Why did Packers anoint Jordan Love their franchise QB? Inside hold-in week at Green Bay — and why they were sold on their $220M QB

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Matt LaFleur watched from the Green Bay sideline last November as his quarterback dropped back. The Packers faced third-and-16 from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 35-yard line, a 10-point deficit threatening to deepen if they didn’t strike.

But Jordan Love didn’t panic.

He dropped back, and then dropped further, before unleashing a cross-body throw to the end zone.

Just beyond the hands of two defenders, receiver Jayden Reed came down with the score.

A realization fell over LaFleur.

His quarterback was seeing the game more like the fourth-year vet that Love was than the first-year full-time player he also was.

“Early on, you’re trying to protect him — protect everybody, quite frankly, not just him, but all the youth,” LaFleur told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday after practice at Packers training camp. “We got a little too conservative. The mindset we always [say] around here with the coaches is, ‘Shoot or shoot.’

“We started doing that, our guys were making plays and it obviously served us well down the stretch.”

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A late-season surge and playoff win later, the Packers enter 2024 with a still-young team in a competitive division. But they learned enough about their young quarterback in his first full year to decide that his success wasn’t a fluke. Rather, the Packers view 2023 as a realization of potential they’d watched burgeon for three years in practices. Watching Love’s command of the huddle and decision-making on game days, Packers management was sold.

So general manager Brian Gutekunst said resolutely this week: Green Bay no longer has a decision to make at franchise quarterback.

On Friday, they confirmed it, agreeing to a four-year, $220 million extension with Love, after a week featuring a training camp hold-in centered on the exact price of his services rather than whether the partnership is of interest to both parties.

“We feel very, very confident that the success he had…


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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-07-27 01:15:19

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