The Jordan Love Era Begins

[Pokerbrat2000]

Yup. The Chiefs successfully pulled off what the packers tried to do with Rodgers. Mahomes wasn't great last year (kinda like Rodgers when Rodgers had no weapons in the passing game) BUT the Chiefs built a terrific defense that carried them most of the time and then, in the playoffs, they had Kelce for Mahomes to lean on. It's a REALLY hard thing to build an elite defense because there's not one position that elevates everyone else like there is on offense (a great QB makes everyone better). Dynasties will always exist in the NFL because having an elite QB naturally make it easier to win than not having a good QB. Those teams with elite QBs keep them for a long time and tend to win more often just because they have a leg up on everyone else.

Agree.

I would just add that keeping a strong roster together, both on offense and defense, gets even more difficult when you are picking towards the back of every round. Then you throw in being cap strapped due to some big contracts and signing elite free agents to improve, is even more difficult.

I know a lot of people didn't like seeing Davante leave, but I really think that was a huge trade on the plus side for the Packers. They were able to get 2 high draft picks and probably more importantly, not have his huge contract on the books. Wish they had done the same with Jaire.

 

[PikeBadger]

There is zero doubt in my mind that Love was selected as Rodgers potential replacement. Let's not forget that Rodgers appeared to be showing his age and had three straight seasons of injuries, a drop in TD's and QB ratings below 100. He was also starting to "get a little big for his britches", as my grandmother used to say.

Rodgers responded with 2 great seasons of football.

As far as "communication of the potential selection of Love to him", that's just another BS feigning of being offended move on Rodgers part. I doubt TT or Gute ever serioulsy "consulted" with Rodgers about the draft, nor should they have had to.

Gutekunst told Rodgers in February 2020 that they might select a QB in the draft. I personally would believe Gutekunst's word over Rodgers every day of the week.

 

[PikeBadger]

By drafting Love Gluten just wanted to make sure "his guy" was ready when Rodgers was done. And in fairness, Rodgers play in the preceding year had not been stellar. Of course he went on to win two consecutive MVPs. But Love's selection was never about Rodgers.

Gluten's mistake was not communicating with Rodgers. In fairness to Rodgers, Gluten should have let him know he was taking a QB early if one showed up - for the long-term health of the franchise, not as a slap to Rodgers. It was weak communication by Gluten, and an overreaction by Rodgers. But it led to two lousy years as far as Rodgers' attitude and team morale.

That's all history too. Looking forward to this season more than I have in a long time.

Once again for those of you who continuously want to create your own version of history..........
Gutekunst told Rodgers in February 2020 that they might draft a QB.
I personally believe that they already had their target and thought there was a pretty decent possibility that Love may fall far enough to go up and get him.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Gutekunst told Rodgers in February 2020 that they might select a QB in the draft. I personally would believe Gutekunst's word over Rodgers every day of the week.

The same Rodgers who all but straight out lied about being vaccinated. Yeah, that's Rodgers alright. I can't remember Gluten ever coming close to telling a lie.

I got some great advice once on trusting people. To keep yourself from going nuts, trust people until they give you a reason not to trust them. The first time they break a trust, cut em off, or simply doubt what they say.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Once again for those of you who continuously want to create your own version of history..........
Gutekunst told Rodgers in February 2020 that they might draft a QB.
I personally believe that they already had their target and thought there was a pretty decent possibility that Love may fall far enough to go up and get him.

Most definitely a possibility and one I believe. I'm sure if you asked Rodgers he would say "Well they didn't tell me that they were using a top pick on a QB. I thought I was immunized against competition."

In either case, I still stand behind my opinion of management not needing to warn every players of potential picks or competition. That goes for all players, no matter who they are or what their standing on the team is. If their ego's are so fragile, that they can't handle being in the dark over management decisions, then they shouldn't be in Football.

If a player wants to be involved in management decisions, then they should negotiate that into their contracts, as management laughs at their attempt to do so.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Gotta LOVE Love!

He knows how to spread the ball around!

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[Sunshinepacker]

Once again for those of you who continuously want to create your own version of history..........
Gutekunst told Rodgers in February 2020 that they might draft a QB.
I personally believe that they already had their target and thought there was a pretty decent possibility that Love may fall far enough to go up and get him.

