Packers: Jordan Love Impresses at Day 2 of Mini-Camp

Jordan Love’s first few practices at OTAs and mini-camp as QB1 of the Green Bay Packers have been as expected—very up and down.

During OTAs, the headline was that Love wouldn’t push the ball downfield, frequently checking down to his running backs out of the backfield. Of course, at that time, Love was without his top receivers — Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Equanimeous St. Brown, and Devin Funchess — who were all absent, and there’s the real possibility that the back-end of the roster players that he was throwing to just weren’t open.

On top of that, we don’t know what was being asked of Love in those situations. As quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy mentioned, the “main goal” for Love is working on his progressions, and perhaps that was the objective of that drill. Regardless of what the reasons were, Getsy isn’t worried about Love checking in the ball down:

"“The main goal for me right now is that he just progresses properly, that he plays with his eyes and his feet,”’said Getsy via Packers.com. “If his eyes and his feet tell him to move in his progression, I want him to move in his progression. So if defense is taking something away, we need to progress. I don’t want him to think he needs to force something down the field.“"

Then on Day 1 of mini-camp, which took place on Tuesday, Love struggled with accuracy issues, completing just 12 of 23 passes and failing in the two-minute drill as noted by ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. There were several instances in which he overthrew his intended target.

Really none of this should come as a surprise. Love missed out on practice time and preseason games in 2020 due to COVID-19, and as the third quarterback on the roster, it’s not as if there were a lot of extra reps to go around. But despite the early ups and downs, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett has seen a much more confident quarterback in Year 2:

"“One of the bigger things with Jordan right now is his confidence in the system,” Hackett told reporters via Packers.com. “Instead of trying to learn the verbiage and just understand how to call the plays, he can do that much easier now and then be able to go out there and execute them.”"

On Wednesday, during Love’s second mini-camp practice, that confidence in the system turned into an impressive day on the practice field.

According to Demovsky, this time, Love led a 70-yard scoring drive during the two-minute drill that was capped off with a touchdown pass to Allen Lazard. Overall, Love went 20 for 31 during 11-on-11 drills, and unlike previously, they were not all check downs.

Now, this obviously is great to see, but if we aren’t going to overreact to the bad days, we need to be consistent and not overreact to the good days either. After all, it was just one practice in early June, and it took place in shorts. When speaking with reporters afterward, Matt LaFleur had a similar even-keeled approach:

"“You can never get too high, and never get too low, in this game.”"

Whether we are discussing the Aaron Rodgers’ saga or Love’s development, either way, there is still a long way to go, and that means more ups and downs to come—which again should be expected. Although we don’t want to read too much into one practice, this certainly was an encouraging performance.

If you watched Love during his time at Utah State, his ability to throw the football and make plays were never in question. In fact, that’s why the Green Bay Packers drafted him where they did, and we saw that on display on Wednesday.

But what Love needs to dial in is his decision-making and his overall technique, which is really what LaFleur is trying to accomplish in these practices—making him game ready so when the time comes, his natural abilities can take over.

Thursday marks the final day of mandatory mini-camp, while Phase 3 of voluntary OTAs continues through June 18th. After that, the next time we will see everyone together will be for training camp. We don’t know if Rodgers will be in attendance at that point or not or what the future holds in that regard, but if Love is called upon to start Week 1, as he told reporters, you can bet he will be ready.

"“I was drafted here to play quarterback, so I’ll definitely be ready Week 1.”"