Why Jordan Love’s path to Packers starter remains unique

Green Bay, Wisconsin – The first day of the training camp this summer, Matt Lafleur tried something different. After one hour and 36 -minute training, Green Bay Packers coach called the team together in the middle of Ray Nitschke Field.

He shared his reflections on the practice, spent the calendar for the rest of the day and left the center of the group as usual.

Then he didn’t say anything.

“In the past, I would call a specific person to break it down,” said Lafleur in a recent interview with ESPN. “This time, I just wanted to see who took it. And the first time the whole team was there, he took it. So I said to myself:” We are going. “”

The “HE” was the quarter of the Arrière Jordan Love.

And that’s how his third season as a starter started.

It was exactly the kind of step that Lafleur has been looking for since he defined love after last season to become more vocal, even if the choice n ° 26 of the 2020 draft led the packers to the eliminatory series Each of his first two seasons as a quarter-cross.

If it took a little time to get to this point, it was by design – from the start of the quarter of the packers development manual. LOVE was sitting behind the future quarter of the Aaron Rodgers renown temple for three years before taking over as a starter. Almost two decades ago, Rodgers waited for its turn behind the Brett Favre renowned temple for three years. In the third season of Rodgers as a starter, the packers won the Super Bowl.

Despite the success of the packers with this approach, he did not start a trend around the NFL where the teams take a quarter of the first round and let him sit for several seasons.

“Show me a team since then, that has done this,” said a high-ranking leader from another team. “There is none. Everyone says:” This is how we have to do it, like Green Bay. “But no one ever does it.”

The opponent of the packers Thursday evening at the Field Lambeau (8:15 p.m. he, Prime Video) certainly did not do it. Washington commanders made their starter Jayden Daniels from the start, and that worked for them. The choice n ° 2 of the 2024 draft helped to transform a team of 4-13 into a team of 12-5 which reached the NFC championship match, and Daniels won the offensive recruit of the year.

“I went with high draft choices; they feel that they have all the answers,” said the tight end of the Zach Ertz commanders. “Jayden was quite the opposite. He asked me about certain parts, why I ran a certain road this time, how could the timing be a little better. It is humility that marked me.”

It generally does not go so well.

“It is generally the guys with high picking who enter situations where there is no chance of success,” said Lafleur.

Daniels, however, was proof that this can work.

“A guy like Jayden Daniels, he entered and they will shape the offensive exactly his strengths and skills,” said Steve Calhoun, Quart-Arrière coach of Love since his high school days. “When these guys come on the first day and they come with a new coach staff, such as [Tennessee Titans’ No. 1 pick] Cam Ward this year, they will build the offensive exactly of its strength.

“The situation of Jordan, he came behind Aaron and the offensive was not suitable for Jordan. And he therefore had to learn to play in the footsteps or to look like the way the coach Lafleur called the match for Aaron.”

Of the six quarters written in the first round last season, all except one started games as a recruit. Only JJ McCarthy, from Minnesota, who missed last season with a torn straight meniscus, did not do so.

“It can be a vicious circle,” said a vice-president of the players’ staff for another team. “Most of the teams that write the quarters need it to play because they do not have the skill on the list, which limits the possibility of slowly developing them in this role, which can lead to a bad game, and so on.

“Green Bay, by chance or by plan, has positioned itself to manage the development curves because [Rodgers] was still there. No [Rodgers]And I’m sure love starts day 1. “

And what would have happened if love should play right away?

“I don’t know,” said Love. “Who knows?”

To do this like packers, a established quarter-arre must be in place.

“The thing 1 is that most of them do not have a quarter of the renowned temple which begins for you, which plays at a level of the MVP type,” said the Director General of Packers, Brian Gotekunst, who wrote love. “When you have that, it is very easy to sit like that.”

Otherwise, it’s almost impossible.

“It is very difficult not to put this guy in the game because there are a lot of other players who also want to win,” said Gutekunst.

This also helped Gutekunst not having a single authoritarian owner to wonder why a first -round choice does not play.

“Our property structure allows us to do what we think is best in the long term, which all organizations may not have this ability to do,” said Gutekunst.

Said Lafleur: “Gutey and I talked about it several times: you have to play these guys, especially in this position, when they are ready. But I don’t think people have the patience to do it.”

In the case of packers, their patience borne fruit, and six years later, there was love to take charge of the team on day 1.

“It’s just he who matures and see this opportunity to have his voice heard,” said Calhoun. “I don’t think last year, maybe at the start of the season, this time. Or even the previous year. I think Jordan does a great job to analyze everything and see when his voice and when it is time to be this leader.”

The journalist of ESPN commanders John Keim contributed to this story.