As Packers Training Camp Begins, All They Need Is Love

Will the real Jordan Love, please stand up?

I repeat, will the real Jordan Love, please stand up?

No, this is not a remake of popular 1990s rap song The Real Slim Shady by Eminem, but it is an appropriate line in relation to the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback.

Love is entrenched as the team’s starting quarterback. Perhaps the most controversial draft choice in the last five years earned his keep after sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for three seasons.

After Rodgers won back-to-back league MVPs in 2020 and 2021, it was fair to wonder whether the Packers might move on from Love before seeing him play a snap as the preferred starting quarterback. An 8-9 season in 2022 in which Rodgers looked like a player reaching the end of a legendary career changed that.

The Packers went from a team asking for Rodgers to return to one hoping he would say he didn’t want to.

Eventually, both sides got their wish. Rodgers was a Jet and Love was installed as the starter.

A rebuild began.

That rebuild looked like one that could last multiple years. The doomsdayers were out in full force after a loss in Pittsburgh dropped the Packers to 3-6. After 30 years of elite quarterback play, the Packers had finally found out what it was like to be the other 31 franchises during the reign of terror cast on the rest of the NFL by Brett Favre and Rodgers.

Love was inaccurate, inconsistent and interception-prone. Would Love be one and done if the Packers ended the season in position to draft someone like LSU’s Jayden Daniels or USC’s Caleb Williams.

Of course, Love would have something to say about that.

Love played well in the team’s next game against the Los Angeles Chargers, leading a comeback victory to start a run that would solidify him as the team’s quarterback of the future. The Packers went 6-2 during the second half of the season to finish 9-8 and get a shot in the playoffs as the NFC’s seventh seed.

The Packers were not simply happy to be there. Love and the offense tore through Dallas, which was one of the best home teams through the season. Love threw three scoring strikes, including a nifty 20-yard flick of the wrist to Dontayvion Wicks to put the Packers up 20-0 in the first half.

At the end of it all, the Packers piled up 48 points and Love finished with the highest passer rating ever for a quarterback in a road playoff game.

Sure, the following week, Love threw two ugly interceptions in the fourth quarter, ultimately leading to Green Bay’s demise at the 49ers, but it was hard not to look at the season as an undeniable success.

The arrow, after looking like it was headed for a nosedive, was pointed skyward once again. Love was rewarded with a four-year contract extension worth $220 million, a contract worthy of a franchise quarterback.

Optimism filled the air as the Packers kicked off training camp last year. Players were openly talking about going to and winning the Super Bowl. I even picked the Packers to win it all, with Love earning MVP honors for the regular season.

Neither of those came close to coming to fruition.

Love was injured on opening night in Brazil and carried off by members of the training staff. It was fair to wonder if the season was over not long after it started. As it turned out, the Packers dodged a bullet.

While Love missed only two games – both wins led by backup Malik Willis – he was clearly hobbled. Green Bay’s offense changed to handle his limitations. Love was rarely under center, which takes away from the play-action passing game, and caused some predictability within the offense. Love’s mobility was compromised, which made it difficult to extend plays.

Injury or not, however, some of Love’s decision making during the first half of the season was horrendous. Despite missing two games, he still was at the top of the NFL in interceptions.

“I think that’s just the price of doing business,” Matt LaFleur said to Erin Andrews in an interview on Fox before the team’s Nov. 17 showdown with the Chicago Bears.

Love’s interception issues would come to a halt after that, but was it at the expense of the rest of the offense? The Packers ran one of the most run-centric offenses in the NFL. It was the classic chicken-or-egg question. Was that due to the success of Josh Jacobs? Or was it a lack of faith in the passing game and, most notably, the quarterback?

The answer, as it often does, lies somewhere in between.

Jacobs was Green Bay’s best player on offense. Meanwhile, the passing game struggled through Love’s injury and decision-making and the receivers’ drops.

Advanced numbers and graphs that become the craze during the offseason show that Love was a good quarterback last season, regardless of the injury. There were glimpses last season of Love being an elite quarterback that could help the Packers contend with the rest of the NFL’s elite.

The reality is glimpses and spreadsheets do not win titles.

More often than not, great quarterback play does.

Especially in a city named Titletown, being the seventh seed in the NFC – a playoff seed that did not exist until 2020 – is not good enough. In the team’s biggest games last season, the team was not good enough. That includes Love.

In Week 17, the Packers’ passing offense did not reach the century mark in yardage until late in the second half of a 27-25 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. A week later, the offense sputtered through two quarters before losing Love to an elbow injury in the season finale against Chicago. A week later, the offense was tripping all over itself in the playoff loss at the Eagles even before Jayden Reed and Romeo Doubs exited the game with injuries. Emblematic of how the offense finished the season, Love threw three interceptions.

The job of an elite quarterback, which is what Love is being paid to be, is to stand tall when everything else breaks down around you.

Is it fair to place all of that burden on the quarterback? Perhaps not.

Fair is also a place where they judge pigs.

Life is not fair. Life is even less fair in the National Football League. These expectations are what Love and the offense signed up for. When the Packers gave Love his mega extension, the expectation was for him to win and win big.

Now, with the Packers kicking off their 2025 training camp today, Love is the team’s third-year starting quarterback. There’s been plenty to like. There’s also been plenty to clean up.

“It’s consistency in everything he does: improving accuracy, improving his footwork and just really taking command of another step in the offense,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said before OTAs. “One thing we talked with all these guys, doing a great job communicating with each other, quarterback to receiver, quarterback to O-line, and just making sure everyone’s on the same page with each other, not necessarily coach to player but player to player. I think that’s where you get the best teams is those player-led teams where guys are really on the same page out on the field.”

Green Bay’s roster is good enough to compete and make the postseason. Making the postseason, however, is no longer good enough. They’ve done that the last two seasons.

If Love can take the next step and play with greater consistency, as his offensive coordinator said, this is a team that could compete for a conference title.

Matt LaFleur is confident that the team knows what they have with Love at the controls.

“I feel pretty confident that we know what we have in Jordan, and we got a lot of confidence in him,” LaFleur said at minicamp.

If LaFleur is wrong and Love doesn’t progress? Last season’s regression could pale in comparison for what is to come this year. The NFC North, in which the Packers went 1-5 a season ago, is not getting any easier. All three rosters of their divisional rivals arguably improved this offseason.

Outside of the division, Philadelphia retained many of the players that won last year’s Super Bowl. Washington has Daniels, who blossomed before America’s eyes during last year’s playoff run. San Francisco and Los Angeles could be primed for big years if things break a certain way.

The reality is the NFC could be loaded with talent.

What needs to happen for the Packers to be one of those teams fighting to be the last one standing?

All they need is Love.

Packers Training Camp Previews

With the first practice of training camp set for Wednesday, here's my first #Packers roster projection, with a prediction on the final 53 along with the 16-player practice squad. ⬇️https://t.co/P7pXxtRvdb
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 22, 2025

Packers Training Camp Previews

More Green Bay Packers News