When the boss tells their most important employee in passing that I might do something that will make your job harder but doesn't necessarily explain why, that's not good communication. I'm not sure what the entirety of their conversation was, nobody will ever know for certain outside of Gute and Rodgers (who has probably only remembered "his" version). Based on Rodgers' play the following two seasons, I still think drafting Love was the wrong move. However, I'm fully in Love's corner and looking forward to him becoming a top-5 QB this season. I just try to avoid taking any one party's word at what happened, in anything, because it's crazy how often two different people can have vastly different memories of the same thing.

 

[Heyjoe4]

When the boss tells their most important employee in passing that I might do something that will make your job harder but doesn't necessarily explain why, that's not good communication. I'm not sure what the entirety of their conversation was, nobody will ever know for certain outside of Gute and Rodgers (who has probably only remembered "his" version). Based on Rodgers' play the following two seasons, I still think drafting Love was the wrong move. However, I'm fully in Love's corner and looking forward to him becoming a top-5 QB this season. I just try to avoid taking any one party's word at what happened, in anything, because it's crazy how often two different people can have vastly different memories of the same thing.

This is all in the past and matters little - but I was certain that Gluten said he planned to improve communication with Rodgers after the Love pick. As noted in another post of mine, I have no reason to doubt what Gluten says. I can't say the same thing for Rodgers.

We all forget pretty quickly, and in hindsight and with Love performing well, we can all say that Rodgers didn't need to be told what Gluten was planning. But as you said, he was the most important employee in the building at the time. A phone call would have done it. I don't think Gluten made that call and he admitted he could do better. That rings true. And now that time has passed, I give Gluten credit for being a whole lot more honest than Rodgers. Rodgers certainly overreacted to the perceived slight.

 

[Thirteen Below]

Based on Rodgers' play the following two seasons, I still think drafting Love was the wrong move.

I'm going out on a limb here, and saying the opposite may be true - it may actually have been a good move.

The last couple of years prior to Love, Aaron's game had been leveling off a bit - still very good, but down a bit in some ways from his heyday in 2009-2014. He'd had a few injuries, and 2017-18 were pretty poorby his standards.

He was getting a reputatiion for being aloof, moody, critical of his teammates but not of himself, and difficult to coach. He'd even started to mention in an occasional interview that he wasn't really thinking of retirement yet, which of course meant that he was at least a little bit, because otherwise why would he mention that he wasn't really thinking about it?

We all know Rodgers plays his best when he has a chip on his shoulder, when he's pissed because he isn't getting the respect he thinks he's due, and especially when he thinks he has something to prove to the world.

So what happens? Packers take a QB in the 1st, and Rodgers pitches his littlw mini-tantrum and then goes right out there and pitches the 2nd and 3rd best statistical seasons of his career, doubling his MVP total by winning it both years - his first MVP in 8 seasons.

I don't know if I can really believe that's any kind of coincidence. You don't draft Love in 20, I don't think Rodgers gets those last 2 MVPs, or the 111 and 108 QB ratings, or the 48:5 and 37:4 TD/INT ratios. I'm not saying Gute is an evil genius for cooking up that master plan - he was probably as surprised as anyone - buit I think he was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I don't think Gluten made that call and he admitted he could do better. That rings true

I'm not sure you can fault Gute for not calling him. When was he supposed to do that? It probably depends on how long before he made the pick did he make up his mind, but Green Bay probably only had 10 or 12 to discuss the pick, go around the horn and make sure everyone was down with it, finalize the deal with Miami, and get the pick in. At what point does Aaron get his turn to weigh in? Gute said afterward he felt badly that he didn't have the opportunity to alert him, but that it happened too fast in real time.

==================
Edit: I don't understand what is happening here; I keep trying to post a link to a Bleacher Report article but the link doesn't display.

Here's a link to a google results page, and the top hit on the page takes you to the BR page.

In case it still doesn't display, here's some of the text...

