The Green Bay Packers aren’t quite sure whether Jordan Love is the franchise quarterback of the future but they hope he can prove that he is over the season’s remaining 10 games.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst on Wednesday said, “I hope not,” about whether that determination bleeds into the 2024 season.
“I think we’ve got 10 games left. These are going to be very important 10 games,” Gutekunst said at his midseason news conference.
The Packers have dropped four straight games and sit at 2-5 with the Los Angeles Rams visiting this week.
Love, in his first season as the starter after the offseason exodus of future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers, has thrown for 1,492 yards in seven games, with 11 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He’s completing 57.7 percent of his passes, worst in the league.
“I think he’s done a lot of really good things,” Gutekunst said of Love. “Really like the way he’s responded to the adversity, how he’s led the team. Again, we’ve got to be better as a unit and I expect that to happen over the next 10 games.
“And I think that we’re going through some things that we knew we would go through. We haven’t had the results that we want, but I do like the way guys are responding to things.”
Green Bay’s first-half point difference this season is minus-59, second worst in the league. But they’re plus-42 in the second half, second best in the league. Further, the Packers are 25th in the NFL in total yards per game and 21st in passing yards.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur was asked earlier this week about evaluating Love, saying it’s hard to do given the other 10 players around him.
“I think in order to do that, I think everybody’s got to play better around him, quite frankly,” LaFleur said Monday.
“Are there some things he can do better? Absolutely. I think he’d be the first to tell you. Are there some things we can do as a staff to help our guys? Absolutely. And then, when there are plays there to be made, we’ve got to make the plays.”
The Packers signed Love to a contract extension worth $22.5 million that runs through the 2024 season.
–Field Level Media