The Green Bay Packers are entering the Jordan Love era after trading Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets. Despite this being his first year as the team’s starting quarterback, it is not his first time running the first team offense during OTA’s. Fans may remember that Rodgers refused to attend any form of optional team activities during the offseasons of his last few years in Green Bay. While this was (and still is) a source of frustration among fans, it gave Love the opportunity to learn and grow in way that prepared him for this moment.
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Of course, since he is taking over for a future Hall of Famer, he has always been under the microscope. This offseason is different in the sense that there is a feeling of urgency among fans for him to perform well. Any mistake that he makes will get scrutinized. It is important to remember that he is still young and will still make mistakes. The most vital thing, especially in OTA’s, is that he learns from his mistakes so that he does not make the same ones in the regular season.
Jordan Love Breaks 1 of Tom Clements’ 3 Major Rules During Green Bay Packers OTA’s
Green Bay Packers insider Mike Spofford was one of the media members present at OTA’s on Tuesday. In his recent recap of the practice, he revealed that quarterbacks coach Tom Clements has three cardinal rules: never throw late over the middle, no blind throws, and no premeditated decisions. In today’s practice, Love broke the first cardinal rule. He threw the ball late over the middle while on the run. He was attempting to connect with Christian Watson downfield, but the ball was intercepted by recent free agent signing Travarius Moore.
As Spofford writes:
Love knew what he had done. He had broken one of quarterback coach Tom Clements’ three cardinal rules, which in this case is to never throw late over the middle. (For the record, the other two are no blind throws and no premeditated decisions.)
“That was exactly a mortal sin right there,” Love said after practice. “Late over the middle, ball kind of floats, DB has a chance to go make it. Christian, he doesn’t really know where the DB’s at so it’s hard for him to kind of go up and get the ball.”
It wasn’t the best moment for him to have on a day the media was in attendance, but that’s immaterial to its value at this time of year. He knew it was a huge risk, and it produced the worst possible result. So now he’ll get to dissect everything about it, going over the film with Clements and his offensive coaches and teammates.
After practice, Love spoke to the media about the play and listed off at least three things he could have done differently on the play. It was a learning moment for the young quarterback. While some fans may want to criticize him now, it is important to keep in mind that this is the time for him to learn without mistakes costing his team wins.
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It was not all bad, either. Love made several impressive throws during practice as well. This all part of the process of developing as a quarterback. There will be ups and downs. Hopefully he gets more of the “downs” out of the way during the offseason and has more “ups” during the regular season.
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