General manager Brian Gutekunst told Albert Breer of The MMQB that he wasn't able to warn Rodgers before it happened:
"Quite frankly, if that was even a possibility, I would've loved to do that. We didn't go into that draft thinking, 'Hey, we're gonna target this and do it.' If that was the case, we probably would've done that. That wasn't reality. Would that have changed anything? I don't know if Aaron, with the issues he has, if that's really part of it. But a player like Aaron, in a situation like that, you would've loved to give him a heads up. It's just that the way this thing transpired, that wasn't a possibility."

Breer reported that the Packers thought Love would be off the board earlier, so they intended to select a wideout or offensive tackle in the first round. But when he was still available at No. 26, the Packers decided to trade up to land him.

I don't think you can say, "well, if he was even considering the possibility of taking a quarterback, he should have given Rodgers a warning", but... why? You know damned well how much that's goiong to **** off a prima dona like Rodgers, and to warn him that there was a chance and then draft Ayuk instead, now you've pissed him off for no reason at all. Gute was in a tight spot.

And besides, just days before the draft, ESPN asked Rodgers if he was alright with GB drafting a QB, and he said straifght up, "nah, I'm good with that... it's a business, I understand. The guy won't beat me out anyway".

Aaron Rodgers on ESPN Milwaukee said he wouldn't be bothered if the Packers drafted a QB high this year. "I'm a realist; I know where we're at as an org and I know where I'm at my career." He added that it doesn't matter who comes in, "I'm confident

Read more on ESPN

www.espn.com

And then he whines because it was unfair to him to draft a quarteback without his blessing? The ultimate hypocrite.

 

[Heyjoe4]

I'm going out on a limb here, and saying the opposite may be true - it may actually have been a good move.

The last couple of years prior to Love, Aaron's game had been leveling off a bit - still very good, but down a bit in some ways from his heyday in 2009-2014. He'd had a few injuries, and 2017-18 were pretty poorby his standards.

He was getting a reputatiion for being aloof, moody, critical of his teammates but not of himself, and difficult to coach. He'd even started to mention in an occasional interview that he wasn't really thinking of retirement yet, which of course meant that he was at least a little bit, because otherwise why would he mention that he wasn't really thinking about it?

We all know Rodgers plays his best when he has a chip on his shoulder, when he's pissed because he isn't getting the respect he thinks he's due, and especially when he thinks he has something to prove to the world.

So what happens? Packers take a QB in the 1st, and Rodgers pitches his littlw mini-tantrum and then goes right out there and pitches the 2nd and 3rd best statistical seasons of his career, doubling his MVP total by winning it both years - his first MVP in 8 seasons.

I don't know if I can really believe that's any kind of coincidence. You don't draft Love in 20, I don't think Rodgers gets those last 2 MVPs, or the 111 and 108 QB ratings, or the 48:5 and 37:4 TD/INT ratios. I'm not saying Gute is an evil genius for cooking up that master plan - he was probably as surprised as anyone - buit I think he was pretty pleased with how it turned out.




I'm not sure you can fault Gute for not calling him. When was he supposed to do that? It probably depends on how long before he made the pick did he make up his mind, but Green Bay probably only had 10 or 12 to discuss the pick, go around the horn and make sure everyone was down with it, finalize the deal with Miami, and get the pick in. At what point does Aaron get his turn to weigh in? Gute said afterward he felt badly that he didn't have the opportunity to alert him, but that it happened too fast in real time.

==================
Edit: I don't understand what is happening here; I keep trying to post a link to a Bleacher Report article but the link doesn't display.

Here's a link to a google results page, and the top hit on the page takes you to the BR page.

In case it still doesn't display, here's some of the text...




I don't think you can say, "well, if he was even considering the possibility of taking a quarterback, he should have given Rodgers a warning", but... why? You know damned well how much that's goiong to **** off a prima dona like Rodgers, and to warn him that there was a chance and then draft Ayuk instead, now you've pissed him off for no reason at all. Gute was in a tight spot.

And besides, just days before the draft, ESPN asked Rodgers if he was alright with GB drafting a QB, and he said straifght up, "nah, I'm good with that... it's a business, I understand. The guy won't beat me out anyway".

Aaron Rodgers on ESPN Milwaukee said he wouldn't be bothered if the Packers drafted a QB high this year. "I'm a realist; I know where we're at as an org and I know where I'm at my career." He added that it doesn't matter who comes in, "I'm confident

Read more on ESPN

www.espn.com

And then he whines because it was unfair to him to draft a quarteback without his blessing? The ultimate hypocrite.

