Round 1 (26) - Jordan Love, QB Utah State

[Scott4Pack]

The one negative thing that I can appreciate the most out of this pick is, "We didn't get better for NOW on this pick." There's no arguing about that. We picked a guy who is going to sit and learn, barring any unforeseen injuries to QB1.

And pile that onto round 1 of last year too. Yes, Gary was only going to be a rotational player his first year. Settled. Done.

I'm looking how things look in a couple more years. If Gary and/or Love start and play well, this'll be settled for good. And if either or both don't play well, then we can gripe about it for a long time. It won't matter because Guty will be gone then too.

Ready for round 2. :-)

[Christo]

Bottom line, in the NFL if you don't have a QB you're irrelevant. It's so far above any other position, that if you think you can get a legit one you take him.

And it's not like the Packers have been relying on their first round picks to make the playoffs the past few years. Sherrod, Perry, Datone, Randall, Haha, Gary have been a pretty mixed bag. I'm OK with using one on a guy who could be our next franchise QB.

We'll all feel a lot better after tonight when we've drafted a couple of new weapons for Rodgers in the rounds we historically do much better in.

Let's be honest, if there is any player that understands this move it's Rodgers himself. He is the guy that proved why you should draft a potentially great QB in the first even if you already have a HOF starter. You might disagree with the Packers that Love is a prospect with that potential but if they think he can be a franchise guy they are right to take him.

I've come to look at first round picks like throwing darts. Way too much hype factored in to the pick. I doubt Love plays for at least 2 years, { we better hope he doesn't }. I guess the real reason he was taken was because of the 5th year option.

[paco]

The one negative thing that I can appreciate the most out of this pick is, "We didn't get better for NOW on this pick." There's no arguing about that. We picked a guy who is going to sit and learn, barring any unforeseen injuries to QB1.

And pile that onto round 1 of last year too. Yes, Gary was only going to be a rotational player his first year. Settled. Done.

I'm looking how things look in a couple more years. If Gary and/or Love start and play well, this'll be settled for good. And if either or both don't play well, then we can gripe about it for a long time. It won't matter because Guty will be gone then too.

Ready for round 2. :-)

I can argue it. Our QB2 situation will probably be better than it has in years. That's better. People have been complaining for years that the Packers haven't gotten a quality backup. Jordan Love will not cost that much. There is a rookie pay scale now. Love will cost us around $12M for 4 years. That is around average for the top half of QB2's in the league.

[RingoCStarrQB]

I like the pick. Needed an ILB more, clearly, but Rodgers hasn't been good and if we want to win, he needs to play better than he has, especially in the playoffs against tough defenses.

This either lights a fire under him (which is needed), or it doesn't and then we move on. Time to &%$@ or get off the pot.

My thoughts as well. Plus after watching some Jordan Love film clips last night I saw a little bit of Rodgers and Mahomes in him ..... Love can throw accurately on the run.

[British]

The Steelers showed last season what happens when you don't have a good back up. And the Eagles the year before showed what happens when you do.

Rodgers has been injured and off the boil the past few years and we've had zero impact from our QB2.

Also, in terms of immediate impact, I was hoping for a developmental OT like Josh Jones or maybe Ezra Cleveland last night. They may have taken a year to hit the field so the outlook for 2020 wouldn't have been much different than taking the developmental QB.

Rounds 2 and 3 were always going to be the 'weapon' rounds anyway for me.

[Drj820]

The Packers desperately need OT, DT, WR, ILB and have other obvious needs in depth. So, what do they do but move up to take a QB that could have been taken sitting where they were. When I woke up this morning to find out they did this I couldn't believe it. They lost a 4th round pick to take a questionable QB when they have so many other needs. What this tells me is that the team either does not have much confidence in Rodgers or Gutey is doing his best Al Davis imitation and has no plan whatsoever. I really wanted us to pick an OT, DT or ILB. I am disappointed!

