Rodgers Changed Narrative While Love Fell Short

By the logical timeline, Aaron Rodgers should have been traded and Jordan Love should have been the Green Bay Packers' next starting quarterback.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – From the moment Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst traded up to draft Jordan Love in 2020, Aaron Rodgers’ career appeared to be on the clock.

As a first-round pick, Love received the standard four-year contract with a fifth-year team option. That fifth-year option must be triggered after his third season, or after the 2022 season. It’s an expensive decision. For the Class of 2019, for instance, a quarterback’s option is worth just shy of $18.7 million. The entire cost of Love’s four-year contract is about $12.4 million.

The only way for the Packers to make an informed decision on that pricy transaction would be to hand the offense to Love for the upcoming season.

However, with the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine set to begin on Tuesday, everything has changed. And nothing has changed. The team hopes Rodgers will return for the 2022 season and beyond, meaning Love might never be the heir to Rodgers’ throne.

“All I can do is play my best, and I think last season [in winning NFL MVP in 2020] I did do that, which might have thrown a wrench into some timelines that might have been thought about or desired,” Rodgers said in April 2021.

That is true.

In 2017 and 2018, the final two seasons under Mike McCarthy, and 2019, the first season under Matt LaFleur, Rodgers really had become just another quarterback. Of 29 quarterbacks to throw 800 passes during those three seasons, Rodgers ranked 10th in passer rating (96.6), 19th in yards per attempt (7.2) and 24th in completion percentage (62.6). Of 28 quarterbacks to throw 550 passes the past two seasons, Rodgers ranked No. 1 in passer rating – his 116.7 being 12.5 points better than any other quarterback – second in yards per attempt (8.0) and first in completion percentage (69.8).

That in itself might not have changed the Packers’ thinking. In 2007, Brett Favre had one of his top seasons to lead the Packers to the NFC Championship Game. In a momentous decision that was based in part on Rodgers’ work behind the scenes and in relief of Favre at Dallas, the Packers in 2008 traded Favre and gave the starting job to Rodgers.

The Packers might have wanted to do the same this offseason. Trading Rodgers would probably give the Packers at least a couple first-round draft picks and the ability for a financial reset. But Love hasn’t shown he’s ready for the job.

Of the 50 quarterbacks with Love’s number of passing attempts (62) last season, he ranked 46th in passer rating (68.7), 44th in completion percentage (58.1) and 35th in yards per attempt (6.6). He had as many turnovers as Rodgers (four) despite playing only 12 percent of the snaps.

Had Love played better, whether it was during the preseason or his regular-season appearances against Kansas City and Detroit, would the Packers be holding out hope they can bring back Rodgers? Or would they have shipped Rodgers on the first flight out of Austin Straubel in hopes of building a powerhouse around their potentially next great quarterback?

“No,” Gutekunst said last week. “It’s a hypothetical. I don’t think it would have changed anything.”

Exactly two years and one week ago, Gutekunst delivered one of the great pieces of general manager candor in NFL history. With the 36-year-old Rodgers in the midst of his three-year downturn, Gutekunst not only said he would consider drafting a quarterback but taking one in the first round.

With his team coming off a surprise trip to the NFC title game, no, that wouldn’t be a waste of a pick, he said at the time.

He stuck by that thinking last week, even though the pick, ultimately, might be wasted and, perhaps worse, cut open the festering wound between legendary quarterback and legendary franchise.

“I don’t really look at the downside of it,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously, we’ve been through a lot of things, but sometime going through things like this can make you stronger and you need to go through things like this. I’m excited for Jordan and his development and where he’s going. We still have a lot of hope for him to continue to develop. …

“Aaron motivates himself. We don’t make personnel moves to try to motivate players or anything like that. You guys know how I feel about the quarterback position. That won’t change. We think everything begins and ends there to a certain degree. It’s very, very important for our football team. We put a lot of work and effort into that, and that’s not going to change.”