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As the Aaron Rodgers era in Green Bay nears its end, the Jordan Love era is set to begin.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur doesn’t think fans should expect Love to play like peak Rodgers out of the gate, though. Speaking to reporters at the NFL owners meeting, LaFleur signaled that Packers fans should at least be cautious with their expectations for Love as he prepares to be a full-time starter for the first time in his career.
“We’re excited about Jordan and how he’s been able to progress as a quarterback, how he’s matured as a man,” LaFleur said. “It’s going to be a different role for him, certainly, and I think we all have to kind of temper our expectations for him. It’s different when you’re going into a game versus when you’re starting a game. It’s going to be a process, but it’s gonna be exciting for him, for us.
“I don’t think any quarterback can truly do it on their own in this league. So it’s going to be everybody rallying around him and trying to be at the best of their ability so that he can go out there and perform as good as he possibly can.”
FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd noted that it seems like the Packers know what they have with Love – and it isn’t Rodgers in his MVP days.
“It doesn’t exactly sound like they have [Justin] Herbert, Trevor Lawrence or [Patrick] Mahomes on their hands,” Cowherd said on Wednesday’s “The Herd.” “Two things I think the Packers are telling you with all these bytes, with all of these leaks, with all of these reports: He’s not Mahomes. He’s not Burrow. If he was, they wouldn’t have signed Aaron to an extension, right? Alex Smith was a Pro Bowler, they moved off of him as a Pro Bowl quarterback who was getting a team to the playoffs. They moved off of him for Mahomes. He’s not going to be that. He’s not going to be upper-crust, top five or six.”
However, Cowherd mentioned the fact that the Packers are starting Love and trading Rodgers and possibly eating a lot of his salary to do so doesn’t mean they think the 2020 first-round pick is bad, either.
“He’s probably somewhere between the 13th-best quarterback and the 23rd,” Cowherd said. “That’s Daniel Jones, Mac Jones and Ryan Tannehill range. That tells me the Packers are the in the 9-8, 8-9 category.”
As Cowherd pointed out, that’s the same range the Packers were in last season. They finished 8-9 and the play they got out of Rodgers might have actually been closer to that 13-to-23 range that Cowherd mentioned. He was 11th in passing yards (3,695) and seventh in passing touchdowns (26), but threw the seventh-most interceptions (12) and was 17th in passer rating (91.1).
Do Packers have low expectations for Jordan Love?
Colin Cowherd explained why the Packers shouldn’t expect a major dropoff in 2023.
While Cowherd believes that the lack of top-end and promising quarterback play in the NFC could benefit the Packers, they might also be in the most even division in the conference. Even though the Vikings won the NFC North last season, Cowherd doesn’t believe Minnesota will replicate its 11-0 record in one-score games last season that helped it finish 13-4.
It’s the other teams in the NFC North that Cowherd thinks the Packers should be worried about as they look to find a new identity under their new quarterback.
“Green Bay’s issue is Detroit and Chicago,” Cowherd said. “Detroit is good and Chicago should be considerably better. Remember, Aaron was 6-10 in his first year. So LaFleur’s first byte is sort of accurate. There’s a difference coming into games and being the guy. Their roster is good. It’s a very good roster. They need pressure on the quarterback. They were 27th in sacks. They need to be more productive at receiver and tight end.”
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