Just have to trust Guty's board here. And the Packers weren't the only team trying to move up to get Love. The Colts were too. Maybe there were others. Green Bay actually had a call with Seattle's John Schneider that they cut off in order to pursue the trade with Miami. I'd say they acted with very high confidence.

Gutey hasn’t earned my trust for me to “trust his board”, and if the Colts really want to give up loot to get Love, you let them. Moving up yourself isn’t “how the board fell”. We give Gutey a pass and believe there weren’t anymore difference makers available at 26, yet trust him that a guy that threw 17 picks last year in the mountain west was worth a move up and that difference maker. I can assure you painfully the titans will make Wilson a difference maker, and the ravens will make Queen a difference maker.

[Drj820]

The Steelers showed last season what happens when you don't have a good back up. And the Eagles the year before showed what happens when you do.

Rodgers has been injured and off the boil the past few years and we've had zero impact from our QB2.

Also, in terms of immediate impact, I was hoping for a developmental OT like Josh Jones or maybe Ezra Cleveland last night. They may have taken a year to hit the field so the outlook for 2020 wouldn't have been much different than taking the developmental QB.

Rounds 2 and 3 were always going to be the 'weapon' rounds anyway for me.

You know I’m following this theory and agree...agree that we should have given the same 4th round pick we gave for Love to nick Foles, still had our 30 overall, and had a great backup we can all feel confident in.

[Waldo]

Jordan Love is 20. He is going to sit behind Rodgers for a few years and hopefully do exactly what Rodgers did at that 26th spot.

Seriously? I didn't realize he was that young.

That does make me like the pick quite a bit more.

That was one underappreciated thing about Rodgers, he was so young that by the time he was starting, he wasn't much older than the rookie QB's, despite sitting for 3 years. Matt Ryan is only a few months younger than Rodgers.

[NCF]

Gutey hasn’t earned my trust for me to “trust his board”, and if the Colts really want to give up loot to get Love, you let them. Moving up yourself isn’t “how the board fell”.

See, now, this is absolutely fair. The trade up does make it feel that way to an extent. We also hear, every year, not so much in the 1st-round, but when maneuvering about the board, trading up and trading down because of a pocket of talent or lack thereof. I don't think these guys make big boards the way we do. So I get Love could have been the last guy in a tier that they felt good about, but there were other options.

For one, they could have drove the price up on Indy and dealt with them, themselves, if they knew Indy was primed to come up to get him. I guess the issue was Indy leaping the Packers and teams below being willing to move for not much compensation.

[Waldo]

Jordan Love is 20. He is going to sit behind Rodgers for a few years and hopefully do exactly what Rodgers did at that 26th spot.

Yeah, but we're talking apples and oranges. It was very evident that we weren't going to get it done with Favre, his playing style, direction of team. Rodgers was essentially s #1 pick that fell. This kid didn't fall, we even traded up.

We were in the NFC championship game last year....again. You go all in and get our biggest needs, which was WR or ILB. You have to throw the chips in. Gute went for future here.

Nah I think in terms of being evident that it's not going to happen, us with Rodgers now are about as far away as we were with Favre around the same time. I don't think it was evident then, and I don't think it's evident now. Both QBs clearly got close late in their careers, and Favre even got closer than Rodgers so far has. Both of them turned into total divas who no longer were playing all that much above average.

Rodgers obviously can turn it around, whereas Favre's story is locked in, but I don't want to kid myself that Rodgers has been anything more than average the last couple of years.

Agree with Texas here.

People are kidding themselves if they think Rodgers play hasn't been as big a problem as WR talent or defense. Granted, he still has flashes of brilliance, but it isn't an all the time thing like it once was.

And I still haven't seen him transition his game to old man football. He's been moving that direction, but still has a ways to go. Only a handful of QB's have ever made that transition and continued to play elite football past 35.

[BF004]

They come out and say they are converting him to a WR yet?

[paco]

Jordan Love is 20. He is going to sit behind Rodgers for a few years and hopefully do exactly what Rodgers did at that 26th spot.

Seriously? I didn't realize he was that young.

