GREEN BAY, Wis. – On the Monday after the 2023 NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers have a $19.8 million decision to make on Jordan Love.
That’s the fully guaranteed price tag on Love’s fifth-year option. The Packers have to flip the switch on that by May 1 to ensure he’ll remain with the Packers in 2024. If not, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent following the end of next season.

With a 5-8 record at the bye following Sunday’s win at Chicago, the Packers’ playoff hopes are on life support. Assuming they’re eliminated at some point, wouldn’t it make sense to have Aaron Rodgers step aside and elevate Love into the starting lineup to help inform that major financial decision?

“No,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said on Monday. “We’re really pleased with his progression and what he’s been able to do. I think that it would be really good for him, the growth that you need to go through, seeing things for the first time, making those mistakes that you need to make. But I think from our end of it, we’ve seen what we need to see.”

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“I’d say that, yes, you’d have some sense of whether a guy has ‘it’ by then or not,” one of them said. “Three years is a good length of time to have a body of work to observe/make a judgement on that. Especially at that position, seeing how he operates daily, how he interacts with guys on and off the field, how locked in he is during practice and also how successful he is against the starters while running the scout team.”

The other part of what Gutekunst said is important. Does Love need to play to prove anything? No. Would it be good for Love to play? Yes.

Continue Reading @ Sports Illustrated 

Sports Illustrated wrote:

This team already gave up on Aaron Rodgers. They know he can't do it in the playoffs. 

Does he really give us the best chance to win? It's the playoffs already for us. We need to win out, all the way to the SB, otherwise we're done for this year.

Originally Posted by: nerdmann 

AR12 is working on his legacy. He ain't stepping aside for nobody. It doesn't matter if the Packers are still in the hunt for the playoffs or not.

wpr wrote:

AR12 is working on his legacy. He ain't stepping aside for nobody. It doesn't matter if the Packers are still in the hunt for the playoffs or not.

What I would like to see is the Packers have a behind closed door chat with Love and his agent. Let them know they are not giving him the 5th year option but when he becomes a FA, they will bring him back. Offer him $10 mil to sit one more year then give him starter money in year 6 which will be the 2nd year of his new contract. The $10 mil the Packers save by not giving him the 5th year can be added into his second contract.

He already will know the system. He will know the players. The startup time will be shorter with GB than it will be if he leaves and goes to another city.



 

Originally Posted by: wpr