Nobody needs to say it out loud anymore, but 24-year-old Jordan Love (who will turn 25 early in the season) will be slow roasted in pressure throughout this upcoming campaign.
Love, who was the Green Bay Packers’ first round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, has only started one game as a pro and has only thrown 83 passes in his time with the team (with 3 touchdowns and 3 interceptions). This season, he’ll be replacing future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers and he’ll be asked to succeed with a supporting cast of pass catchers who, for the most part, have less NFL experience than him. Love’s crew of receivers will be comprised of nine players who were either drafted or signed as undrafted rookies in the 2021 or 2022 offseasons. His tight end crew will feature two rookies and Josiah Deguara, who was drafted the same year as Love.
So, yeah, the pressure will be on and the young quarterback will be asked to do a lot with seemingly little.
Two former Green Bay Packers quarterbacks, Don Majkowski and Lynn Dickey, have come forward with some words of advice for the young man.
Speaking to media at the 26th Annual Tellurian Celebrity Golf Tournament, the two former starting Packers quarterbacks basically told Love to be himself and prepare to the max.
“He’s just got to be himself, study as hard as he can, know the offense as best he can. He’s got some huge shoes to fill. The last 30 years, with Brett and Aaron, I mean, that was some of the best quarterback play– ever, in football’s history,” said Majkowski, who played for Green Bay from 1987 to 1992 and earned a Pro Bowl spot in 1989.
Dickey, who starred for the Packers from 1976 to 1985, leading the league in touchdowns and yards in 1983, also had some words of advice for Love.
“I would tell him, as cliché as it is, ‘Hey, let’s try to be 1-0.’ And then the second week, ‘Hey, let’s be 1-0 this week.’ And if you’re good enough, the Ws will pile up and take care of themselves. But he’s not going to fill Aaron Rodgers’ shoes. And if I was Matt LaFleur, I would tell him, ‘Don’t even try to do that. We want to concentrate on all the things you can do. Just be you,’” Dickey explained.
Sound advice from two veterans of the high-pressure quarterback spot who represented the pre-Aaron Rodgers, pre-Brett Favre era.
It’ll be up to Love to internalize such advice and work with the pressure that’s coming his way.
