Before Packers-Bears, Here’s Aaron Rodgers’ Advice to Jordan Love
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Nobody knows more about what awaits Jordan Love as he replaces Aaron Rodgers than Rodgers himself.
Both quarterbacks replaced legends. Both waited in the wings for three years. Rodgers replaced Super Bowl-champion and three-time MVP Brett Favre in 2008. Love has replaced Super Bowl-champion and four-time MVP Rodgers.
On Sunday, the transition will become official when Love leads the Green Bay Packers into a new season and a new era with a Week 1 showdown against the Chicago Bears.
Pressure? Yes, there will be pressure, but the pressure should be about performing well for himself and his teammates and winning games. It should not be about the man he’s replacing.
“It’s only as big as you make it in your mind,” Rodgers told Sports Illustrated’s Packer Central last week in advance of Love's first start at the Bears. “A lot of that stuff is just fodder for articles and it never really feels that way inside the facility. It really doesn’t.
“You feel the enormity of how the expectations are in Titletown, but it never feels like this incredible weight. Especially on a young team. Not a lot of those guys played with me for a lot of years. It’s a really young team. So, there’s not like this deep-seated group of four or five guys that were with me for so long. That’s the nature of the NFL. There’s so much turnover. So, it’s never going to feel like this overwhelming sense of, ‘How do I fill this guy’s shoes? What do I have to do?’ I promise you, I know he feels the same way.
“And it’s not a slight to me, like it wouldn’t be a slight to Brett. It’s exciting. You’re the guy. You get to do whatever you want to do and lead how you want to lead. It’s not like this incredibly crazy, ‘How am I going to actually play football?’ It’s like, ‘No, now I get a chance to play football.’ And he’s got the right attitude.
“The shoes are never as big as you think they are. The mantle is never as heavy as you think it is. The crown is heavy of being the leader, but it’s not like living up to these expectations or whatever it might be around who I was or what I did. It’s all about him and what he’s doing and how he’s going to lead, and he’ll be just fine.”
Jordan Love and Aaron Rodgers (Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images)
Rodgers watched a little of Love during the preseason and was impressed. “He looks great,” Rodgers said. Rodgers saw a quarterback who played on time and threw the ball with rhythm, decisiveness and accuracy.
Rodgers pointed to Love’s work last year and the start of this year with venerable quarterbacks coach Tom Clements as a reason for his Year 3 growth.
Now, the 2020 first-round pick gets to show the football world, beginning with Sunday at the rival Bears.
“It’s really, really exciting because you go from being the guy in college. Now you’re sitting and watching and learning.” Rodgers said. “You’ve always been the guy, then you get to a team and you realize, ‘Oh, there’s a guy out there who’s better than me.’ Then it’s the task of, ‘All right, I’m going to learn what this guy does and I’m going to figure out why he’s doing this and why he’s doing that.’
“And then it’s creating your own identity and leadership style: all the things that he has done. He had three years, just like I had three years, and now it’s all the other fun stuff for him. Now he gets to figure out the kind of leader that he wants to be to the guys, and he has all the clout as a starting quarterback now. So, it’s just like I told him, just be yourself.”
The “be yourself” line is the key. It sounds so simple and cliché. How can Love play without the looming specter of the legend he replaced? But it is simple, Rodgers said. Love will be so engrossed in the daily routine that there won’t be time or energy to worry about outside perception.
“People used to always say, and I’m sure they’re still saying the old adage about ‘filling shoes’ and all the different cliches about following a quarterback who’s been there, played at a high level forever,” Rodgers said. “I have a few things I used to tell myself about some of those questions in my mind, and I think he’s probably telling himself the same type of stuff.
“It just comes down to being your own man and do things the way you want to do it. The things that he watched me do that he would do differently, do it differently. Be your own guy, that’s awesome. You should do that. He’s a great kid. He’s got all the talent in the world. They’ve got a really young team, so he’s got an opportunity to be exactly who he wants to be and be the leader that he wants to be. I’m excited for him.”
Then came the important line, one that Rodgers hit on a few times as he headed home from practice on Thursday.
Love showed he was fine last year when he came off the bench to replace an injured Rodgers at Philadelphia. It was an incredibly small sample size of 10 snaps. But, in must-score mode against the eventual NFC champions, Love completed 6-of-9 passes for 113 yards and one touchdown. His two possessions put 10 points on the scoreboard.
Similarly, Rodgers showed he’d be fine when came off the bench to replace an injured Favre at Dallas in 2007.
Jordan Love and Aaron Rodgers (Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images)
That’s when Rodgers said he “felt like, ‘You know what? I can play in this league. I can play in this league and play for a long time and I’m going to,’” Rodgers recalled. “Everybody was like, ‘This kid’s not terrible. He can play a little bit.’ And he played against Philly and played really well and everybody’s like, ‘Oh, this kid’s not terrible. He can play.’ So, very similar in that respect. And I’m sure that was big for his confidence, just like Dallas was for my confidence.
“Again, he’s going to be just fine. He has all the talent in the world, and he’s got the guys behind him, I’m sure. And he’s just got to go out there and be himself. That’s the easiest thing to do and that’s why it’s not this crazy, difficult task that it’s talked about outside the facility. It’s just like, ‘All I’ve got to be is myself? Oh, I’m good at that. I can do that. I can do that better than anybody.’”
Having watched Love for three years, Rodgers knows all about the arm strength and mobility. Love has all the talent in the world to be a top-tier quarterback. However, a lot of quarterbacks with talent have failed.
Beyond physical skill, what does it take to be a successful quarterback?
“Consistency,” Rodgers said. “Consistency in all facets. Consistency of leadership. When it is going great, you’re consistent in the way you approach and the way you prepare for the game. When you’re going through adversity, you’ve got to be consistent with that. And then to play, you’ve just got to play consistently. You know, over and over and over. Be able to do it, and not just for one season.
“A lot of guys have done it for one season, two seasons. Can you do it for three, five, eight, 10, 15, where you’re taking care of the football and being explosive and being efficient and getting to the Pro Bowl and taking a team deep into the playoffs and being in the MVP conversation? The best guys are going to do it over and over consistently for a long, long time. There’s not that many of those guys.
“But the key to it is that consistency and stacking experiences and learning and having good recall and creating a process that works for you, so you go into every game expecting, ‘I’m going to go out and dominate and play great’ because they’ve prepared and they’ve played the game out in their head already. They know what they’re doing. They know what checks to get to. They know where to go with the football. That’s what separates guys who can do it for a little bit and guys who can do it for a career.”
Note: Bill Huber has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, which was Aaron Rodgers’ first year as the Packers’ starting quarterback.
More Green Bay Packers News
Saturday’s roster moves. What do they mean?
