I can't get behind this at all. Love is the better player, has more potential and is more ready right now. Sure, they didn't score against the Bills, but Love moved the ball is ease and we had mainly our entire 2nd and 3rd teamers going. The only 1st team guys that got snaps were Myers and Newman. Taylor was his #1 target as a WR. I think Love is a very capable backup that could win a couple games if Rodgers goes down for 2-4 games. I wouldn't trust him if Rodgers was shut down for the season, but I think he can get us by for a couple games. Benkert is a cut.
Believe it or not I actually think both you and Sunshine are on to something.
I believe Sunshine is advocating for keeping Benkert in sort of that placeholder role that we originally signed Bortles for in the event Rodgers didn't return. You could make arguments both for and against that.
The Pros
1. With the general consensus still being that Love has a ways to go even as good as he's been, the placeholder rule could certainly still apply even if it's a Rodgers injury issue and not him leaving. Most people were agreeing that if Rodgers left that LaFleur shouldn't throw Love out there yet and should just let Bortles take the heat. Same might apply here.
2. I don't see why Benkert couldn't do what we would have expected Bortles to do, and that isn't much. About the only difference between the two would be Bortles in game experience, but we're talking about a QB who would have simply been a game manager and little more. No reason to think Benkert couldn't serve in that same capacity, and perhaps even bring a little more to the table.
3. While I prefer Love getting behind the wheel and actually driving, watching one more year certainly doesn't hurt him.
4. It is possible for both Rodgers and Love to be injured, and if that does happen Bortles will not be available, and any other practice squad QB we pickup not named Benkert will be garbage.
The Cons
1. Love does have to get in game experience during the regular season to become a good QB, and while Benkert doing well backing up Rodgers might be good for the team, it would delay this. It's fine to keep Love in the watch and learn phase for a little while, but it cannot go on forever.
2. While Benkert having never started a game before doesn't mean he can't do it or do what we ask him to in it, he doesn't have the pedigree of some Ryan Fitzpatrick or Josh McCown guy who's done it for years.
3. Love does have skills and he deserves actions from us that tell him we're giving him a vote of confidence.
I mean the bottom line, I don't see what Sunshine is suggesting as a bad thing, and it wouldn't change anything in our future plans for Love. But at the same time there is no foolproof way to develop a QB, and I'd say it's ridiculous to think Love isn't capable of handling QB no 2 duties, especially with our deep offensive weapon core.