I agree. Rodgers play had fallen off in the previous two years or so, and his attitude was worse. Gluten was right to think he may have been near the end, so Love's selection was the right thing to do (although like Sunshine, I thought it was the pick at the time - first thought wrong....). I don't even think Rodgers thought he'd then have two of the best years of his career. Was he motivated by the selection of Love? Sure he was.

The question of whether Rodgers should have been alerted by Gluten has been beaten to death. So sticking with the topic of this thread, and admittedly in hindsight, I'm glad Love was selected and is playing well past (some) expectations.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Based on Rodgers' play the following two seasons, I still think drafting Love was the wrong move.

So far the drafting of Love appears to be working out really well for the Packers and people still doubling down on this?

Seems to be the only thing left in the chamber for those wanting to hang on to the "drafting Love was the wrong move" argument. What about Rodgers and the Packers 2022? When do you draft Rodgers replacement? Name that QB you would have drafted to replace Rodgers. You have 4 drafts that have taken place since Love was selected. Let me guess, you would have taken Brock Purdy in the 7th?

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[longtimefan]

Are we still whinning and debating Love being drafted and why?

Its packer game day today with Love starting

Relax and stop worrying what happened years ago

We should have drafted Sander and not Mandrich we would been SB champs 4 times!

 

[PikeBadger]

I'm going out on a limb here, and saying the opposite may be true - it may actually have been a good move.

The last couple of years prior to Love, Aaron's game had been leveling off a bit - still very good, but down a bit in some ways from his heyday in 2009-2014. He'd had a few injuries, and 2017-18 were pretty poorby his standards.

He was getting a reputatiion for being aloof, moody, critical of his teammates but not of himself, and difficult to coach. He'd even started to mention in an occasional interview that he wasn't really thinking of retirement yet, which of course meant that he was at least a little bit, because otherwise why would he mention that he wasn't really thinking about it?

We all know Rodgers plays his best when he has a chip on his shoulder, when he's pissed because he isn't getting the respect he thinks he's due, and especially when he thinks he has something to prove to the world.

So what happens? Packers take a QB in the 1st, and Rodgers pitches his littlw mini-tantrum and then goes right out there and pitches the 2nd and 3rd best statistical seasons of his career, doubling his MVP total by winning it both years - his first MVP in 8 seasons.

I don't know if I can really believe that's any kind of coincidence. You don't draft Love in 20, I don't think Rodgers gets those last 2 MVPs, or the 111 and 108 QB ratings, or the 48:5 and 37:4 TD/INT ratios. I'm not saying Gute is an evil genius for cooking up that master plan - he was probably as surprised as anyone - buit I think he was pretty pleased with how it turned out.




I'm not sure you can fault Gute for not calling him. When was he supposed to do that? It probably depends on how long before he made the pick did he make up his mind, but Green Bay probably only had 10 or 12 to discuss the pick, go around the horn and make sure everyone was down with it, finalize the deal with Miami, and get the pick in. At what point does Aaron get his turn to weigh in? Gute said afterward he felt badly that he didn't have the opportunity to alert him, but that it happened too fast in real time.

==================
Edit: I don't understand what is happening here; I keep trying to post a link to a Bleacher Report article but the link doesn't display.

Here's a link to a google results page, and the top hit on the page takes you to the BR page.

In case it still doesn't display, here's some of the text...




I don't think you can say, "well, if he was even considering the possibility of taking a quarterback, he should have given Rodgers a warning", but... why? You know damned well how much that's goiong to **** off a prima dona like Rodgers, and to warn him that there was a chance and then draft Ayuk instead, now you've pissed him off for no reason at all. Gute was in a tight spot.

And besides, just days before the draft, ESPN asked Rodgers if he was alright with GB drafting a QB, and he said straifght up, "nah, I'm good with that... it's a business, I understand. The guy won't beat me out anyway".

Aaron Rodgers on ESPN Milwaukee said he wouldn't be bothered if the Packers drafted a QB high this year. "I'm a realist; I know where we're at as an org and I know where I'm at my career." He added that it doesn't matter who comes in, "I'm confident

Read more on ESPN

www.espn.com

And then he whines because it was unfair to him to draft a quarteback without his blessing? The ultimate hypocrite.

