SEPTEMBER 8: Love’s MCL injury is between a Grade 1 and Grade 2 sprain, per Rapoport (video link). Love will miss three to six weeks, and it is still unclear whether Willis or Clifford will take the reins in the meantime.
SEPTEMBER 7, 10:04PM: It’s bittersweet news for the Packers after getting the results of their additional scans. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Love’s ACL suffered no damage, but he has suffered an MCL sprain. To be clear: this is still good news. When the alternative was the end of the 2024 season for Love, an MCL sprain should be a breath of fresh air.
The young passer, who leads the league in annual average value while making $55MM per year, will still likely miss some time, but the prognosis is much more positive than a season-ending injury. It looks like Green Bay will be forced to depend on Willis or Clifford at quarterback for about four t0 six weeks until Love is able to return. That or they will need to look to the free agent market for a rental.
11:15AM: Some good news on the Love front, at least temporarily. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports that initial tests indicate that Love’s ACL is intact. Of course, the quarterback isn’t completely out of the woods. Pelissero warns that there’s still “a wide range of outcomes based on additional scans.”
9:05AM: The Packers dropped their season opener to the Eagles, but the team may have suffered an even more devastating loss along the way. Jordan Love suffered an apparent leg injury during the final drive of last night’s game in Brazil.
A dejected Matt LaFleur didn’t have any updates about his quarterback’s condition following the game. The Packers are scheduled to land back in Green Bay this afternoon, at which time they’ll presumably get more clarity on Love’s injury. Dianna Russini of The Athletic clarifies that Love will indeed undergo an MRI later today, although an ankle injury has already been ruled out.
The injury occurred with five seconds remaining in the game as Love was attempting a Hail Mary pass. Replays showed the quarterback’s knee pop as he was brought to the ground by Eagles defenders, and Love then remained on the ground while “writhing in pain,” per Lukas Weese and Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. As Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com notes, the injury was clearly reminiscent of Kirk Cousins‘ season-ending Achilles injury last year.
From a glass-half-full perspective, Weese and Schneidman note that Love was able to exit the Packers locker room under his own power. The quarterback also didn’t have a noticeable limp.
The centerpiece of Green Bay’s young core, Love was expected to take another step forward following his breakout 2023 campaign. The Packers are especially confident in their franchise quarterback, as the team handed him a four-year, $220MM extension this offseason that featured a record $55MM average annual value. If Love is forced to miss time, Malik Willis would likely take over as the starting quarterback. The Packers are also stashing Sean Clifford on the practice squad.
Center Josh Myers also suffered an injury on the same play as Love, with the lineman telling ESPN’s Rob Demovsky that “severe cramps” forced him to the sideline. The starter will presumably be alright moving forward, but the Packers showed their contingency plan on the final two playe by moving Elgton Jenkins to center (with Sean Rhyan taking over as left guard and Jordan Morgan taking over as right guard).
I like Matt Lafleur but I think that he made an old school decision kicking that field goal on 4th and five on the Eagles eight yard line. Matt show more confidence in your offence. You have the most exciting offense in the league.
By the way the NFL is starting to look like the Canadian Football league where they have three not four downs to make ten yards.
Cross fingers for Jordan…
“The most exciting offense in the league.”
The 49’ers, Chief’s, and Dolphins say …. “HEY!!”
And you don’t win in the NFL without defense. Ask the Dolphins.
49’ers run, run pass… Chiefs… exciting part is Mahomes running around. to keep us interested camera switches to Taylor Swift who is moving more than Travis these days. Dolphins one interesting receiver… Packers a core of young receivers and Jacobs was a great addition.
I’m not sure if I saw the play you are referring to, to give an opinion if I think it was the right choice or not..but generally speaking Lafleur is pretty aggressive in terms of going for it on 4th down. At least twice in the first half last night as I recall.
And hasn’t the trend in the NFL been to go for it more and more in recent years? To the point a couple coaches have done it deep in their own territory?
That was an odd choice to me.
As a professional couch doctor I think he hurt his leg/knee.
As someone who dreamt they were a doctor once many years ok I concur
I heard Rodgers made a deal with the Devil. Let me finish the season healthy and I will take the Jets and lose the last game that will keep us out of the playoffs. It will energize the fans then rip their hearts out. Then I will retire and serve you in the peyote hot tents.
Mr Devil said who should take your place? Well Love of course. You don’t love Loves name and he is QBing my team. It is all Rodgers fault. You never make a deal with the Devil. You always lose.
PSA If you were offended by this I wish I could say sorry. This was all written in jest. Take is as a joke. If you did not find it funny move on or call me names. I could always use a good laugh.
At least you tried ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hahahha fair enough
He’s toast this year.. goodbye packers season if his injury is an Achilles
Don’t think they constantly have him walk if it was the Achilles.
When Carson wentz tore his, he walked all the way to the locker room on his own.
Wentz tore his ACL
Wentz was ACL like other poster said, I do recall Dobbins with Ravens walking a bit on Achilles, I think that was due to having to go down stairs to locker. People do walk a bit on Achilles just not as much as they had Love.
… but the big story from Brazil is Saquon Barkley dazzling Sao Paulo with 3 TD on his Eagles debut. The BBC and the Guardian understand that. Mike “It’s All About The Quarterback” Lupica does not.