That does make me like the pick quite a bit more.

That was one underappreciated thing about Rodgers, he was so young that by the time he was starting, he wasn't much older than the rookie QB's, despite sitting for 3 years. Matt Ryan is only a few months younger than Rodgers.

Sorry, I was wrong about his age. Bad info posted on twitter. He's 21, 22 in November.

[Drj820]

Yeah, but we're talking apples and oranges. It was very evident that we weren't going to get it done with Favre, his playing style, direction of team. Rodgers was essentially s #1 pick that fell. This kid didn't fall, we even traded up.

We were in the NFC championship game last year....again. You go all in and get our biggest needs, which was WR or ILB. You have to throw the chips in. Gute went for future here.

Nah I think in terms of being evident that it's not going to happen, us with Rodgers now are about as far away as we were with Favre around the same time. I don't think it was evident then, and I don't think it's evident now. Both QBs clearly got close late in their careers, and Favre even got closer than Rodgers so far has. Both of them turned into total divas who no longer were playing all that much above average.

Rodgers obviously can turn it around, whereas Favre's story is locked in, but I don't want to kid myself that Rodgers has been anything more than average the last couple of years.

Agree with Texas here.

People are kidding themselves if they think Rodgers play hasn't been as big a problem as WR talent or defense. Granted, he still has flashes of brilliance, but it isn't an all the time thing like it once was.

And I still haven't seen him transition his game to old man football. He's been moving that direction, but still has a ways to go. Only a handful of QB's have ever made that transition and continued to play elite football past 35.

I don’t believe rodgers has been that bad for a guy in a new system, but if we get to the point where we do...then I guess we should fire gutey for giving him the franchise crippling contract extension. I mean signing a horrible qb that you need to go find his replacement in round one of the draft when he has three years left on his deal is very much fireable. If we want to go that route instead, I’l play along.

[Waldo]

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Why on Earth extend Rodgers and then restructure his contract too?

31.5 million in dead money if we try to move him after this year.

17.2 after 2022 season.


Love has no chance to play till 2023.

GB has a cap savings in excess of 20M if he is cut or traded before the 2022 season.

One trend that has oft been mentioned (but haven't seen yet in this thread, but I have a ways to go), is that top teams typically don't have expensive QB's. Once the QB gets paid top money, they seem to have a ceiling below what cheap QB teams are capable of. Remember, this was true with Rodgers in GB too. Brady and NE are really the only team to successfully beat this trend.

Gute is setting this team up to have a window in 2023-? (depends on Love and contract situation if/when extended). Ted nailed it with Rodgers, extending him once he showed enough but well before his play pushed him into the big QB contract stratosphere.

[British]

The Steelers showed last season what happens when you don't have a good back up. And the Eagles the year before showed what happens when you do.

Rodgers has been injured and off the boil the past few years and we've had zero impact from our QB2.

Also, in terms of immediate impact, I was hoping for a developmental OT like Josh Jones or maybe Ezra Cleveland last night. They may have taken a year to hit the field so the outlook for 2020 wouldn't have been much different than taking the developmental QB.

Rounds 2 and 3 were always going to be the 'weapon' rounds anyway for me.

You know I’m following this theory and agree...agree that we should have given the same 4th round pick we gave for Love to nick Foles, still had our 30 overall, and had a great backup we can all feel confident in.

We couldn't have afforded Foles contract. Love is peanuts for 5 years. And Foles wouldn't have come to be a backup. He's likely starting in Chicago. And Foles isn't the same player he was with the Eagles.

We need a good backup. Foles ain't it.

And Foles' also isn't a potential franchise QB. Love is.

[Waldo]

The whole comparing it to us picking Rodgers - Rodgers was BPA - it was essentially is he going to be number 1.

This was in part a byproduct tho of position importance. It was widely thought at that time that neither Rodgers nor Smith were anything more than late 1st QB's in a better QB draft. Like if they were in the 2004 draft, Eli, Rivers, and Ben would all have been picked before Smith and Rodgers.