Bingo!

Gutekunst did absolutely nothing wrong. The last thing a GM needs to take under consideration is if his current players are going to have their feelings hurt by his picks. It is 100% on the players to have the maturity and brains to figure out that everyone on the team is going to have new competition brought in. Rodgers behaved like a weak limp wristed ##### when Love was drafted. Shame on Him!
To carry on publicly like he did destroyed any credibility he had ever had.

 

[gopkrs]

Bingo!

Gutekunst did absolutely nothing wrong. The last thing a GM needs to take under consideration is if his current players are going to have their feelings hurt by his picks. It is 100% on the players to have the maturity and brains to figure out that everyone on the team is going to have new competition brought in. Rodgers behaved like a weak limp wristed ##### when Love was drafted. Shame on Him!
To carry on publicly like he did destroyed any credibility he had ever had.

I don't really remember Rodger's carrying on like that. I'd say Favre was worse when they drafted Rodgers.

 

[Heyjoe4]

I'm with LTF on this. We've beaten the Love draft pick and Gluten's level of communication with Rodgers to death. Thankfully the PS has started and we have some real football to discuss.

 

[OldSchool101]

I think Love has the ability or tools to Win a Championship. One thing lacking in many great QB’s is the ability to rise to the occasion in BIG games. Often great regular season QB’s crumble in Postseason. I saw the SF49 game INT as more a bi product of inexperience. I really don’t think he does that in year 3 or 5 etc. as a starter.

We talk about needing a great QB to win a SB and I think we’ve got that. But it’s very hard to accomplish that as a 1st year starter and idc how many years we sit on the bench learning.

Now it’s just as much OL health and the team’s overall health that will decide this season.

 

[OldSchool101]

Another thing I believe is a turning point is quality of draft picks. Yes having a Top 5 selection improves odds. However past that top 5-10 overall it has to do more with #’s of top 250 overall selections you get. As long as you have a Staff that scouts properly and has good projection tools. Having 21 draft picks over 2 seasons AND having a Scouting department that I’d argue is Top 10 in this league is going to produce quite a few reallt good players. Not to mention when many of those selections were top 100 types and are now going into their Sophomore campaigns etc.

This season should conceivably produce really good results. Now it’s about health and doing what Tom Brady said was important. Win your Division. He said he felt like that was a key to their success. To the point he followed every game and tracked injuries and player news inside his Division. Any edge he could get to go after weaknesses. Past that he said OL, OL, OL. He asked how many high caliber teams didn’t have a great OL? Mentioning it sets up the Run and if you can run the ball well and go through reads it becomes easier.

Our Division isn’t easy, but it’s absolutely winnable. I think we’ve got the OL, The QB and a good chance of running the ball well.

We need to win this division.

 

[Heyjoe4]

I think Love has the ability or tools to Win a Championship. One thing lacking in many great QB’s is the ability to rise to the occasion in BIG games. Often great regular season QB’s crumble in Postseason. I saw the SF49 game INT as more a bi product of inexperience. I really don’t think he does that in year 3 or 5 etc. as a starter.

We talk about needing a great QB to win a SB and I think we’ve got that. But it’s very hard to accomplish that as a 1st year starter and idc how many years we sit on the bench learning.

Now it’s just as much OL health and the team’s overall health that will decide this season.

Expectations are probably too high for the Packers this year. They face a tough schedule, well on paper. That usually changes.

Just my observations - on this forum and elsewhere the Packers are generating a lot of interest as a top 5 or top 10 team, #6 I think in the Athletic pre-season power rankings.

Most of the positive vibes are from the amazing post-season performance. An **** kicking of the Cowboys in Dallas and a very close loss to the formidable Niners in Santa Clara.

I don't think last season was a fluke. This is a very good team. But SB good? I'd be fine if they made it to the NFCCG, something that should be achievable. Beyond that? Not so sure. But hey, I thought it would be many years before they got back to this level. It's a good time to be a Packer fan.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Are we still whinning and debating Love being drafted and why?

Its packer game day today with Love starting

Relax and stop worrying what happened years ago

We should have drafted Sander and not Mandrich we would been SB champs 4 times!

