Now that I got my thoughts on Aaron Rodgers with the Jets out of the way. Let’s get into the topic of Jordan Love as the Green Bay Packers starting QB & hopefully, he’s the future of the organization like A-Rod & Brett Favre before him.

Let’s get into how we got here because it was a hell of a rollercoaster getting here.

It all started on April 23rd, 2020 in the 2020 NFL Draft with Green Bay coming off a surprising rebound from the 2018 season being at 6-9-1 firing HC Mike McCarthy and hiring Matt LaFleur from the Tennessee Titans as their OC. A lot of things went into the Packers’ favor for them to be 13-3 in 2019 & having the 2nd seed with a bye.* They won a playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks in the Divisional Round before losing to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Conference Championship Game.

* 2019 would be the final year when the playoff format would have the 2nd seed would be considered a bye before the league added the 7th seed to the playoffs picture nowadays.

As for 2020, the Packers had a few position needs going into the draft with linebacker, defensive lineman & the most vital one, Wide Receiver. While the Packers had Davante Adams but the other receivers behind are either aging vets or young unknown receivers. The Packers traded up in that draft from the 30th pick to 26th pick with the Miami Dolphins, which was also the Houston Texans pick from the Laremy Tunsil trade in 2019. A lot of people would think it would be Clemson Wide Receiver Tee Higgins, USC Wide Receiver Michael Pittman or even LSU Linebacker Patrick Queen but it was for Utah State QB Jordan Love to make the most awkward moment of the draft since the Packers selected Cal QB Aaron Rodgers was selected in the 2005 draft when they had Brett Favre. Oh!

Green Bay selecting a QB in the first round of that draft made little to no sense for Jordan Love than it did when they selected Aaron Rodgers. When the Packers selected Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre was horrendous in the 2004 Wild Card Round that had bonehead turnover after turnover that was covered by the Randy Moss celebrating for a TD by fake mooning the Packers fans. Aaron Rodgers wasn’t great in 2019 when they won 13 games but even that didn’t make it more sense when the window was starting to open. Jordan Love had a good 2018 season for Utah State but had a really bad 2019 season with a lot of turnovers.

During Jordan Love’s first 2 years with the Packers, he had to watch as Aaron Rodgers was playing pissed off in a beautiful way of showing winning 13 games in 2019 wasn’t a fluke as he did it again in 2020 with another 13-3 record and Rodgers winning the MVP for the 3rd time in his career almost unanimously and the same can be said in 2021 as he threw for 8,414 Yards, 85 TDs, 9 Picks & completed an insane 69.8% of his passes in those 2 years. Talk about making a tough act to follow for Jordan.

Unfortunately, in that same span, the Packers only won 1 playoff game in those 2 seasons & the downfall spiral started when star WR Davante Adams requested a trade out of Green Bay after talks of Aaron Rodgers thinking of retirement, which he didn’t at the end of it all. The team was still projected to at least have a winning record in 2022 but that wasn’t the case. They started off awful with chaos of the lack of chemistry with Rodgers & his receivers whether it was on the coaching, receivers themselves, defense couldn’t keep them in games or Aaron Rodgers himself with or without the thumb injury on his throwing hand. Green Bay ended with a record of 8-9 which was the first time since 2018 & first losing season for Matt LaFleur.

Green Bay saw the writing on the wall that the contending window was starting to close & they ship off Aaron Rodgers to the Jets since they don’t want to have him being a part of possible rebuild.

Now, we get to Jordan Love. During his time in Green Bay, he did play a few games with his first start against Patrick Mahomes, which was an obvious loss, & a couple of games where the Packers either had an automatic bye for the final week or garbage time in a possible loss.

My expectations for the Packers with Jordan Love are low but not dreadful low with a decent showing for the Pack. They may ask Love to be a game manager before letting him go off on taking the big shots down the field. The Packers still have a strong run game with RBs Aaron Jones & AJ Dillon & an alright defense in the Secondary & Linebackers. Hopefully, they keep him in games but I’m not saying that confidently. They don’t want to go back to the 1980s with another QB Carousel if Jordan Love isn’t him.

– Jonathan Misak

*Photo Courtesy of Sports Illustrated *