The Green Bay Packers made a bold decision this offseason, opting to move on from long-time starting quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. He was traded to the New York Jets, opening up a spot for Jordan Love to take over as the starter.
Love, a 2020 first-round pick out of Utah State, has some huge shoes to fill taking over for a legend such as Rodgers. Expectations and predictions for him have been all over the place as he remains a bit of a mystery.
Heading into Year 4, Love has only one start in his career with 10 total appearances. He has attempted only 83 regular season passes, so it is anyone’s guess how he will respond to being the full-time starter.
But, one thing is for sure; the Packers have done everything they could to put him in place to succeed in the early going. As stated by Stacey Dales of NFL Network, the offense has been tailored to fit his skill set, as it differs from what Rodgers provided.
That is certainly a good first step in ensuring that things work out for Love in the early going. During the same appearance with Dales, former NFL running back Maurice Jones-Drew also shared what he expects from Love in his first season as the starter.
Jones-Drew preached patience, saying that success takes time and that it is a process to achieve it. He believes it would be wrong to expect a 10 or 12-win season in 2023, as even the great Rodgers struggled at times in his first seasons as the starter with the Packers going 6-10 despite having some excellent pieces around him.
Instead, what Jones-Drew believes you can expect from Love is an improvement on a weekly basis. By the end of the regular season, the Packers’ new starter will start playing his best football and showing signs of things to come.
That is a fair assessment from Jones-Drew, who played against Rodgers and the Packers during that first season with him as the starter. Digesting some of the defensive looks opponents will look to confuse him with is another thing that the former star running back suggested Love needs to prove during the 2023 season.
While all eyes will be on Love, he isn’t the only player stepping into larger roles. The Packers have a very young group of skill position players around him and it will be imperative that they grow along with him for the team to find the level of success they are capable of achieving.