It goes without saying that no one expects Jordan Love to take the Green Bay Packers’ starting quarterback job away from Aaron Rodgers anytime soon.
While the Packers of course intend to groom the rookie signal-caller to succeed Rodgers at some point, Love will have to earn it first.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst recently laid out the challenge awaiting Love in the years ahead. Put simply, Love will have to prove himself worthy of following in Rodgers’ footsteps, the same thing Rodgers had to do before taking over for Brett Favre.
“The reason that back then we moved from Brett to Aaron was because of what Aaron had done his first three years here. And that’s got to happen with Jordan,” Gutekunst said, via Jason Wilde of The Athletic. “He has to be able to do the work and he has to do that for us to make us believe that he can be a starting quarterback in the National Football League."
The Packers obviously believe Love has the talent to one day replace Rodgers. The fact the team spent such valuable draft capital — trading up to the the 26th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft — to land the Utah State standout indicates as much.
“We drafted him in the first round, we certainly think he has that kind of talent. But that’s not enough in the National Football League. You’ve got to work, you’ve got to earn it, you’ve got to become a good enough player,” Gutekunst said of Love. “Again, we have one of the best to ever lace them up, and we’re shooting for championships for as long as he’s here, and we expect him to be here for quite a while.”
The Packers’ decision to draft Love as Rodgers’ heir apparent unsurprisingly upset the team’s incumbent quarterback. That being said, Rodgers has attempted to be as diplomatic as possible about the situation, although he made it clear he wished the team had gone in a different direction with the pick.
Interestingly enough, Favre himself has weighed in on the Rodgers/Love situation. While he now admits he didn’t handle Rodgers’ arrival as well as he should have all those years ago, Favre believes Rodgers will fare much better in the task at hand, at least in the short term.
In the end, it’s clear that Packers brass believe they have their next potential franchise quarterback in the fold. Now it’s up to Love to prove to the team he deserves to be heralded as such.
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