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GREEN BAY, Wis. — Matt LaFleur watched from the Green Bay sideline last November as his quarterback dropped back. The Packers faced third-and-16 from the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ 35-yard line, a 10-point deficit threatening to deepen if they didn’t strike.
But Jordan Love didn’t panic.
He dropped back, and then dropped further, before unleashing a cross-body throw to the end zone.
Just beyond the hands of two defenders, receiver Jayden Reed came down with the score.
A realization fell over LaFleur.
His quarterback was seeing the game more like the fourth-year vet that Love was than the first-year full-time player he also was.
“Early on, you’re trying to protect him — protect everybody, quite frankly, not just him, but all the youth,” LaFleur told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday after practice at Packers training camp. “We got a little too conservative. The mindset we always [say] around here with the coaches is, ‘Shoot or shoot.’
“We started doing that, our guys were making plays and it obviously served us well down the stretch.”
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A late-season surge and 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 that his success wasn’t a fluke. Rather, the Packers view 2023 as a realization of potential they’d watched burgeon for three years in practices. Watching Love’s command of the huddle and decision-making on game days, 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 rolling with Love, whose current training camp hold-in centers on the exact price of his services rather than whether the partnership is of interest to both parties.
Will he pan out?
“We feel very, very confident that the success he had last year was no mistake,” Gutekunst told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday during practice. “He’s still got a lot of growth. There’s a lot in front of him, and that’s why we need him out here as soon as we can get him because there’s a lot of important things he needs to go through to get ready for this season.
“But I do think having that history with him gives us a lot of confidence where he’s going.”
While Aaron Rodgers won MVPs, Jordan Love was developing behind the scenes
The majority of NFL teams would hesitate to do what the Packers did this week. Anointing a franchise quarterback after a single starting season’s body of work is rare. Still rarer: the road Love and the Packers traveled to that season.
Look no further than the record six quarterbacks drafted in the first 12 picks of this year’s NFL Draft to wonder if teams are desperate to find a quarterback and rapid to install their pick. First-round quarterbacks don’t usually sit their rookie year in today’s NFL. Love had the luxury of three years to grow.
It’s tough to trace the degree to which Green Bay’s patience has bred success versus its success fostering a culture of patience.
But Aaron Rodgers sat for three years before he collected 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 fared better last year.
“A lot of quarterbacks get ruined in this league because they play well before they’re ready,” LaFleur said.
LaFleur opted instead to challenge Love mentally from the start, ditching his philosophy of bringing quarterback schematic knowledge along gradually. After the Packers selected Love 26th overall in 2020, much to Rodgers’ dismay, LaFleur decided to throw mass volumes of protection and formation information at Love.
“I changed my philosophy on how you train the quarterback,” LaFleur said. “I think you throw as much at them now as they can handle and just allow them to make mistakes along the way.
“A lot of times those [mistakes] are your best teachers.”
Some of those mistakes came in practices, as Love learned how to flip a protection (a presnap realignment of his teammates, diagnoses not all coaches ask their quarterbacks to master), and others in spot play, like a 13-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2021 in which Love posted a 69.5 passer rating.
His 96.1 rating last season reflected cleaner mechanics and clearer field vision.
Center Josh Myers marveled as Love navigated a “run can” to a pass, adjusting his protection to counter a zero blitz en route to a touchdown.
“It was like, ‘Wow, that was like the pinnacle of quarterback play in football,’” Myers told Yahoo Sports. “He’s come a long way.”
Backup quarterback Sean Clifford took note one game when Love thought he heard a third-down call that wasn’t meant for the red zone, and threw a touchdown on a corner route anyway.
“That was when you started to see the confidence [that] it doesn’t need to be the perfect play,” Clifford told Yahoo Sports. “If it’s a play that Jordan likes, he can rip and he makes that play.”
Teammates’ stories continue, from the poise Love showed in a playoff upset victory 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 whether he should always be surprised or never be.
“I’m like, I didn’t even know he had that in his bag,” Gary told Yahoo Sports. “I’m happy to be on his team and not go against him.”
How much will contract stalemate impact Love, Packers’ 2024 season?
Entering his second year starting, Love faces a double-edged sword.
The pros: He’s an experienced player, he’ll enjoy more aggressive and confident play calls from LaFleur, his supporting cast is broader, and the Packers rave about the underrated command of protections that blossomed in his game last year.
The cons: Defensive coordinators had no game film to prepare for him last season. In recent months, they’ve pored over how to exploit the weakness that caused his 11 interceptions and nine fumbles, and how to thwart the mind games and athleticism that drove his 32 touchdowns.
Elevating chemistry with a group of receivers that’s deeper than flashy will be key. So, too, will integrating concepts defenses haven’t seen.
Ah, that’s the rub.
Love has yet to practice in training camp.
He attended each of three practices in street clothes.
Love’s representation team of David Mulugheta and Andrew Kessler informed the Packers on Saturday night that their client would not participate in practice until they finalized a contract extension.
Optimism surfaced earlier this summer that a deal would close before training camp began, a person with knowledge of negotiations told Yahoo Sports.
But to close this quickly, the Packers will likely need to at least pony up the equivalent of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s contract, per a person with knowledge of the negotiations. Lawrence signed a five-year extension worth $275 million this offseason, his $55 million annual average tying Joe Burrow’s league-high extension from the Cincinnati Bengals. Burrow’s $219 million guarantees and $146 million full guarantees top Lawrence’s $200 million and $142 million respectively, per overthecap.com.
Love’s representation will be looking to maximize their client’s total earnings, guarantees and imminent cash flow.
Optimism remains that a deal will get done soon. Until then, Love’s camp believes the chance of injury derailing the quarterback’s value is too risky. Contract negotiations often tilt leverage toward NFL teams and ownership due to existing labor agreements, and withholding labor is one of the players’ few historically successful leverage tactics.
Since quarterback holdouts pose a unique challenge given their leadership and schematic involvement relative to other positions, Love is holding in.
Jordan Love coaching Packers rookie QB Michael Pratt on technique.
Michael told me Jordan’s helped his film study, too.
“He’ll be like, ‘Hey, Mike, who’s the O-line got, who are they working to, what’s the protection?’ Jordan has done a great job…asking me tough questions.” pic.twitter.com/7gmLjV2osG
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) July 24, 2024
Teammates say he’s engaged in each meeting, challenging them in film study and coaching their techniques.
Love helped one offensive lineman stretch his hip flexors during Tuesday’s practice, recommending fundamental tweaks to rookie quarterback Michael Pratt’s individual work on Wednesday.
But he’s not taking snaps or competing against the defense.
“I know he doesn’t want to be sitting out,” Myers said. “Like he does not want that.
“He’s just out there being positive.”
Leadership and vibe-boosting is great. But front-office members believe practice is key to their comfortably stated Super Bowl goal.
Padded practice work is next in training camp, and subject to time limitations by collectively bargained rules. That’s the next benchmark Love is set to miss if negotiations don’t wrap soon.
“Every day he misses is not great for our football team,” Gutekunst told Yahoo Sports. “We certainly understand the decisions he’s making. But yeah, this time is really, really important for our entire team. Certainly for him as well and we want him out there. We’d like him out there. We expect him out there.”