Some of the usual suspects made their weekly appearances on the Green Bay Packers' injury report heading into a Week 7 matchup with the Detroit Lions, but the inclusion of quarterback Jordan Love was a bit of a shocker for fans and journalists alike. Love was listed as a limited participant on Wednesday due to back issues, which is a new problem for him in his young NFL career.
Love himself does not seem concerned, as the Packers' star quarterback told ESPN's
Rob Demovsky, there's "no chance" he misses Sunday's game in Detroit, but that decision isn't ultimately up to the 27-year-old quarterback.
As for his head coach, Matt LaFleur told Demovsky that after the Cowboys game, Love "was pretty beat up. He took some shots. I saw him in there with the chiropractor postgame, so I knew something was up.”
With all that said, a limited practice on a Wednesday shouldn't be too much of a cause for concern, as that's a typical veteran rest day, and one where teams often try to take it easy on their highest-leverage players. It's just surprising to see Love, who's generally so healthy and eager to practice, pop up on the injury report in the middle of the week.
Jordan Love says he's okay, but Green Bay Packers fans should monitor the practice reports heading into a pivotal Week 7 visit to Detroit.
Every game matters when the standings are so close, but Week 7 provides a particularly fascinating outlook given the state of the NFC North. Detroit is 3-2 on the season for the fourth spot in the division, but if they win against the Packers on Sunday, they'll leapfrog past them for either the third or fourth spot in the division.
Meanwhile, if the Packers lose and the rest of the division wins, Green Bay will find itself back at the bottom of the NFC North after clawing its way back up to No. 2 in the ranking. This makes Love's status for the competition far more important than it would be in, say, Week 8 vs. Carolina, or Week 12 in New Orleans.
Love is averaging a career-best 280.7 yards per contest through six weeks with 11 touchdowns to four picks, despite his completion percentage and passing success rate both dropping from last season. That's in large part due to the spike in volume we've seen in the early stretch of the season, with the Packers' run game being effectively non-existent.
Although the return of Josh Jacobs should help with that to some degree, Green Bay's run blocking has been abysmal to start the season, and they'll continue to lean heavily on Love's arm to get the job done against a horrid Lions secondary.
With that being the case, this is poised to be a huge week for Jordan Love, so long as he can stay healthy.
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