In a perfect world, the Green Bay Packers’ focus would be on hosting the Detroit Lions this Sunday. But in reality, the Packers may be taking stock of who could be available for the NFC North showdown in Week 1.
Training camp and the preseason were littered with injuries as the Packers ramped up for the upcoming season and none was bigger than Jordan Love’s left thumb. Love injured the thumb during the preseason opener against the New York Jets and underwent surgery shortly after to ensure he’d be ready for the start of the year.
With the opener fast approaching, Love made headlines by handing off with the left (non-throwing) hand during Thursday’s practice, but there’s a chance the Packers may have exercised too much caution with their franchise quarterback.
Jordan Love testing out the left handed hand-off at practice. Progress for the left thumb ahead of the opener? pic.twitter.com/cyazoDzCT1
— Eric Boynton (@ericboynton) September 4, 2025
Packers Let Jordan Love’s Thumb Become a Major Issue vs. Lions
Love underwent surgery on Aug. 12 and returned to practice six days later in preparation for the Lions matchup. While he had been back at practice for over two weeks, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur admitted to reporters including ESPN’s Rob Demovsky that he had not tried to hand off with his left hand as soon as Wednesday’s press conference.
It may not be a coincidence that Love made his first attempt roughly 24 hours later but WBAY’s Dave Schroeder noted that while his handoffs look good, he also bobbled a football that was tossed to him on the rollout after the play.
Perhaps this is a minor thing, but it’s concerning with the Lions coming to town. Aidan Hutchinson is back after seeing his season derailed by a broken tibia and fibula last October. The Lions were also one of the most blitz-heavy teams in the NFL at 26.2% last season. While the departure of Aaron Glenn may have suggested the Lions would buck that trend, Lions team reporter Tim Twentyman noted that he expects the Lions to be just as aggressive under new defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard.
“Sheppard admitted that a defense has to be calculated with its aggression,” Twentyman wrote back at the beginning of training camp. “He said that there has to be a ‘why’ behind it. His nature is to be aggressive and get after the offense.
“That goes for creating negative plays and turnovers as well. We’ve seen Sheppard’s defense be much more aggressive attacking the football early in camp and trying to strip footballs and get hands on footballs.”
Having an extra man fly toward the football is something the Packers have probably accounted for during their preparation for the season opener. But LaFleur basically admitted that Love has been practicing one-handed all this time, which is a problem when multiple Lions defenders are going to be coming for the ball.
It means that it may have been a good idea to allow Love to get a few more reps in before Thursday’s practice to make sure the hand is good to go. But it’s too late for that now as the Lions come to Green Bay for an important NFC North matchup.