As the Aaron Rodgers odyssey sails along, the Jordan Love maturation process continues.
As Rodgers' disharmony with the Green Bay Packers carries on and whether the all-time great will return or not remains an unknown, the Pack's 2020 first-round pick has been getting needed experience and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett is a fan of what he's seen in particular aspects of Love's burgeoning game.
"I think it's just about being able to make the proper decisions, and understand it's timing and accuracy. And all those things have definitely been better up to this point," Hackett told reporters Thursday. "And I think just the more experience, the more reps you can get, it's going to help him, regardless of who's out there. It's just about coaching and understanding the concepts, different protections and the run game -- there's so much for him to be able to learn that it's been great having him here and having the opportunity to help him out."
After he was selected with the 26th pick of the 2020 NFL Draft, Love saw zero action in his first season.
While the pick certainly garnered speculation that it caused dismay for Rodgers, it led to nothing on the field as the Packers repeated as NFC North champions and NFC finalists without any statistical contribution from their first-rounder.
However, Hackett believes Love's opportunity to sit, watch and learn was beneficial. While there's no substitute for on-the-field training, Love's rookie season allowed him to grasp the playbook and the offense, enabling him to check off those fundamental concerns to a certain level now as he's getting more reps -- and perhaps more action pending that aforementioned Rodgers sitch.
"One of the bigger things with Jordan right now is just his confidence in the system," Hackett said. "Coming from college and then picking it up as a rookie and being able to have a whole season just to be able to learn that, so he can go out there and execute is so important. It's something it, kind of takes that off his plate. Instead of trying to learn the verbiage and just understand how to call the plays, he can do that much easier now and then be able to go out there and execute them. And I think that's something we've been able to see. So now we can talk about the techniques and the reads and all those intricate details that we want to get to him."
There's plenty of noise right now around the Green Bay organization and the face of the franchise, but by his OC's account, Love is like many others at Packers organized team activities who are just taken advantage of their time on the practice field and preparing for an uncertain future.
"Anytime you're a coach, you have to coach everybody like a starter," Hackett said when asked what it was like to coach without Rodgers in attendance. "That's kind of always your intention. I think it's a great opportunity for guys to get reps and opportunities out there to be able to develop. I think that's what you're always looking for."