Dumb and ignorant comment.
Dumb if you’re Lupica or any National Sports Media pundit. Ignorant if you’re clueless about Philadelphia.
Hope Love is ok. Go BEARS !
Call Tannehill immediately.
Lmao almost said same thing
Ouch!
A long time Chicago sports fan. No doubt I want the Bears to beat the Pack-Something they rarely do. But I never like to see one of the top upcoming talents in the NFL get injured. It’s not good to see. Hopefully nothing serious and he returns soon.
Completely agree with you Fred. Beating the Packers means more when they are healthy, at their best, without excuses to offer. Then they have to admit the Bears were simply the better team on that day.
That field was complete trash if the NFL gave a crap about players they’d regulate the conditions for foreign fields stricter.
Typical American reaction….go into a foreign country and start dictating how things need to be done…lol.
If it was complete trash then how did Barkley have such a great game then?
Barkley slipped and lost yards on his first carry.
I remember a Redskins game the players were sunk almost to their ankles in mud. It is not just foreign fields. Redskins field has sucked for years.
Soldiers Field is the Poster Child for horrendous fields. One only has to remember back a couple of years to the Bears opener played in a monsoon to realize just how cheap the Chicago Park District is. Didn’t do much for Trey Lance in his debut either.
The field had nothing to do with this injury.
They would stop playing on fake grass fields regarding “if the NFL (& owners) gave a crap about players.” But that would cost more $$ to maintain and the owners. We certainly can’t have that in this era of corporate greedflation and corporatocracy. Welcome to the Corporate States of America!
The field had nothing to do with how Love got hurt. A 300 lb Lineman can fall on your ankle while you’re trying to make a play on just about any down in a season. He was fighting to make a throw and he lost. Sad to see it. I hope the Packers lose but I hope the kid is OK. I don’t want to see that happen to anybody but unfortunately it probably will. Hope he isn’t hurt too bad.
I think he’s going to be ok
I’m so happy it’s not his ACL, whatever it is, I’m just happy Love already got his bag based off a handful of good games. His team friendly rookie deal was essentially wasted as he sat for most of it. He’s clearly not an elite QB even though his paycheck says otherwise. Good for him, but he’s gonna keep the Pack in CAP HELL for the foreseeable future.
See, folks, this is what a hater looks like when he falls down the idiot hole and can’t get out.
Yeah, Every time you look in the mirror or open your mouth Poindexter.
What’s weird is, according to OTC, they have almost $15 mil yet this year, $25 in cap space next year, $41ish the year after, and like $150 mil the year after that. Now, before you come back with the old “they have other guys to sign/extend/etc” line, let me also remind you they (like every other team) cut guys, restructure guys, extend guys, change language to lower cap hits, and so on.
They’ll probably be fine.
Not joking, get Dobbs from SF or Lance from Dallas … Tannehill is probably already on a plane
Dobbs or Tannehill would make a lot of sense. I don’t think SF will let Dobbs go though. Maybe Chiefs will fork up Wentz for a Sixth rounder? There’s also Mac Jones in Jacksonville
Trey Lance threw 5 INT in a preseason game this summer. DERP!
Damn so what is that, 11 to 13 weeks?
Glad it’s not more serious. After what the last couple of years have looked like, I don’t know how they could go into this preseason with only a couple of fringe draft picks at backup QB and then go into the season with Malik Willis. One would think Tannehill or at least Wolford gets a phone call.
Even worse is hiring a rookie K for your playoff run and he misses a FG
Won’t be 4-6 weeks. More like 2-3.
The right leg is the plant leg for RH QBs. Love’s injury is to the left leg. And yes, in theory, MLF could put Love in the pistol, limit his movement, and make the offense quick fire in order to get him back sooner. From what I’ve seen, it’s considered between a grade 1 and grade 2. Meaning 2-4 weeks probably.
The next three are winnable without Love. Going to have to play better defense than we did yesterday and Jacobs will have to be a superstar.
They caught somewhat of a break that it wasn’t worse than it is, so I’m not sure it’d be the wisest move to play with fire by rushing him back. I’d sit him until he’s fully healthy and let the chips fall where they may. Based on what you said, if he misses 3 games, and we even say GB goes 1-3; it’s not an insurmountable deficit.
Yeah the offensive plan would definitely have to change for the next 8 games regardless of whether it’s Love or another QB.
Ryan Tannehill c’mon down
Love wasn’t very good yesterday. He missed alot of throws and didn’t look like a $50M pr yr QB. As mentioned earlier, PHI O looks like a machine, Saquan was reqlly good. But the D was exposed as GB ran the ball when and how they wanted, pushing around PHI DL. GB needs a better WR2. And the field was terrible in the 1st half. Players were slipping all over the place. The NFL should be embarrassed. Side note: watching these games in other countries is boring. The fans don’t know when to cheer or not. They just sang soccer songs.
This is what the Packers deserve after rolling out those utter zeroes as backup QBs in the preseason. Cleveland showed the way, i.e., you have to have at least one backup QB that has started and won an NFL game.
Whatchoo talkin’ bout? Willis is starting vs. Indianapolis if the reports are true.