Lambeau Field was almost full on Saturday night when the Packers hosted their annual Family Night event. The Packers ran a practice for their fans to come and watch, and the stars were on full display.
Jordan Love sat out the first few days of training camp awaiting a contract extension, and the Packers struggled with their quarterback play in his absence. There have been questions and concerns about how Love would play this season, but the Packers believe in Love. They just extended him for four years at a cost of $220 million, and his $55 million annual average salary is the highest for a quarterback in league history.
Although the young quarterback may have been rusty in his first practice, Love looked like the quarterback we saw in the second half of the season at Family Night and throughout training camp.
The plays that Love ran in 11-on-11 were not spectacular. Still, they gave him a chance to show off his arm.
“It was a very vanilla playbook, I would say, on both sides,” Matt LaFleur said. “We’re just wanting our guys to go out there, play fast, compete, show what they can do. It’ll be similar probably to how we approach the preseason. You don’t want to show too much.”
He may not have shown too much, but he certainly showed off his skills.
Love was fluid and on point all night, challenging Green Bay’s defense. Love hit his receivers with a plethora of strikes, occasionally throwing them open.
Last year, Love’s inability to throw the deep ball was one of his struggles. Paul Noonan highlighted his issues with the deep ball last season:
However, the better, more impactful, and theoretically easier improvement should come on his deep ball. To this point, Jordan Love’s deep ball has been almost unbelievably bad. It’s baffling. Love can sling it on outs and up the seam, but when he’s trying to lead someone deep, the ball consistently comes up short. This is not a question of arm strength, which Love undoubtedly has. Instead, ton 50-yard bombs, he ball goes 47. On 40-yard bombs, it goes 37. It is, like most of Love’s issues, a problem of accuracy and confidence.
Love eclipsed 4,000 yards and threw 32 touchdown passes last season, which was good for second in the league. However, Love could not throw an accurate deep ball for half the season. Just imagine how he could tear up the NFL if he can consistently throw a competent deep ball.
Christian Watson can also help Love with explosive plays. Watson excels on deep routes, where he can use his blazing speed to get open over the top of defenses. The Packers have a few different receiver archetypes, and Love’s development of the deep ball helps Watson the most. A steady connection between Love and Watson would make Green Bay’s offense even scarier.
Love’s confidence might be the biggest difference. Now that Love is in the fold for the long haul, he’s really stepped into that leadership role. That was Albert Breer’s first observation in his training camp takeaways:
Jordan Love keeps getting better. The progress he’s made in setting protections from where he was as a rookie has been monumental. This summer, for the first time, the Packers are tasking him with play-calling in the two-minute offense. He’s also becoming more assertive as a leader and showing real command with his teammates, which is another step he can take now that he’s signed an extension averaging $55 million per year.
Love is the unquestioned leader of Green Bay’s offense, and he’s hit the ground running so far this season.
Since signing his contract with the Packers and stepping back into his role as the leader of Green Bay’s offense, Jordan Love has generated nothing but positive news. There were some concerns that Love wouldn’t be able to replicate his success from the second half of last season. However, the young quarterback is rust-free in camp.
All stats and data via ESPN and the Green Bay Packers unless otherwise noted.
