Probably the biggest talking point to come out of the 2020 NFL draft came towards the end of the 1st round. That was when the Green Bay Packers started the clock on the end of the Aaron Rodgers era. They traded a 4th round pick to move up and draft Utah State quarterback Jordan Love. A move that perplexed almost every expert at the time.
Not just because the team had just recently signed Rodgers to an extension but because the young QB hadn’t exactly set the world on fire in his final college season. Nobody was denying Love has physical talent. A big right arm and mobility are his two biggest selling points. Yet neither helped him as he finished with 20 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.
The excuse most commonly made? Love had to change offensive systems in 2019. He also lost a number of his best targets. The concerns about bad decision-making and accuracy are overblown. Right? Well, maybe not. According to Matt Schneidman of the Athletic, the 1st round pick hasn’t exactly showcased why the Packers drafted him up in Green Bay.
“He hasn’t fallen down the quarterback depth chart – he was already at the bottom of it – but Love has yet to even provide a glimpse at why the Packers traded up to draft him in the first round. Nobody expected him to take the world by storm in his first nine practices, but every throw he makes seems like a touch pass and he’s had some accuracy issues early on.”
Jordan Love was slapped with ridiculous expectations
At this point, the Packers seemed to assume it didn’t matter who they picked in the 1st round. This is the team that scored Brett Favre and then Rodgers right after that. They’ve been blessed by the football gods to never pick a bad quarterback again. Except it doesn’t work like that. They still don’t seem to have grasped how incredibly fortunate they’ve been at that position for the past three decades.
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Anybody who has lived a long time knows that luck has a way of running out. Rather than try to maximize the time they have left with Rodgers, they assumed their magic touch at quarterback would continue with Love. Early returns indicate they may have miscalculated. Maybe he ends up turning things around as time passes.
Then again the Bears thought the same thing about Mitch Trubisky. So yeah.