With a week of OTAs in the books, rookies are getting their first real taste of life in the NFL.
The newest members of the Green Bay Packers’ young receiving corps are learning not only the playbook and culture of the team, but also their starting quarterback’s expectations. Jordan Love might be a first-year starter, but he’s no rookie. He’s spent enough time in the league to develop his own preferences and expectations.
Love also learned how to be a leader from Aaron Rodgers, a future Hall of Famer. Rodgers is one of the all-time greats of the sport, and he also expected his receivers to be among the best. Rodgers was notoriously hard on rookie receivers; if a mistake is made, it should never be repeated.
According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Love appears to take a different approach. In fact, Demovsky thinks Love’s style could mesh better with such a young receiving group. What’s the difference between the past and present quarterbacks’ leadership styles, and will Love be able to get the most from his young arsenal of weapons?
Year after year, we saw reports from off-season activities indicating Rodgers was unhappy with his new and rookie wide receivers. Whether it was making rookie mistakes, not knowing the day’s hand signals, dropping the ball, or not practicing properly, Rodgers rarely hid his frustrations.
Rodgers expects the same greatness from others that he expects from himself. The results tend to speak for themselves. Those who develop the way Rodgers likes tend to have very successful careers with him. Rodgers and his best receivers develop an almost psychic connection and set the league on fire. Consider how Davante Adams had a relatively rough start to his career, with many wanting his snaps to go to Jeff Janis, but developed into the league’s best wide receiver.
Many more will feel left in the dust. Receivers like Equanimeous St. Brown and Amari Rodgers never found the cadence with Rodgers and needed fresh starts elsewhere.
Aaron Rodgers‘ leadership style obviously changed as he grew older and as his legend grew. By the time of his final season, the chance to work with No. 12 often left his rookie wideouts somewhat starstruck.
Demovsky reports that Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Samori Toure felt intimidated by working with a living legend and had to adjust to seeing Aaron Rodgers daily.
“Sometimes I find myself looking over at practice and seeing him throw a ball and thinking, ‘Man, that’s A-Rod,’” Toure said.
In an interview last year, Doubs also stated that it was rare to interact with Aaron Rodgers outside of the team faculty. It makes sense — an almost 40-year-old man probably doesn’t have much in common with a bunch of early twentysomethings. But this nugget became a common criticism of Aaron Rodgers’ leadership.
Whether it’s for better or worse in the long run, that’s not how Love operates.
With Love, the rookie receivers have more of a peer leader. Despite three years in the league, Love is still only 24, in the same age group as most rookies. He has an easier time relating to his teammates because he’s still going through the experience himself.
“I think they can relate a little bit better to me, but I try and be open with all these guys — talk to them and just let them know if there’s anything they need, ask me. I’m an open book,” Love said. “I try to let everybody know I’m an open book. Come ask me, come talk to me. I’m trying to build that chemistry with all of them.”
Love still expects urgency from his teammates and strives for greatness himself, but he goes about the process differently from Rodgers. Demovsky reports that when Luke Musgrave, Doubs, and Toure made mistakes at practice, Love wasn’t scowling or berating. Love kept his body language composed.
Wide receivers coach Jason Vrable noticed that when Love speaks, the group listens. “They usually perk up and take notes on it. If Jordan says a note in the meeting of what he wants it to look like, everybody turns around is like, ‘All right, got it.’”
For a group learning and growing together, this style of leadership could end up working better in the long run. We’ve discussed the benefit of Love and his receivers growing together, finding out what works and building chemistry together. Love’s style of leadership could quicken that process.
That’s not to say Love’s approach is right and Rodgers’ was wrong. Rodgers helped develop some of the league’s best receivers and took the team on playoff runs more often than not. But this team isn’t in a Super Bowl window right now. With such a young team, having a peer mentor might help the rookie receivers and tight ends adjust to NFL life more quickly.
We’ll have to see how things develop in the long run, but Demovsky is right. Love might mesh better with his rookies than Aaron Rodgers could.
