The Wide World of Dirt

With last week’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Green Bay Packers have fallen to 4-8 with only a faint glimmer of a postseason berth.

They have to win out.

Those playoff dreams took a major hit on Sunday when quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered a rib injury, allowing for second-stringer Jordan Love to get in some snaps.

Against an Eagles’ defense that has proven formidable this season, Love showed signs of the prospect that Green Bay traded up to grab.

Love connected on 6 of his 9 passes, throwing for 113 yards. This included marching the Green Bay offense down the field and throwing a strike to rookie Christian Watson for a touchdown.

After being drafted in the first round by the Packers in 2020, the decision to pick Love was derided by many in the media.

Love Finds A Way To Green Bay

Love shined as a sophomore at Utah State, leading the Aggies to an 11-2 record and a New Mexico Bowl victory over North Texas where Love brought home the hardware, winning MVP of the game after throwing for over 300 yards and 4 TDs.

Because of Utah State’s resurgence, head coach Matt Wells was poached by Texas Tech to replace Kliff Kingsbury, so coming into his junior year, Love had to adjust to a new head coach and a new offense.

Love’s 2019 performance suffered for that, throwing only three more TDs than INTs and lowering his completion percentage.

The junior still showed flashes of his 2018 self by exhibiting his powerful arm at times, so scouts weren’t as perturbed by the dip in production.

Deciding to forgo his senior year with the Aggies, Love entered his name in the 2020 NFL Draft, and after a strong showing in the combine and USU’s pro day, Love found himself poised for a Day 1 or Day 2 selection in the NFL Draft.

Instead of a QB-hungry franchise like the Buccaneers or Lions picking him up, the Packers made a trade with the Dolphins to select Love 26th overall.

This established a trend for Green Bay, having selected Rodgers late in the first round way back in 2005 while Brett Favre was still a viable starter.

Much like Favre before him, Rodgers didn’t take kindly to this news.

Fresh off an NFC Championship appearance the year before, the two-time NFL MVP hoped the organization he brought the Lombardi home to in 2010 would bring in a great receiver to pair with rising star Davante Adams.

With Love’s junior year being seen as a regression and names like Tee Higgins, Michael Pittman Jr,, and Denzel Mims still on the board, the Love pick was questionable at-best and a mismanagement of assets at-worst.

The pick lit a fire under the disgruntled Rodgers, taking his game to new heights recent HC hire Matt LeFleur.

Rodgers tossed the rock for new career-highs in completion percentage (70.7) and passing TDs (48) in guiding the Packers to an NFC North title and another appearance in the NFC Championship.

Playing against Tom Brady’s Buccaneers, Rodgers gave the Packers the lead going into half, but baffling decisions by the veteran QB down the stretch allowed the Bucs to rally, taking a 31-26 victory to go to the Super Bowl.

The former Cal Bear didn’t miss out on the hardware, taking home NFL MVP for a third time and re-establishing himself as an elite passer in the league.

All the while, Love was listed as the third-string QB, watching and learning from Rodgers as he tore through the NFL.

The benching was especially beneficial for Love. With the pandemic eliminating training camp and preseason games, this allowed the rookie to really absorb the offense and not risk putting him in too early, which could stifle his development.

Rodgers Continues to Pack the Stat Sheet

With the NFL constructing a more organized and proactive approach to the pandemic, the 2021 preseason looked much more normal, helping many young players like Love continue to develop an understanding of the playbook.

The extra time put in allowed the second-year man out of USU to move up to second on the QB depth chart behind Rodgers.

For his part, Rodgers spent much of the offseason, (rightfully) whining and bellyaching about the Packers’ front office not giving their MVP QB weapons, which ultimately culminated in a trade request to several teams, most notable the 49ers.

Love got his first official NFL snaps against the Saints in week 1 of the 2021 season because Rodgers and the offense failed to launch.

The second-stringer went 5/7 for 68 yards, but much like Rodgers all game, couldn’t find the end zone either, leading to a 38-3 loss.

It wasn’t until week 9 against the Chiefs that Love saw meaningful field time.

With Rodgers ineligible to play due to contracting Covid, Love stepped into the starting role on a chilly November day in Kansas City.

For his first NFL start, Love turned in an admirable performance, going 19/34 for 190 yards alongside first career TD and first career INT.

