It’s All Love, All the Time at OTAs

With Aaron Rodgers' uncertain future, the Green Bay Packers are going to great lengths to make sure Jordan Love is ready after being inactive in every game as a rookie.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Ready or not, the Green Bay Packers’ offense might be led by second-year quarterback Jordan Love this season.

Due to Aaron Rodgers’ uncertain future with the team, coach Matt LaFleur is doing everything possible to get Love ready should he be asked to take the opening snap at New Orleans on Sept. 12. At Tuesday’s organized team activity, there were two competitive periods. Love took all 15 reps of a 7-on-11 drill and all 20 snaps of an 11-on-11 period. That’s 35 snaps for Love and zero for Blake Bortles, Kurt Benkert and Jacob Dolegala. That was an even more extreme breakdown than at last week’s mandatory minicamp.

Perhaps it’s understandable why Bortles, a seventh-year pro with 73 career starts and 2,634 passing attempts under his belt, was pushed to the back burner so LaFleur could focus on last year’s No. 1 pick. But Benkert, an undrafted free agent in 2018, and Dolegala, an undrafted free agent in 2019 who was signed after last week’s minicamp, have zero career passes on their professional resumes. If Rodgers doesn’t return, one of those three will be Love’s primary backup.

Love worked with a skeleton crew on Tuesday, with all four returning starting offensive linemen, the three top receivers and two top tight ends skipping the final week of the voluntary practices. Equanimeous St. Brown was his top receiver and Bronson Kaufusi was the only available tight end.

Love was 8-of-15 passing (with one drop by Amari Rodgers) in the 7-on-7 period and a perfect 9-of-9 in the 11-on-11 session, though the tempo appeared to be throttled back a hair for the 11-on-11. Of Love’s 17 completions, five went to running back Patrick Taylor. He went 0-for-3 on deep passes.

“My mindset this whole offseason’s been to get ready, get myself ready, and that’s been my mindset since I got here,” Love said last week. “Whether Aaron was here or not here, that’s going to be my mindset, regardless, because I have to get myself ready to play and be able to go out there and take charge of the team and be able to perform at a high level and do my best so everybody else can do their jobs, as well and just be able to perform at a high level. My goal is just to take day by day, get better, find areas I need to improve.”

After Thursday’s practice, the Packers will get away for almost six weeks, with training camp scheduled to start on July 27.