Packers made bold move in going from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love, and they were right
Around the time that the darkness retreat became a thing last offseason, the Green Bay Packers had to make a decision. Either stick with the four-time NFL MVP quarterback or go on to a quarterback who, in his final year of college at Utah State, had one NFL start and seventeen interceptions.
Running it back with Aaron Rodgers was the prudent course of action. It turned out that giving Jordan Love a chance was the right decision.
Similar to the Packers’ contentious choice to bench Brett Favre in favor of Aaron Rodgers in 2008 and never look back, Green Bay made the decision to trade Rodgers and give Love the starting job.
It was a startling call to make, even if the player and team were losing ground, and it appeared like it was time for both parties to try something different. Jobs and legacies are at stake when you willingly let go of a quarterback who would be elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
The Packers passed up an icon at quarterback in favor of a complete unknown. It seems like the perfect decision, and it might even help the Packers stay in the running for the next ten years, especially after Love had a fantastic performance in a playoff victory against the Dallas Cowboys.
Why Aaron Rodgers was traded by the Packers
Sometimes the Rodgers-to-Love shift seemed awkward. In late March, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst told reporters that he began considering a trade because of Aaron Rodgers’ inability to return the team’s calls.
The Packers planned to speak with Rodgers as part of their postseason discussions regarding the 2023 season and beyond, but that meeting did not take place.
According to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, Gutekunst stated, As you go through that process, you kind of have an idea of where you’re going to move to as a team and how you’re going to go ahead. I was extremely excited to talk to Aaron and find out how he fit into that. That never came to pass. We eventually found ourselves having to make some choices. After we tried to sort of talk to him through his reps about the direction we were taking with our team, they told us he would like to be traded to the Jets.
The Packers had communicated to Rodgers that they wanted him back when he entered his dark retreat, but something changed.
The Packers decided to move on from a quarterback who some consider to be the greatest of all time, regardless of how it all turned out. Being one of just two individuals to have ever won more than three MVP awards (Peyton Manning holds the record with five), he is, at the very least, among the finest. Love had no proof at all.
It was a significant risk, but one that made sense given Rodgers’ advanced age and the Packers’ inability to overcome the obstacle of winning another Super Bowl with him.
It appears to have set the Packers up for another phase of elite quarterback play almost a year later. The possibility that Green Bay has discovered another QB talent seems bewildering to the rest of the NFC North.
Jordan Love confirms the Packers’ assertion.
The season was hard for Love to get going. The Packers had a 2–5 record. It was evident that the Packers were unsure about Love’s future when Gutekunst said the next ten games would be extremely significant for him. Then love really took off.
Including a playoff victory away from the Dallas Cowboys, Love’s touchdown-to-interception ratio in Green Bay’s last nine games stands at 21-1. In the game, Love would have had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 against Dallas, but he returned after the Cowboys had cut Green Bay’s lead to 16 points through an incomplete pass. He was content with a 157.2.
A quarterback is not automatically regarded as a star after one outstanding nine-game run. Next season, Love will have to prove it once more. Still, he seems to have the part. With love and a promising crop of young pass catchers, the Packers appear revitalized moving forward.
Additionally, they can determine which controversy their quarterback will start without having to watch The Pat McAfee Show every Tuesday.
Without Rodgers, it’s impossible to predict what the Packers might have become this season. Had they been any better, perhaps? Whatever team Rodgers played for, it’s not like he was going to tear his Achilles. That was a bad break for him on the Jets’ opening drive of the season.
But now there was nothing the Packers would take back. Instead of a 40-year-old who was reportedly getting old in Green Bay, they have a 25-year-old quarterback who appeared to be among the best in the NFL during the second half of the season. Apart from Green Bay, transitions between periods are rarely as smooth.
The Packers’ approach isn’t necessarily a model for every other team that has an excellent but aging quarterback. It’s not a given that you’ll be able to find a gift like love and nurture him. It’s also true that few clubs would have the fortitude to let go of a legend at the ideal moment, as the Packers did. They were correct.