Love even outdueled perennial All-Pro selection Patrick Mahomes, who threw for 166 yards on two more passes, but that didn’t reflect in the final score with the Chiefs taking the win, 13-7.

Rodgers resumed his starting role the following week, and he continued to put up stellar numbers as the 2021 season began to wind down.

Though not as impressive as 2020, Rodgers still put up 4115 yards, 37 TDs, and just 4 INTs in defense of his MVP campaign.

He brought home the hardware yet again, claiming the MVP mantle for another year while continuing to underperform for the Packers when it mattered most.

While the Packers secured the only bye for the NFC in the NFL’s newly-structured playoff format, this didn’t help them execute against the 49ers in the divisional round.

After holding a narrow lead in a frigid Lambeau environment, the 49ers stole the lead away from the Packers late in the 4th quarter.

With a chance to equalize the game or even take the lead, the usually dependable Rodgers couldn’t pull the rabbit out of his helmet, losing the ball on downs and eventually falling to the team he idolized growing up.

The team he requested to be traded to just months earlier.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Another offseason came with the Packers’ front office making more puzzling decisions, trading All-Pro receiver Davante Adams being the most notorious.

Instead of doing the intelligent thing and drafting a receiver in the first round of the 2022 draft with their capitol gained from the Adams trade, the Packers opted to fortify their defense with their first rounders.

They were willing to move up to select Love in 2020, but not to move up and a select a receiver when they had the resources to do so.

Luckily for Rodgers, they brought in receivers Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs to help out what was already a weak receiving corps even with Adams on the roster.

All of this after rumors swirled during the offseason of Rodgers wanting a trade again and possibly looking to retire before finally settling back in Green Bay with a fresh, three-year contract extension.

The investment in Rodgers by the Packers called into question Love’s readiness to “be the guy” for Wisconsin’s team, given he had minimal on-field results to show in his first two seasons.

Coming into year three, Love continued to sit behind Rodgers as the second-string QB, patiently mastering LeFleur’s offense and learning under his 4x MVP teammate.

Rodgers looked to continue his dominance of the NFC North in 2022, especially after three straight 13-win seasons, but that hasn’t exactly been the case this season.

Rodgers has looked out of sorts at times, not throwing for more than 300 yards in any of his 12 games this season.

As a result, the run game hasn’t gotten much traction either, and the defense is suffering from being on the field more often than they should be.

Choose Love?

The Packers are now 4-8 in 2022, and they must win out to make the playoffs.

Rodgers has been in tough situations before and come out looking brighter than ever before, but nagging thumb and rib injuries along with an unproven and unhealthy receiving corps down the stretch are not helping matters.

This will likely be Rodgers’ toughest battle since taking the starting role after Favre’s retirement in 2008.

As long as Rodgers is upright and the Packers remain in contention for a playoff spot, they should be playing him, no doubt.

He has done too much for this franchise to be treated any differently.

If the Packers slip out of the playoff race, he should immediately hit the bench for his health, for the future of the Packers, and Love’s personal development.

Rodgers turned 39 years old this week, and he likely only has a few more good years ahead of him. It appears Rodgers acknowledges this, telling ESPN:

…if that conversation [about benching] comes up, I’ll approach that with an open mind and without any bitterness. Obviously, like I said, I want to win out, and we don’t have to have those conversations. I understand that if we don’t, that’s a possibility we have those conversations.

This appears to be a far cry from the man crying on Pat McAfee’s show about not feeling wanted in Green Bay and feeling pushed out the back door like a mistress.

The worst part in all of this is that the Packers’ front office needs to see more from Love on the field in competitive situations, specifically because the team needs to come to a decision by May on if they’ll sign his fifth-year option.

Love has looked very promising in his limited playing time, but it’s not enough of a sample size for me to be certain if he’s ready to assume the Packers’ starting role long-term if Rodgers were to retire tomorrow.

He appears to be a great prospect, but his performance against a terrible Lions team in the second half in the final regular season game of 2021 gives me cause for pause.

If the Packers lose any of their final five games, they will be eliminated from the playoffs, and Jordan Love should be the starter for the remaining games.

And, Jordan Love needs to continue to show out. Otherwise, his future in Green Bay and in the NFL is in serious jeopardy.