Aaron Rodgers‘ heir apparent is officially in the fold. On Wednesday, the Packers officially announced the signing of quarterback Jordan Love.
[RELATED: Packers Sign A.J. Dillon]
The Packers were rumored to be interested in the Utah State QB before the draft, but it was still a surprise to see them trade up to take Love in the first round. The Packers gave up pick No. 136 in the fourth-round to move up four spots, grabbing the promising youngster at No. 26 overall. In accordance with his slot, Love will earn $12.38MM over the full life of the four-year contract and collect a $5.56MM signing bonus.
Opinions were split on Love heading into the draft. He was viewed as a potential top pick after a dominant sophomore season where he averaged 8.6 yards per attempt with 32 touchdowns and six interceptions. Then, in 2019, Love regressed – he averaged just 7.2 yards per attempt with 20 touchdowns against 17 interceptions.
Meanwhile, no one’s quite sure of what this means for Rodgers.
“I’m not going to talk about all that we talked about, but he was … let’s just say surprised that they went in that direction,” Rodgers’ predecessor Brett Favre said in May. “I think he’ll play somewhere else.”
Favre’s “gut” tells him that Rodgers won’t finish his career in Green Bay. For now, he’s under contract through 2023 with cap numbers in excess of $36MM in 2021 and ’22.
With Love signed, the Packers have just three stragglers to go. Here’s the full rundown of their draft class, via PFR’s tracker:
1-26: Jordan Love, QB (Utah State): Signed
2-62: A.J. Dillon, RB (Boston College): Signed
3-94: Josiah Deguara, TE (Cincinnati)
5-175: Kamal Martin, LB (Minnesota)
6-192: Jon Runyan, G (Michigan): Signed
6-208: Jake Hanson, C (Oregon)
6-209: Simon Stepaniak, T (Indiana): Signed
7-236: Vernon Scott, S (TCU): Signed
7-242: Jonathan Garvin, DE (Miami): Signed
Regardless of what you think of Love the decision to find an heir for Rodgers made a lot of sense. Delaying would only result in them being in the same position the Patriots now find themselves in.
i can agree with that. however, not improving widereceivers and db’s was derelection of duty. cutting j. nelson without telling a. rodgers was simply dumb. the gm and hc are nothing but power grabbers.
If he was a good qb I would agree with you. But this is not Aaron Rodgers falling to us in the draft. This was people falling in love with a QBs who put up good numbers vs terrible competition.
It was a terrible, wasted pick when the team has so many other glaring needs….1 major one we still haven’t addressed. (WR)
I agree with you. Im not a Packers fan but this pick was a head scratcher.
It was also a bit questionable given that the team has Rodgers locked up until 2023. Thus, they’ll only have Love on his rookie deal for a maximum of one year
Yeah, I also didn’t get it.
Funny you say that.. They actually drafted a RB that will push Aaron Jones to the slot. Also drafted a TE thats more of a WR TE.. Also, They signed a WR who played in Canada who had over 10TDS last yr and over 800+ yrds and soo far Rodgers and LaFlaur like him i guess he was one of the first players who participated in majority of the Virtual workouts
Jones is not converting to wide receiver and how many CFL standouts have immediately made an impact in the NFL? It’s not impossible, but banking on that reality is hopeful at best. Deguara was a massive reach. I don’t recall any draft experts ranking him above the fourth-fifth round range. The Packers had ample opportunity in both the draft free agency to address their receiver needs for real and they completely ignored the position
How can you say it’s a wasted pick. How do you know what Love turns out to be? Not to mention (to a lesser extent) I still remember all the fans bashing drafting Rodgers. I knew he “fell” but no one woke eve predicted he’d be a top 10 QB of all time.
The WR position is still weak but it is better than last year. Adding Funchess to replace Allison is a huge win. St. brown was one of Rodgers favorite targets and he’s back after missing a huge chunk of the season and Lazard will only improve. Not to mention they arguably have the best trio of RB’s 1-3 in the game now with AJ added to Jones and Williams.
Because. We. Had. So. Many. Other. Glaring. Needs.
The difference is that Rodgers is under contract for the foreseeable future and hasn’t been any less effective. Brady is a few years removed from turning 40 and has at least shown slight signs of regression (even if he’s still a solid starter). I agree that finding a successor is important, but these are two different situations.
Most of Brady’s issues were from a terrible OL and young WR’s. He’s still got the ability.
Receivers? Agreed. O-line? No way. He was protected by one of the best guard tandems in the league with Mason and Thuney. Not to mention, Cannon is a pretty solid blocker as well. Dante Scarnecchia was one of the greatest positional coaches in recent memory, so I wouldn’t say the unit was responsible for Brady’s struggles
I love Rodgers but he’s not close to what he once was. Yes he doesn’t turn the ball over but he doesn’t take any chances. Paying him 40M against them cap 2 years from now cripples your team. Keep him you lose guys like Clark, Alexander, King, Tae, Jones, DBak and others. Then the talking heads will say “the defense needs fixed” like they did this past offseason when Gute went out and got 3 studs.
Still pissed we drafted this toilet!!!
then go root for the Vikings, loser. have faith in the organization planning for now and the future