NFC Exec Has Terrible Jordan Love-Tee Higgins Take

The 2020 NFL Draft boasted one of the most stacked classes in recent years. Practically every player taken in the first round has gone on to make a mark in the NFL, including Jordan Love, who the Green Bay Packers selected 26th overall out of Utah State.

The jury was out on whether Love could be 'the guy' while Aaron Rodgers was still in town, but the former's 2023 performance proved that he's capable of being the franchise quarterback. But despite Love's recent success, one league employee thinks that the Packers could've already won a Super Bowl had general manager Brian Gutekunst gone another way four years ago.

Packers News: Green Bay Should've Drafted Tee Higgins over Jordan Love, per NFC Exec

According to NFL insider Ari Meirov, one NFC executive theorizes that the Packers could've won the Super Bowl during the 2021 season if they drafted an "elite receiver" rather than Love. He adds that he wonders if Gutekunst would've rather selected Tee Higgins instead if it meant winning a championship.

There's no other way to slice it: the NFC exec should feel awfully silly for even thinking of this question, let alone asking it aloud to Meirov.

On one hand, I'll admit that a good chunk of Packers fans wanted to see the team draft a wide receiver back in 2020. It was a position that management often neglected to target throughout the Rodgers era and Green Bay was coming off a 2019 campaign where none of its wideouts were all that productive outside of Davante Adams.

At the same time, nothing about the Packers' 2020 season suggests that Higgins would've been a difference-maker regarding a Super Bowl run. It's easy to forget that the Packers went 13-3 that season while scoring an NFL-leading 31.8 points per game.

The aerial attack didn't struggle at all that year. The Packers averaged the ninth-most passing yards per outing as Adams led the charge with 1,374 yards and a career-high 18 touchdowns on 115 catches.

Green Bay's 2020 run came to an end with a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game. Again, another wideout likely wouldn't have made a difference. The Packers didn't struggle to throw the ball as Rodgers went 33-for-48 in the pocket for 346 yards and three TDs to one interception in a game where Marquez Valdes-Scantling led the team with 115 receiving yards.

If the Packers would've gone with Higgins, who was drafted 33rd overall, who knows what impact he would've made? He had a solid rookie campaign with 908 yards and six TDs on 108 receptions, but he was also only 21 years old and might've not been able to handle the pressure that the NFL postseason brings just yet.

Even with hindsight being 20/20, I doubt Gutekunst regrets drafting Love over a wide receiver. Higgins is a great wideout, but the Packers now have one of the deepest WR rooms in the NFL. You also need a franchise QB to succeed in the league, which is what they now have after Love threw for nearly 4,200 yards and 32 TDs last year.

With Love likely being the face of the franchise for the next decade (and, potentially, beyond), the future looks bright in Green Bay. Even without Higgins, the Packers are tied for the ninth-best Super Bowl LIX odds on DraftKings Sportsbook.

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