Quarterback
Green Bay Packers
PHOTO” Packer website
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/08/23/jordan-love-packers-aaron-rodgers/
Adam Kilgore reports for WashPost:
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Their season ended in January with a frail whimper and the sour departure of a quarterback both legendary and malcontent. They handed their offense to a passer whose last victory as a starter came in 2019 over New Mexico. Their wide receivers room could be confused for a day care. The Green Bay Packers possess the outward signs of a franchise in reset. Internally, they dismiss a rebuild as preposterous, not even an option. They do not play in Future Championship Equity City. Lambeau Field resides in Titletown.
“All people see is the ‘G’ on the helmet, and they expect you to win,” Coach Matt LaFleur said. “That’s the reality of this league. You can either run from it, or you embrace it.”
LaFleur spoke sitting on a couch in his new office inside the new wing of the Packers’ facility, so fresh you can still smell the construction while walking the halls. It is an apt setting from which to launch Green Bay’s first season in three decades with a quarterback other than Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers, two men now facing the roughly equivalent challenges of beating a lawsuit in Mississippi and trying to win with the New York Jets.
The Packers are running toward Year 1 of the Jordan Love era anticipating immediate results — a hope that is more realistic than outlandish. Rodgers’s exit cast a long shadow, but the shade has obscured a roster with requisite talent to win an unsettled division in the weaker conference.
“There are a lot of unknowns with our team, but I think that’s also exciting,” LaFleur said. “With no expectations, there’s no limitations.”
He learned football on YouTube in Africa. Can he make an NFL roster?
The Packers have a defense stocked with eight first-round draft picks, unapologetic belief in Love and a collective desire to prove there is life after Rodgers, whose age-related decline, cantankerousness and thumb injury last year leave Love a lower bar to clear than Rodgers’s résumé would suggest — a mandate that comes from their home city.
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Read the full report at the above link.
Only time will tell. JLove just hasn’t had enough meaningful snaps to have a good handle on what he can do over a full season.
He has a good arm and runs much better than Rodgers did at the end of his Packer career. But, we can all think of QBs with those qualities and stellar collegiate careers who never made much of a mark at the next level. Also, as a cautionary note, NFL QBs who try to do too much with their feet often end up with careers shortened by debilitating injuries (“RG III” of Washington is a recent example who comes to mind).
Also, success ultimately depends on the team. Last year, in addition to Rodgers’s sometimes struggles, there were plenty of dropped balls, inability to get separation, failure to open holes, sacks allowed, lousy tackling, and defensive lapses at particularly inopportune times.
My favorite line in Kilgore’s article described former Packer great QBs Brett Farve and Aaron Rodgers, respectively, as “two men now facing the roughly equivalent challenges of beating a lawsuit in Mississippi and trying to win with the New York Jets.”
🇺🇸 Due Process Forever, and Go Pack!
PWS
08-25-23
