Thursday LaFleur: Love Will Start vs. Seahawks

Plus, Packers coach Matt LaFleur announced there's a clear-cut favorite to be the safety who will start alongside Darnell Savage for Week 1.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – From 2019 through 2022, Aaron Rodgers didn’t play in a single preseason game for the Green Bay Packers. On Saturday, Jordan Love will start for the third consecutive week.

“Yeah, they’re going to play,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Love and the No. 1 offense.

Love won’t be the only starter on the field against the Seattle Seahawks for the noon kickoff. Rudy Ford will start a second consecutive game at safety after running alongside Darnell Savage all week.

That big battle, with almost every player on the depth chart getting first-team action at one point or another over the past four weeks, appears to have found a winner in Ford, who started six games last year and opened training camp with the No. 1 defense.

For now, anyway.

“I think we’ve got a pretty good indication but there’s still more football in front of us,” LaFleur said. “Obviously, at practice today, we’ve got a game and it could be pretty fluid throughout the course of the year. You never want to just say, ‘Hey, this is it.’

“Guys are going to compete and they’re going to continue to learn and grow. Hopefully, it’s a competitive situation throughout the course of the season. That’s not just with that position; that’s got to be everybody’s position. That’s got to be the mindset. That’s how you improve and get better. As soon as you get complacent, somebody’s going to pass you by.”

Most of the No. 1 defense – Rashan Gary an exception – will play, as well, LaFleur said, even though that’s the more veteran unit.

“Everybody will play,” LaFleur said. “As far as how many snaps, it could be case by case. It’s going to be more of a gut feeling, I would say, on my part where we’re at.”

Why the change from past preseasons, when LaFleur has kept his starters bubble-wrapped on the sideline?

“I think it's a byproduct of having some younger players at certain positions and also just going through and not performing the way you'd like to in Week 1 in certain instances,” LaFleur said. “I think you always learn, grow and you try to get a feel for where you're at as a football team and what your team needs.”

As for Love, there are no set number of series, snaps, passes or specific plays. It will all be based on “gut,” LaFleur said, for Love, who went 7-of-10 at Cincinnati and 5-of-8 against New England the previous two weeks.

On Wednesday, Love said he didn’t necessarily feel like he needed to play but wanted to keep building momentum for the opener at the Chicago Bears on Sept. 10.

“I think it’s just keep building what we’re doing out there. Get more game reps.”

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