Jordan Love’s preseason was a tale of two very different performances. His opener against the Texans was filled with promise and solid play. His finale against the Bills was filled with uneasiness and one really bad interception.
It didn’t take Packer Twitter long to dial up a preseason interception from the beginning of Aaron Rodgers career and stick them side-by-side.
It’s a great video and seemed to prove what many Packer fans have felt all along. Chill out. There’s no need to be so worked up about Love’s preseason. Hell, even one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time threw a very similar interception. Jordan Love will be fine.
While this may all be true, there might be room for an additional truth. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky was more than willing to offer up that truth in the form of a warning.
ESPN isn’t currently on great footing with Packer fans. After Adam Schefter‘s ridiculous role in starting the Rodgers off-season drama, the past few months seemed like an endless stream of talking heads dramatically overreacting to everything connected to the situation. But, unlike so many of the hot take artists at ESPN, Orlovsky is pretty level. One could argue he’s the best and most even NFL analyst on the network. And he may actually have a point here.
The interception wasn’t the only poor, off balance decision for Love in the Bills game.
He definitely did, at times, look like he was doing a bad Aaron impression.
When Aaron Rodgers came into the league his relationship with Brett Favre was anything but pleasant. Rodgers wasn’t going to get to ride saddle side with Favre and learn the ways of the gunslinger. He had to go out and figure out how to be Aaron Rodgers. One could even argue he, occasionally, went too far the other direction with a conservative approach. Which makes sense having watched Favre make crucial mistakes with an aggressive mentality.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that Rodgers and Love are getting along. It’s great that Jordan gets a front row seat to Aaron’s dominance. But Love is a young, talented developmental project. Rogers is a superstar who can make any throw from nearly any position. I’m sure it’s easy to get swept up in the things you see Rodgers do from the sideline but Love needs to focus on the fundamentals of his growth and figure out who he is. Jordan Love isn’t going to be the next Aaron Rodgers, he is going to be the first Jordan Love. For that reason, Orlovsky‘s suggestion makes a lot of sense.
But just so we’re absolutely clear, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t stop having fun imitating number 12 like this.
