Jordan Love is entering his third NFL season, and there's no path to the starting lineup in sight for the former first-round selection.
An incredibly lucrative extension for the back-to-back AP NFL Most Valuable Player will do that. Aaron Rodgers isn't going anywhere, at least not immediately, meaning Love is headed toward another season spent on the bench behind Rodgers.
If Love isn't going to get many regular-season opportunities, he'll have to do what he did in 2021: show some promise in the games that don't count.
"We think he can be a good player, but we haven't seen enough," Packers CEO Mark Murphy said in an interview with Tom Grossi. "So I think this preseason will be good for him."
It's a scenario that's quite familiar to Rodgers, who once spent multiple seasons sitting behind Brett Favre. But Favre was on a different path and didn't have an incredible $213 million committed to him over the next five seasons.
Love, meanwhile, disappeared into the abyss of the inactives list in his first season before resurfacing in the preseason in 2022, where he played well in Week 1 and finished strong in Green Bay's third and final tune-up game. He appeared in the regular season only when Rodgers was unable to play or games were already in hand, participating in six games (one start) and posting an underwhelming 68.7 passer rating in those contests.
Love's lone start resulted in a punchless Packers offense that could only muster seven points in a loss to Kansas City and didn't prompt the Packers to launch their succession plan. With the way Rodgers has played in the last two seasons, they might never start such a process.
The main reason: Love's rookie contract, with a fifth-year option included, will only run through 2024. Rodgers' extension runs through 2026 and doesn't include a semi-digestible dead cap hit until 2024 via a post-June 1 release.
The Packers might not have a window to make a decision on their future at quarterback unless Rodgers retires. With little evidence to this point of Love proving he can be the rightful heir to Rodgers' throne, the timing just might not work out.
Then again, Murphy made a good point about how the Packers have handled such situations in the past.
"I know that the decision to draft him has been questioned by a number of people, but that's such an important position in our league," Murphy said. "They said the same thing when we drafted Aaron."
As stated above, the two situations are not alike. That can change if Rodgers' annual hemming and hawing surprisingly results in a retirement, and not just a leverage play for more money in the future.
As of now, though, Love will only be able to bolster his standing within the organization by maximizing the opportunities he's presented. Those will only come when Rodgers is best served to stand on the sideline wearing a cap, not a helmet.
