It’s a huge season for the Green Bay Packers as they begin the post-Aaron Rodgers era with Jordan Love at the helm.
While it’s only been one preseason with him as the starter, it sounds like the Packers brass is happy with the way Love has been growing into the role.
“There’s things that not everybody sees but little mistakes that I think he’s going to really grow from,” Packers GM Brian Gutekunst said in a press conference. “And then there’s things that maybe didn’t affect the play. And there’s successes that he had, too, that gives him confidence to move forward. So, I think it was just really, really good.
“When you put those guys out there, sometimes you’re a little bit — we haven’t done that a lot around here. But I think it was such an important thing to get out of it clean where he played really well, I think that was a real benefit to our offense. So, I’m excited about it. But I don’t know if I really learned a ton. I think it was just really good for him and our offense.”
The GM added that there’s an element of the unknown heading into the 2023 NFL season with Love, despite the fact that he’s been with the franchise since 2020.
“I think there’s certain things you see and you see him grow and you say, ‘OK, he handles much differently than maybe he did a year ago, two years ago,’” Gutekunst said. “But the quarterback position, I would argue, is one of the hardest, if not the hardest position to play in all of team sports. I’ve only been through it the one time, seeing it up close when we went from Brett [Favre] to Aaron [Rodgers]. But even when they’re able to go out there and perform at a high level, to be able to perform at a high level and then to learn how to win — there’s time that that takes. I think when Aaron went into his first two years, I think midway through that second year, we were like 10-14 or something like that. So, it just takes a little bit of time.
“But at the same time, he’s done some things over the past year and a half that allows us [to say] no matter what happens within a game, he’s going to be able to handle it and move forward — which I think is a big thing. We’re excited about it. But until you get into the regular season, that’s a whole different ballgame.”
