Packer Central

With Offseason Ending, Love Ready for Season

This has been a key offseason for Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who is eager to move past last year and get to training camp and the upcoming season.

Bill Huber

Packers QB Jordan Love at OTAs.
Packers QB Jordan Love at OTAs. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The final phase of the Green Bay Packers’ offseason program, the mandatory minicamp, began on Tuesday. Training camp will start in 41 days.

Quarterback Jordan Love can’t wait.

“I think it’s just excitement,” Love said after practice. “Everyone, I think, from when the season ended last year, the way it ended for us, I think everybody was hungry and ready to just get back to it, get back to training camp and get the new season rolling.

“There’s been a good amount of time since that game, so I think everyone’s still hungry and just excited to get rolling.”

That game was the season-ending loss at the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional playoffs, a bitter outcome considering the upstart and underdog Packers – nobody’s underdog, to borrow a Mike McCarthy phrase – had pushed the mighty 49ers to the brink.

The Packers advanced to that game because of Love. Months earlier, the question was whether Love could be a viable replacement for the future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers. Love answered emphatically with a Rodgers-esque string of games that included 21 touchdown passes vs. just one interception.

But with the game on the line, with the Packers trailing and Love having an opportunity to turn a great stretch run into a legendary stretch run, an under-pressure Love forced a pass to Christian Watson that had no chance for success and was intercepted by linebacker Dre Greenlaw.

And that was that. 49ers 24, Packers 21.

That was 143 days ago. It will be a span of 230 days when the Packers kick off the 2024 season in Brazil against the Philadelphia Eagles.

“I think that’s something that’s just always in the back of your mind,” Love said. “The way you end the season, it’s something you’ve always got to think about. Obviously, you move (on), you grow, you learn from that game but, at the same time, I think it’s something that’s just always in the back. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

“And I think we’re all ready to get back on the field after losing that game to San Fran.”

Love threw two interceptions in that game – true outliers considering how he kept the ball out of harm’s way down the stretch by showing an incredible command of the offense and a powerful chemistry with his group of young receivers.

During the nine games spanning the come-from-behind victory over the Chargers and the playoff rout over the Cowboys, Love’s only interception came in the loss at the Giants. In eight of those nine games, Love had a passer rating of at least 108.5.

The three weeks of OTAs and the minicamp allowed Love, the receivers and coach Matt LaFleur a chance to build on their many successes from last season.

And to fix the killer blunder from San Francisco.

“The main thing for me is understanding where to go with the ball, always making the right decision, not forcing the ball downfield and trying to fit it in certain windows. Things like that,” Love said.

“Just process and understanding where I need to go with the ball. And then pocket movement, making smaller movements in the pocket, not being so quick to try and get out of there, but to stay in the pocket and try and find those receivers downfield. That’s something I’ve been working on. Also throwing on the move, going right, being able to get my shoulders downhill, my body downhill and not be drifting away from the throw.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.