Aaron Rodgers getting ruled out Wednesday following a positive COVID-19 test allows the Green Bay Packers time to prep Jordan Love for their Sunday afternoon game against the Kansas City Chiefs. It also gives K.C. a chance to study the backup quarterback instead of wasting time on Rodgers.
Love will make his first career start Sunday after sitting behind Rodgers for the first year and a half of his career. With the lack of film on the young quarterback, Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Wednesday that his team is more focused on the offensive scheme than the man under center.
"You know that they're not going to completely change the whole offense," Reid said, via the team's official transcript. "That's not going to happen. They're still going to run the offense -- they did that with him in the preseason and it looked like he did a nice job with it. So, if that's the case, you're prepping for the offense and then you take those unique qualities that each one has and you work on that. But that's how you go about it."
With the 2020 preseason scrapped, Love didn't play a snap of football last season. This year he participated in two preseason games, compiling 24-of-35 passing for 266 yards, one TD and one INT while taking two sacks. Love dropped some dimes in preseason action but also missed a few reads, as most rookies would, especially playing with mostly backups. Love also took over in the Packers' Week 1 blowout loss, completing 5-of-7 attempts for 68 yards and taking a sack in 15 snaps.
Reid said he still has notes from Love's pre-draft process in 2020.
"Yeah, I did," Reid said when asked if he studied the QB before the draft. "I try to look at all those guys the best I can. I had a chance to look at him, and he's a good player. He had a great college career, and it sounds like he's in a great position there, but he's got a pretty good player in front of him."'
Safety Tyrann Mathieu reiterated that the Chiefs are preparing for Matt LaFleur's offense, not worried about the different elements Love might bring to the table. The preparation doesn't change much.
"Aaron Rodgers is a special player, probably one of the most talented quarterbacks in the league, but I think as far as preparation, it's just all about our mindset, our attitude, trying to get as much information as we can," he said. "Pretty sure those guy's offense won't change too much, so it's all about formational recognition and just understanding what's going on from our end."
The Chiefs defense has struggled to slow opponents this offseason, allowing the fourth-most yards in the NFL and ranking 29th in third-down conversion rate allowed and 32nd in sacks. K.C. gets the benefit of not facing Rodgers this week. But getting picked apart by Love would be the latest embarrassment for the Chiefs' defense in a year of persistent struggles.
