The Jordan Love era is here for the Green Bay Packers. Here are five reasons to believe it will be long and successful.
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy famously said the train had left the station when the team traded Brett Favre to the New York Jets and moved to a young Aaron Rodgers.
That same train is on a similar track. Rodgers was traded to the Jets this offseason, giving way to Brian Gutekunst’s legacy draft choice.
Jordan Love will be the team’s starting quarterback this year.
When he was selected in 2020, the pick was met with relative scorn. Picking a third-string quarterback for a team that was one game away from the Super Bowl seemed preposterous.
Yet that is exactly what Gutekunst did.
In a league that requires instant satisfaction, Love had to wait his turn. He was inactive for every game during his rookie season. In 2021, he became the backup when Tim Boyle signed with the Lions. He had a forgettable start in Kansas City and an extended cameo in Detroit in a meaningless season finale.
With two seasons under his belt, the Packers and Rodgers were at a crossroads. Rodgers had won back-to-back MVPs, and the team was on the cusp of a Super Bowl.
Instead of handing the keys to Love and getting a bevvy of draft capital in exchange for Rodgers, the Packers extended their longtime starting quarterback.
Many, including Love, thought that was the end of his time as the team’s heir apparent to Rodgers.
Love told Packers media in May, “I’ll admit, I think the hardest time was when he re-signed the contract last year. It was like, ‘OK, well, where do we go from here? What do I do?’ And I think I sat back, thought to myself and just came back with the approach like ‘Let’s just go ball out any opportunity I get. I’m going to get preseason and who knows what happens after that, so just grow and try and become the best version of myself, and I can’t really control what happens after that, so let it play out.”
There’s no doubt anymore who their man is. Here are five reasons to believe he can be their quarterback of the future.
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