-
Rob Demovsky
GREEN BAY, Wis. — On the first day of training camp this summer, Matt LaFleur tried something different. After the one hour, 36-minute practice, the Green Bay Packers coach called the team together in the middle of Ray Nitschke Field.
He shared his thoughts on the practice, went over the schedule for the rest of the day and stepped out of the center of the huddle as usual.
Then he said nothing.
“In the past, I’d call on a specific person to break it down,” LaFleur said in a recent interview with ESPN. “This time, I just wanted to see who took it. And the first time the whole team was here, he took it. So I was like, ‘There we go.'”
The “he” was quarterback Jordan Love.
And that’s how his third season as a starter began.
It was exactly the kind of step LaFleur had been looking for ever since he challenged Love after last season to become more vocal, even though the No. 26 draft pick in the 2020 draft led the Packers to the playoffs each of his first two seasons as the starting quarterback.
If it took Love some time to get to this point, it was by design — right out of the Packers’ quarterback development manual. Love sat behind future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers for three years before taking over as the starter. Nearly two decades ago, Rodgers waited his turn behind Hall of Famer Brett Favre for three years. In Rodgers’ third season as the starter, the Packers won the Super Bowl.
Despite the success the Packers have had with this approach, it did not start a trend around the NFL where teams take a quarterback in the first round and let him sit for multiple seasons.
“Show me a team since then that has done that,” a high-ranking personnel executive from another team said. “There aren’t any. Everyone says, ‘That’s the way we should do it, like Green Bay.’ But no one ever does.”
The Packers’ opponent on Thursday night at Lambeau Field (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video) certainly did not. The Washington Commanders made rookie Jayden Daniels their starter from the get-go, and it worked for them. The No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft helped turn a 4-13 team into a 12-5 squad that reached the NFC Championship Game, and Daniels won Offensive Rookie of the Year.
“I’ve been around high draft picks; they feel they have all the answers,” Commanders tight end Zach Ertz said. “Jayden was the complete opposite. He’s asking me about certain plays, why I ran a certain route this time, how could the timing be a little better. It was the humility that stood out to me.”
It doesn’t usually go that smoothly.
“It’s usually the high-pick guys that come into situations where there’s like zero chance for success,” LaFleur said.
Daniels, however, was proof that it can work.
“A guy like Jayden Daniels, he came in and they’re going to shape the offense exactly to his strengths and skill set,” said Steve Calhoun, Love’s personal quarterback coach since his high school days. “When those guys come in day one and they come in with a new coaching staff, like [Tennessee Titans‘ No. 1 pick] Cam Ward this year, they’re going to build the offense exactly to his strengths.
“Jordan’s situation, he came in behind Aaron and the offense is not tailored to Jordan. And so he had to learn how to play in the footsteps or in resemblance of how coach LaFleur was calling the game for Aaron.”
Of the six quarterbacks drafted in the first round last season, all but one started games as a rookie. Only Minnesota’s J.J. McCarthy, who missed last season with a torn right meniscus, did not.
“It can be a vicious cycle,” said a VP of player personnel for another team. “Most teams who draft quarterbacks need them to play because they lack the competency on the roster, which limits the chance to slowly develop them into that role, which can lead to poor play, and on and on it goes.
“Green Bay, by chance or by plan, positioned themselves to handle the development curves because [Rodgers] was still there. No [Rodgers], and I’m sure Love is starting Day 1.”
And what would’ve happened if Love had to play right away?
“I don’t know,” Love said. “Who knows?”
To do it the Packers’ way, an established quarterback must be in place.
“The No. 1 thing is most of them don’t have a Hall of Fame quarterback that’s starting for you, that’s playing at an MVP-type level,” said Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst, who drafted Love. “When you have that, it’s very easy to sit a player like that.”
Otherwise, it’s nearly impossible.
“It’s very hard not to put that guy in the game because there’s a bunch of other players that want to win, too,” Gutekunst said.
It also helped Gutekunst that he does not have a single overbearing owner wondering why a first-round pick isn’t playing.
“Our ownership structure allows us to do what we think is best for the long term, which maybe not every organization has that ability to do,” Gutekunst said.
Said LaFleur: “Gutey and I have talked about it many times: You’ve got to play these guys, especially at that position, when they’re ready. But I don’t think people have the patience to do it.”
In the Packers’ case, their patience paid off, and six years later, there was Love taking charge of the team breakdown on Day 1.
“It’s just him maturing and seeing that opportunity to have his voice heard,” Calhoun said. “I don’t think last year, maybe at the beginning of the season, was that time. Or even the year before. I think Jordan does a great job of analyzing the whole thing and seeing when his voice and when it’s his time to be that leader.”
ESPN Commanders reporter John Keim contributed to this story.