Packer fans will be debating this for centuries! Not much different than the "Should we have traded Favre" debate.

At least we aren't debating "Should we have drafted "X" with the first pick in the draft, or like last year, traded that pick away?"

It's a good problem to have when you are debating just how a FHOF QB is dealt with towards the end of his illustrious career as a Green Bay Packer.

I will be just fine if we are having this same debate in 15 years and Love's name is now in the mix.

 

[OldSchool101]

The debate held more water when we didn’t don’t know if Love would excel. I think it’s safe to say Love has. I’m not saying he’s Aaron Rodgers either. However I sometimes wonder if #12 didn’t cause some friction that affected our team. Rodgers didn't do that as much in his first 5+ seasons as starter, it was a gradual drama buildup. Like most I’m glad to be past that bs

I sure know something feels different this year. It feels exciting. It’s not just Love either. We gave a plethora of rising talent all over the place. Normally I’ve got 2 or 3 players in my radar whereas I’m curious how they’ll elevate. I can think of 8 or 9 newer additions off the top of my head that I think have a good shot of standing out

Mine are Romeo, Musgrave, Dubose, Wicks, Morgan, Cooper, Bullard,
Van Ness, Lloyd and Williams

 

[AmishMafia]

When the boss tells their most important employee in passing that I might do something that will make your job harder but doesn't necessarily explain why, that's not good communication. I'm not sure what the entirety of their conversation was, nobody will ever know for certain outside of Gute and Rodgers (who has probably only remembered "his" version). Based on Rodgers' play the following two seasons, I still think drafting Love was the wrong move. However, I'm fully in Love's corner and looking forward to him becoming a top-5 QB this season. I just try to avoid taking any one party's word at what happened, in anything, because it's crazy how often two different people can have vastly different memories of the same thing.

We have a history of stupid moves. We should never have traded for Favre and instead got some weapons for Majkowski. We'd conservatively have 5 more Lombardis.

 

[Heyjoe4]

The debate held more water when we didn’t don’t know if Love would excel. I think it’s safe to say Love has. I’m not saying he’s Aaron Rodgers either. However I sometimes wonder if #12 didn’t cause some friction that affected our team. Rodgers didn't do that as much in his first 5+ seasons as starter, it was a gradual drama buildup. Like most I’m glad to be past that bs

I sure know something feels different this year. It feels exciting. It’s not just Love either. We gave a plethora of rising talent all over the place. Normally I’ve got 2 or 3 players in my radar whereas I’m curious how they’ll elevate. I can think of 8 or 9 newer additions off the top of my head that I think have a good shot of standing out

Mine are Romeo, Musgrave, Dubose, Wicks, Morgan, Cooper, Bullard,
Van Ness, Lloyd and Williams

All good names. I think LVN is gonna have a big year. Just feels like it. He seems to have his bearings now, and four sacks last year was good for a rookie. I expect he'll push 10 this year.

 

[Heyjoe4]

We have a history of stupid moves. We should never have traded for Favre and instead got some weapons for Majkowski. We'd conservatively have 5 more Lombardis.

Correct. What the hell was wrong with Ron Wolf anyway?

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

For a lack of a better place to put this, I will put it here.

The 49'ers have 7th round surprise sensation Brock Purdy locked up for at least 2 more seasons (including this year), plus the ability to tag him after the 2025 season. If you were a 9'er fan, what would you like to see them do with Purdy? His current contract calls for an annual salary of $934,252.

1. Renegotiate his deal during the next offseason?
2. Renegotiate his deal during the 2025 season?
3. Wait until the 2025 season ends and then work out a contract?
4. Franchise tag him in 2026 if a new deal can't be worked out?
5. Give him a new deal AS SOON AS POSSIBLE?
6. Other?

 

[AmishMafia]

LaFleur: Ted Thompson thought Jordan Love ‘was too good to pass up’

Apparently, the former Packers general manager had significant say in the selection of the first-round quarterback

www.acmepackingcompany.com

So it was Ted Thompson's opinion that Love was "too good to pass up" that swayed Gute to Love's selection? Rats! I wish we knew this at the time. I can think of several anti-TT posters who's head would have exploded!