As the sports world sits and waits on the Aaron Rodgers trade to become official people continue to have questions. When will it happen? What will the Packers get in return? Are we sure it’s going to happen? But the question that perhaps hasn’t been discussed enough is a simple one. Is Jordan Love ready? Like, truly ready? Yes it’s been written about and discussed in forums over and over, but has the Lambeau fan base truly pondered the transition from a realistic standpoint.
Packers fans tend to have a bit of an unrealistic view of the quarterback position. It’s not their fault. Any Cheesehead under 40 has almost no knowledge of anything other than Hall of Fame quarterback play. It’s like being born into generational wealth. Sure, you know poor people exist but there’s no way you can imagine how you’d wind up eating ramen for dinner. You’ve always been rich and therefore you assume you’ll keep being rich. That might be how the United States class structure tends to work but it’s not the case with NFL quarterbacks.
Montana to Steve Young was rare. Favre to Rogers was monumentally rare. So, despite a belief in the Green Bay Way, is Jordan Love actually ready?
Appearing on the Dan Patrick show Bill Michaels shared an interesting story that might shed some light on the question.
“I think that there’s a lot of people that hope, and are walking around saying ‘he’s ready’ and you’re only gonna find out if he’s a winner or not a winner, which is another thing that Brian Gutekunst said, by putting him out there. I had a really interesting conversation with Charles Woodson years ago and then we kind of reignited it this year at the Super Bowl…I asked Charles ‘tell me about this Rodgers guy’ years ago, and he said ‘Man this guy is eating us up. He’s running scout team and he’s killing us. This guy is for real.’ So I talked to Charles about that and reminded him about that and he said ‘Go ask Jaire Alexander. Go ask Adrian Amos. Go ask them. Don’t ask your offensive guys because your guys are going to stick together. Go ask your defensive guys if Jordan Love is ready to go.’
And you [ask that] and they go ‘Yeah’ (unenthusiastically )There’s not that ‘oh my god, he’s ready to go.’
I think we’ve all seen it. We saw a game in which Kansas City prepared for him and he didn’t fare very well and we saw a game in the second half against Detroit they prepared for him and he didn’t fare very well and then when the eagles didn’t prepare for him and they were playing kind of an off press defense because they had a pretty sizable lead at the time he lit them up for nine passes in two series and it looked pretty good. So it’s what have you done for me lately and that’s what Packers fans are banking on. That that’s the level of Jordan Love that we’re gonna get.
You know as well as I do if you don’t have a top-five defense around a guy who is a relatively average or above average quarterback you’re not gonna go deep into the postseason. So that’s what they need to focus on and get him a few more weapons and we’ll see.”
Michaels’ point is well taken and there’s no way we can be certain Love will even be any sort of good. But as a counter argument, perhaps the more important question is how big of a deal is that?
One could argue that it’s time for the Packers to build a strong roster that is not based on a Hall of Fame quarterback’s talent bailing them out. I know that sounds insane, but hear me out. One could argue that three decades of Hall of Famer‘s and only two Super Bowls is a bit disappointing. The Baltimore Ravens earned the same amount of Super Bowls with Trent Joe Flacco and Trent Dilfer in just 12 years. They did it by executing Michaels last point.
Quarterbacks continue to earn an outrageous premium in this league and teams with expensive quarterbacks almost never win the Super Bowl. Patrick Mahomes was the first quarterback in 20 years to make more than 13% of his teams salary cap and win a Super Bowl. Maybe it’s time Green Bay gets ahead of the curve and builds a team differently. Maybe Jordan Love turns out to be unbelievable and the Packers have yet another Hall of Fame quarterback. But maybe he doesn’t. Maybe they move on from him, build an incredible roster, and then put a young cheap quarterback on top of it and go win a Super Bowl. So the question isn’t is Jordan Love truly ready, it’s does it truly matter?
