GREEN BAY, Wis. – Matt LaFleur watched from the Green Bay sideline last November as his quarterback retreated. The Packers faced third-and-16 at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 35-yard line, a 10-point deficit threatening to widen if they didn’t attack.
But Jordan Love didn’t panic.
He fell back, then fell even further, before throwing a cross-field throw into the end zone.
Just beyond the hands of two defenders, receiver Jayden Reed scored the score.
A realization dawned on LaFleur.
Their quarterback was seeing the game more like the fourth-year veteran that Love was than the first-year full-time player that he also was.
“At first, you’re trying to protect him — protect everyone, frankly, not just him, but all the young guys,” LaFleur told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday after practice at Packers training camp. “We got a little too conservative. The mentality that always [say] around here with the coaches it’s: ‘Shoot or shoot’.
“We started doing that, our guys were making plays and obviously that served us well down the stretch.”
With a late-season surge and a playoff win later, the Packers enter 2024 with a still-young team in a competitive division. But they learned enough about their young quarterback in his first full year to decide his success was no fluke. Instead, the Packers see 2023 as realizing the potential they saw grow over three years in practice. Looking at Love’s command of the huddle and game day decision-making, the Packers management was sold.
So general manager Brian Gutekunst said resolutely this week: Green Bay no longer has a decision to make at franchise quarterback. The Packers are betting on Love, whose current training camp focuses on the exact price of his services rather than whether the partnership is in the best interest of both parties.
Will it work?
“We are very, very confident that the success he had last year was not a mistake,” Gutekunst told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday during practice. “He still has a lot of growth. There’s a lot ahead of him and that’s why we need him here as soon as we can get him because there are a lot of important things he needs to go through to get ready for this season.
“But I think having that history with him gives us a lot of confidence in where he’s going.”
While Aaron Rodgers won MVPs, Jordan Love developed behind the scenes
Most NFL teams would be hesitant to do what the Packers did this week. Anointing a franchise quarterback after a single starting season’s work is rare. Even rarer: the path Love and the Packers took that season.
Just look at the record six quarterbacks taken in the first 12 picks of this year’s NFL Draft to wonder if teams are desperate to find a quarterback and quick to install their pick. First-round quarterbacks generally don’t spend their rookie year in today’s NFL. Love had the luxury of three years to grow.
It’s difficult to trace the extent to which Green Bay’s patience has bred success versus its success in fostering a culture of patience.
But Aaron Rodgers sat for three years before collecting four MVP awards and a Super Bowl victory with the Packers. After Love sat for three years, he passed for the seventh-most yards (4,159) and second-most touchdowns (32) last season. No first-year starter did better last year.
“A lot of quarterbacks get ruined in this league because they play well before they’re ready,” LaFleur said.
LaFleur chose to challenge Love mentally early on, abandoning his philosophy of bringing schematic knowledge to the quarterback gradually. After the Packers drafted Love 26th overall in 2020, much to Rodgers’ chagrin, LaFleur decided to throw large volumes of protective and formation information at Love.
“I changed my philosophy on how to coach the quarterback,” LaFleur said. “I think you throw at them as much as they can handle and just allow yourself to make mistakes along the way.
“Often those [mistakes] They are your best teachers.”
Some of these errors occurred in practice, when Love learned to invert a protection (a pre-snap realignment of his teammates, a diagnosis that not all coaches ask their defenders to master), and others in specific games, such as a loss by 13-7 to Kansas. City Chiefs in 2021, in which Love posted a 69.5 passing rating.
His 96.1 rating last season reflected cleaner mechanics and clearer field vision.
Center Josh Myers marveled as Love navigated a “run can” for a pass, adjusting his protection to counter a zero blitz en route to a touchdown.
“It was like, ‘Wow, that was the pinnacle of quarterback play in football,’” Myers told Yahoo Sports. “He’s come a long way.”
