Green Bay Packers Now Prepare for Life Without Jordan Love
The Green Bay Packers dodged a bullet with Jordan Love's injury, but now they must prepare for life without him for the next few weeks
The exhaling sound of relieved Packers fans filled the air around Green Bay over the weekend just as their beloved team landed back in Green Bay following their brief sojourn down to Brazil.
Not only did the Packers return from Sao Paulo with a 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in their 2024 season opener, they returned home battered and bruised, as evidenced by the last-second injury to star quarterback Jordan Love. As Packers nation held their breath for good news, the sight of Love walking down the Packers’ private plane — no matter how gingerly it was — showed us all good news was around the corner.
According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Love is reportedly believed to have suffered a sprained MCL injury and the Packers hope it will be a three-to-four week injury for the franchise quarterback. While the Packers’ belief that Love will return within that projected timeline may be overzealous as more information is gathered, there is no question that this is the best outcome that the Packers could have imagined walking off the field Friday night.
The sight of seeing Love twisting down to the ground and needing assistance walking off the field under his own power opened the floodgates for everyone’s imagination to run wild whether this Packers season would have been over just as it was starting. Now, we don’t have to imagine such a scenario at this point in time.
The Packers may have dodged a bullet, but they still face the reality of not having their star quarterback under center for the foreseeable future.
Malik Willis — the Packers’ backup quarterback to Love — was acquired just two weeks ago ahead of roster cutdowns. A day later, Sean Clifford — the rookie backup QB to Love last season — was waived, but the Packers were able to retain him via their practice squad. While that arrangement begged the question whether the Packers would entertain bringing in a free agent, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Sunday that the Packers will roll with both Willis and Clifford while they hope for a speedier recovery for Love.
Considering the Packers’ history when dealing with injuries to Aaron Rodgers over the years, it’s not surprising that they’d roll with their incumbent quarterbacks. Yet, this is a scenario the Packers uncomfortably had to envision the first week of training camp while Love was “holding in” as negotiations for his four-year, $220 million reached the finish line. Now, they face the uncomfortable reality of hosting their home opener at Lambeau Field without Love under center when the Packers host the 0-1 Indianapolis Colts Sunday afternoon.
It sets the stage for the race against time the Packers will face the rest of the season when factoring in their original goal for this year.
All of their rivals within the NFC North won in Week 1 and so did their biggest challengers elsewhere in the NFC — teams like the Eagles, Dallas Cowboys and we await to see the San Francisco 49ers’ debut. Love’s injury automatically sets the Packers behind in being able to keep with the powers that will dominate the NFC. The fact that the Packers have the fifth-hardest strength of schedule, according to Tanakathon, should not be dismissed out of hand, even if that is based on last season’ won-loss records.
Fortunately, the softer part of the Packers’ schedule will come in the next few weeks where Love will be like all of us and watch the games from the sidelines. After playing host to the Colts next week, the Packers will face the Titans in Tennessee for Week 3 and host the Minnesota Vikings in Week 4. Perhaps that Week 4 matchup against their long-standing rival will truly be when Love next sees the field, but it will be the Malik Willis show moving forward.
How Packers head coach Matt LaFleur makes the best of a bad situation and adjusts his gameplan with the set of healthy quarterbacks he has available to him is the biggest question moving forward. There’s no doubt that this will be the biggest test LaFleur has had to face since coming to Green Bay. The only comparable situation would be Rodgers missing the Packers’ Week 9 showdown against the Chiefs in Kansas City in 2021, which served as Jordan Love’s first start.
There will be more time for LaFleur and his coaching staff to prepare for Love’s absence instead of doing so during the middle of the week like he had to three years ago, but it doesn’t improve the optics all of the same.
Love is the face of the franchise for a reason. With all hope for seeing Willis ball out now that he’s thrust into the spotlight, his few spot starts while with the Titans point to someone who will have to work considerably hard to become an NFL-caliber starting quarterback. More trust may be placed in the Packers’ star running back Josh Jacobs and LaFleur may turn to wanting to play in a way that sees the Packers grind for every yard and score they can to eke out wins.
The irony in all of this is that this stretch where the Packers will be without Love is where his true value will be fully displayed for all to see. If only it did not come to this in the first place, but injuries are always a play away in the NFL and one can only hope the Packers can come together to overcome being without their biggest star.