Currently sitting at 4-8 and with roughly a 2% chance of making the playoffs, it’s safe to say this season has been a massive disappointment for the Green Bay Packers.
The Super Bowl window for the Aaron Rodgers era is quickly closing in Green Bay. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings are bizarrely the NFC’s second seed, and the Detroit Lions look to be heading in the right direction. Somehow, the Packers’ NFC North rivals are trending upward while they are sliding.
But in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the first-seed Philadelphia Eagles, Jordan Love and Christian Watson showed us that maybe, just maybe, the future is bright for Green Bay.
Aaron Rodgers has been polarizing in Green Bay this season thanks to playing below his usual standards and his recent off-season activities. Regardless, the future Hall of Famer’s career in Green Bay will end sooner rather than later, bringing in a new era.
If that new era involves 2020 first-round pick Jordan Love, it might be a promising one.
Time is a flat circle. A new general manager drafted Rodgers in 2005 to replace a veteran (Vikings legend Brett Favre) nearing the end of his career. In 2007, Rodgers replaced an injured Favre in a late November game. The Packers lost to the Dallas Cowboys, but Rodgers showed he could be the future in Green Bay.
Love had his “2007 Rodgers” moment on Sunday. Already battling a severe thumb injury, a rib injury (believed to be an oblique injury at the time) finally forced Rodgers off the field. Love took over in the fourth quarter against the conference’s top defense.
And Love showed why the coaching staff believed in him over the past few years. Compared to his previous brief stints in the limelight, Love looked like a new man. Love looked sharp, confident, and in control. He wasn’t afraid to sling the ball or attack the middle of the field.
Twice, Love was able to bring Green Bay’s deficit back to a one-score game. Love achieved the team’s first third-down conversion Sunday night with a clean seven-yarder to Allen Lazard, followed by a potential glimpse of the future. Love hit Watson with a dime in the middle of the field, and the good-time boy took it 63 yards to the house. Watson made some of the fastest players in Philadelphia’s secondary look like they were running in quicksand. The big play brought Green Bay within seven points of the Eagles.
Of course, the defense couldn’t stop the Eagles from chewing the clock and putting up three more points, but Love delivered on the next series. Love distributed dimes like the Federal Reserve, including his best throw of the night—a beautifully thrown ball that Aaron Jones unfortunately dropped. Love did enough to set up a field goal and make it a one-score game again. But special teams couldn’t recover the onside kick, and Green Bay fell to 4-8.
One quarter of football does not make a career, but the Packers have to be pleased with what they saw in Love’s play, as should the fans. And it took a while, as we should have known it would, but we’re seeing glimpses of what the wide receiver corps could look like in the future. Watson has become that guy over the past three games, and we also saw flashes from Romeo Doubs. The two rookie receivers barely played any snaps together this season. This version of Love throwing to these promising rookies is a salivating proposition.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. Rodgers’ potential oblique injury was revealed to be a less severe but still-painful rib injury. However, he and Matt LaFleur expect Rodgers to play against the Chicago Bears if he is healthy.
Rodgers said he is open to conversations about Love finishing out the season once the Packers are officially eliminated from the playoffs. And the Packers need to see more of Love in a game setting to make their ultimate decision for the future. Love would need to prove he can do this consistently, especially once teams prepare to face him. There are still too many factors at play to say what happens next season and beyond.
But we got a glimpse of one possible future of the offense, and it was a blast to experience. A Packers general manager always looks to keep the future promising, even if it shortchanges the current team. Love’s draft process left many questioning the logic, but if the version of Love we saw in Philadelphia is what we’d get long-term, it makes the selection much easier to stomach.
Love’s future is still uncertain, but if Sunday night was any indication, the future in Green Bay could be brighter than expected if it involves Love slinging to Watson and Doubs.