Remember, Rodgers was a Tedford QB, most wouldn't touch him with a 10 ft pole given their history of busts at the pro level.

[Drj820]

The Steelers showed last season what happens when you don't have a good back up. And the Eagles the year before showed what happens when you do.

Rodgers has been injured and off the boil the past few years and we've had zero impact from our QB2.

Also, in terms of immediate impact, I was hoping for a developmental OT like Josh Jones or maybe Ezra Cleveland last night. They may have taken a year to hit the field so the outlook for 2020 wouldn't have been much different than taking the developmental QB.

Rounds 2 and 3 were always going to be the 'weapon' rounds anyway for me.

You know I’m following this theory and agree...agree that we should have given the same 4th round pick we gave for Love to nick Foles, still had our 30 overall, and had a great backup we can all feel confident in.

We couldn't have afforded Foles contract. Love is peanuts for 5 years. And Foles wouldn't have come to be a backup. He's likely starting in Chicago. And Foles isn't the same player he was with the Eagles.

We need a good backup. Foles ain't it.

And Foles' also isn't a potential franchise QB. Love is.

The guy that threw 17 Ints last year in the mountain west. Yes, so much better backup than sb campion nick Foles Im sure. He just must be be TrustGutey (Trademark)

[go pak go]

The players Guty loved that the Packers traded up for.

Jason Spriggs (TT was GM but Gutey loved him and pushed for him)
Oren Burks
Darnell Savage
Jordan Love

[salmar80]

What I see on game cutups. I have not read a single scouting report about Love yet, so this is all raw reaction based on the game cutups only:

+ Very quick release. Very very quick. A natural thrower

+ Plenty of arm strength, also on the move. Can legit sling it

+ Maintains a good base in the pocket, not heel-clicky nor needing to step into throws to get power into them. QB coach would appreciate that good footwork

+ Keeps eyes downfield when moving outta the pocket and under pressure. Not afraid to take a hit

+ Some very good checkdown decisions

+ Familiar with LaFleur's style of run-pass option

= Mostly a pocket passer, but not a statue. Pretty much young AR -level of running when plays break down. Athletic enough to escape some broken pockets

= Goes through progressions seemingly fast, but hard to tell. His WRs didn't look top-notch, didn't routinely get open. Game usually not too fast for him to process, but didn't seem to be fooling safeties with his eyes. Blatant issues vs zone coverage, however (see below)

= Not helped by talent around him. Center had sometimes shotgun accuracy on shotgun snaps. A whole lotta drops and covered receivers. WRs rounded off some routes, making the job of DBs easier. Some INTs on desperation passes in games that had gotten outta hand, their D must not have been good

- Got fooled twice by LBs dropping into coverage vs BYU. Some other INTs vs zone. Will need to be waaaaay more aware of and careful vs zone coverage. Some terrible decisions when locked onto the seemingly open-looking options. Needs to be coached outta him pronto. Watching some AR would do a world of good

- Had some plays with possible concentration issues. Weird misfires while usually accurate

Overall, I think there's some fine clay to mold here. Honestly, I was expecting him to look worse. Love definitely has an NFL arm, and a lot of his technique and game seemed refined. The issues vs zone coverage need to be ironed out fast. Put Love on a bad NFL team and force him to start immediately, that would've been a disaster. Let him learn for a couple of years... Well see, but I think this guy has a real high ceiling.

[Waldo]

It's just not smart from cap management perspective aswell.

You want a rookie qb to sit a max of 1 year. This way you get play out of them for 5 years before they have a ridiculous cap hit.

If we go from Rodgers to Love after 4 or 5 years we get no time to stock up and invest in other positions.

Not necessarily.

When Rodgers was extended in his 4th year (8 games into his 1st year starting), his extension was just above average for starting QB's. That's the $$ he was making '09-'11.

That's the trick, the masterstoke Ted pulled off. If a young QB sits long enough that he's already in range of extension by the time he's a starter, he can be extended relatively cheap before he earns a cap busting deal.