Backup quarterback Sean Clifford called a play when Love thought he heard a third-down call that wasn’t for the red zone, and threw a touchdown on a corner route anyway.
“That’s when you started to see the confidence [that] It doesn’t have to be a perfect play,” Clifford told Yahoo Sports. “If it’s a play Jordan likes, he can rip it up and make that play.”
The teammates’ stories continue, from the poise Love showed in a playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys to the early lead he built in a 3-point divisional loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
When Love completed a no-look pass in OTAs, edge rusher Rashan Gary was starting to wonder if he should always be surprised or never.
“I thought, I didn’t even know he had this in the bag,” Gary told Yahoo Sports. “I’m happy to be on his team and not go against him.”
How much will the contract impasse impact the Love, Packers’ 2024 season?
Entering his second year as a starter, Love faces a double-edged sword.
The pros: He’s an experienced player, he’ll like LaFleur’s more aggressive and confident play, his supporting cast is broader and the Packers praise the underrated command of protections that blossomed into his game last year.
The cons: Defensive coordinators didn’t have any game film to prepare for last season. In recent months, they have focused on how to exploit the weakness that caused his 11 interceptions and nine fumbles, and how to thwart the mind games and athleticism that fueled his 32 touchdowns.
Elevating the chemistry with a receiver group that is more deep than flashy will be key. The same will happen with the integration of concepts that defenses have not yet seen.
Ah, that’s the problem.
Love has yet to practice in training camp.
He participated in each of the three practices in street clothes.
Love’s representation team, David Mulugheta and Andrew Kessler, informed the Packers on Saturday night that their client would not participate in workouts until they finalized a contract extension.
Optimism arose earlier this summer that a deal would be reached before the start of training camp, a person with knowledge of negotiations told Yahoo Sports.
But to close it quickly, the Packers will likely need to shell out at least the equivalent of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s contract, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations. Lawrence signed a five-year, $275 million extension this offseason, his $55 million annual average tying Joe Burrow’s extension from the Cincinnati Bengals. Burrow’s $219 million guarantees and $146 million total guarantees surpass Lawrence’s $200 million and $142 million, respectively, per overthecap.com.
Love’s representation will seek to maximize its clients’ total earnings, collateral, and imminent cash flow.
Optimism remains that a deal will be reached soon. Until then, Love’s team believes the chance of an injury hurting the quarterback’s value is too risky. Contract negotiations often tilt leverage toward NFL teams and ownership due to existing labor agreements, and labor retention is one of the few historically successful player leverage tactics.
Because tough quarterbacks pose a unique challenge given their leadership and schematic involvement relative to other positions, Love is holding his own.
“Jordan Love coaching Packers rookie QB Michael Pratt on technique”.
Michael told me that Jordan also helped with his film studies.
“He’ll be like, ‘Hey, Mike, who’s the O-line, who are they working for, what’s the protection?’ Jordan did a great job…asking me tough questions.” pic.twitter.com/7gmLjV2osG
-Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) July 24, 2024
Teammates say he is involved in every meeting, challenging them in film study and practicing their techniques.
Love helped an offensive lineman stretch his hip flexors during Tuesday’s practice, recommending key adjustments to rookie quarterback Michael Pratt’s individual work on Wednesday.
But he’s not taking shots or competing against the defense.
“I know he doesn’t want to sit out,” Myers said. “Like he didn’t want that.
“He’s out there being positive.”
Leadership and raising vibration are great. But members of the front office believe practice is key to their comfortably stated Super Bowl goal.
Quilted practical work is next in boot camp and is subject to time limitations by collectively negotiated rules. That’s the next milestone Love will miss if negotiations don’t end soon.
“Every day he misses is not good for our football team,” Gutekunst told Yahoo Sports. “We certainly understand the decisions he is making. But yes, this time is very, very important for our entire team. Certainly for him too and we want him out there. We wish he was out there. We wait for him outside.”
