Love looked like a player capable of taking a major step forward in 2021.
“I think Jordan came in with the right mindset,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “I think (quarterbacks/passing game coordinator) Luke Getsy and (offensive coordinator Nathaniel) Hackett have done a great job getting him prepared. And ultimately it’s going to be, how do you take the classroom to individual and the individual to the team drills and getting the opportunity to go out there in the preseason and show what he can do.”
Career to date: Love, who played collegiately at Utah State, excelled under coach Matt Wells in 2018. That season Love had 32 touchdown passes, six interceptions, threw for 3,567 yards and completed 64.0% of his passes. Wells left for Texas Tech, though, was replaced by former University of Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen, and Love struggled.
In 2019, Love threw 20 touchdowns, a concerning 17 interceptions and averaged just 7.2 yards per throw. Love had six games with multiple interceptions and had three picks returned for touchdowns.
Some blamed the talent around Love and the coaching change, but his decision making in 2019 was also abysmal. In addition, Love was cited for marijuana possession in December, but the case was later dismissed.
Love (6-4, 219) has fantastic arm talent, can throw from several arm slots, has nifty touch on deep balls and has extremely large hands (10 ½ inches). Love’s confidence is sky-high, he’s a natural thrower and he has terrific scrambling ability.
Love seemed to lack anticipation, though, and was slow in his reads at Utah State. Love has a long windup and will stare receivers down. At times, Love bailed on plays before he needed to and his accuracy declined in 2019.
Love’s physical gifts and flashes of brilliance excited many teams, though, including Green Bay.
Outlook: Love’s future is clearly tied to Rodgers.
At this point, it's impossible to predict whether Love might start all 17 games or never get off the bench in 2020.
What Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur made clear before the offseason program ended is he won’t design two playbooks — one for Rodgers and another for Love.
“We’ll have one plan,” LaFleur said. “We’ve kind of pretty much laid that out.
“We’ve got what we feel is a pretty good blueprint in terms of how to get our guys ready to play. We feel confident with what we’ll have in place with the guys. We’ll look forward to getting them back July 27.”
If the Packers eventually trade Rodgers for a bevy of picks and players, they’ll almost certainly take a step back in 2021. But the Packers could be back near the top of the NFC if — and this is a big if — Love can play.
A Rodgers trade would set Green Bay up with multiple first- and second-round picks for the next two to three years.
Love counts just $2.8 million against the salary cap this year and $3.4 million in 2022, while Rodgers counts $37.2 million this year and $39.85 million in 2022. Imagine the free agents Green Bay could sign with that extra money.
Trading Rodgers wouldn’t mean gloom and doom. With the extra picks and cap room, Green Bay’s already stacked roster would become even stronger.
The key, of course, is can Love play?
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“I think he’s done a great job of embracing just the whole situation, embracing learning from every rep. One thing we talked about … is, ‘Hey man, you’re going to have some great days and you’re going to have some days that aren’t as great. And you’ve got to be able to ride that wave. You’re never too high, you’re never too low and just making sure that you learn from each and every rep.’ And I think he’s done a really good job of that.” — Packers coach Matt LaFleur on Love
“He’s gotten reps this year that he didn’t really have last year, especially with the 1s, and you can see him getting more comfortable. It’s really good to see. He’s my good friend so to see him going out there – from the first OTA practice where he was kind of a little nervous to now like scrambling and making really good passes and stuff like that – ...it's really cool to see him just having fun and doing what he was brought here to do, you know?” — Packers running back A.J. Dillon on Love
“One of the bigger things with Jordan right now is his confidence in the system. Coming from college and then picking it up as a rookie, being able to have a whole season just to be able to learn that so he can go out there and execute is so important and something that it kind of takes that off of his plate. Instead of trying to learn the verbiage and just understand how to call the plays he can do that much easier now and then be able to go out there and execute them. And I think that’s something we’ve been able to see, so now we can talk about the techniques and the reads and those intricate details that we want to get to him.” — Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett on Love
THE TOP 30
• No. 29 — ILB De’Vondre Campbell
• No. 28 — WR/PR Amari Rodgers
• No. 27 — CB Chandon Sullivan
• No. 16 — WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling
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