The rumors and consternation are over: Aaron Rodgers is returning to the Inexperienced Bay Packers. In the long run Occam’s Razor utilized, and the best end result was met. The drama and romanticism of Rodgers leaving for an additional group made far much less sense than sticking with an already profitable group trying to recover from the ultimate hump.
That is additionally a case of historical past repeating itself. Simply as Rodgers was pressured to attend behind Brett Favre, we now have Jordan Love biding his time to take over for Rodgers — but it surely’s obvious that wait is likely to be too lengthy. With loads of QB-needy groups, and a vendor’s market on passers, it now presents the Packers with an opportunity to rectify one among their worst picks in latest reminiscence.
That sounds harsh, however spot the lie. In hindsight, deciding on Love was a colossal waste that banked on the concept that Rodgers was winding down, or keen to stroll away from the NFL. Neither has occurred, and now he’ll be enjoying into his 40s, identical to Tom Brady did.
If we assume Rodgers performs out this new deal, and there’s no indication he received’t, Love shall be 27-years-old by the point it’s up. It is going to additionally come after Inexperienced Bay wants to select up Love’s choice, making it not solely the waste of a choose, but additionally precious future cap area.
There’s little question this state of affairs hurts. Rodgers’ frustration with the Packers taking Love is that he didn’t get extra assist at vast receiver. It’s exacerbated by the truth that within the 10 picks following Love, the Bengals chosen Tee Higgins, and the Colts took Michael Pittman Jr — each of whom have developed into strong, 1,000 yard receivers. All-purpose working again Clyde Edwards-Hilaire was additionally taken after Love, one other participant who might have helped the Packers win video games.
As huge of a misstep because it was, this couldn’t have come at a greater time. With the announcement that Rodgers is returning we now have a really strong checklist of groups in dire want of quarterbacks, and an upcoming draft with out a lot top-end promise on the place. Though Jordan Love is extraordinarily untested, and hasn’t actually shined when given his restricted possibilities, there’s completely a state of affairs the place a QB-needy group values him greater than the upcoming class.
Contemplate this for a second: When Love entered the draft he was graded at 6.36 by NFL.com, that’s the equal of a “plus-level starter” by their metric. To check, the best grade within the 2022 class is a 6.40, with the 2 huge names, Kenny Pickett and Malik Willis grading at a 6.39 and 6.34 respectively. Under no circumstances is the NFL web site the be-all-end-all of prospect analysis, but it surely does present that Love may be very near the QBs coming into the draft this 12 months, and will doubtless be had at a fraction of the fee.
The Packers would gladly settle for a choose within the excessive second spherical from a group, particularly in a draft this deep. In the event you’re the Lions, Broncos, or Commanders would you fairly spend a prime choose to draft a QB, or deal with one other want early, and ship a excessive second to Inexperienced Bay for Jordan Love? I feel it’s a no brainer. For now I’m omitting the Panthers from this dialogue (as a result of they traded away their second rounder for Sam Darnold final 12 months) and the Steelers (who I feel could be comfy taking one among this 12 months’s QBs at No. 19).
In my final mock draft I had the Packers deciding on Ohio State WR Chris Olave with the twenty eighth choose. Assuming Inexperienced Bay might pull that off, re-sign Davante Adams (which is feasible given how cap pleasant Rodgers’ new deal reportedly is), after which might double-dip at WR taking somebody like Skyy Moore or Jalen Tolbert with their newly-traded choose, properly, that might be sufficient by itself to provide the Packers the weapons to get again to the Tremendous Bowl.
It is a uncommon case of a possible win-win commerce. Bringing in Jordan Love feels much more protected than spending huge cash for somebody like Mitch Trubisky, or rolling the cube on a excessive choose with this present QB class. Whereas there will not be an Aaron Rodgers feeding frenzy as there would have been if he demanded a commerce, we might see a brand new sort of competitors emerge to ship gives for Jordan Love.
