FLOWERY BRANCH — The Packers followed their Brett Favre-to-Aaron Rodgers transition-of-power blueprint.
Rodgers stayed on the sidelines before taking over in his fourth season at age 25 in 2008.
Jordan Love, 25, was selected in the first round of the 2020 draft and has served a similar apprenticeship before taking over this season. He’s set to face the Falcons at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“You know, I was over there for three years, so I got a chance to watch him mature and grow,” Falcons assistant head coach/defense Jerry Gray said. “He’s really not a rookie in years, so he’s actually way above that.”
Gray has some takeaways to share from watching Love’s development up close.
“When you watch him in practice and he goes through the reads, he understands what he’s supposed to do,” Gray said. “He gets rid of the football.”
Love led the Packers to a 38-20 dismantling of the Bears in Chicago in their season opener.
“I watched the Chicago game, I wasn’t surprised that he was getting rid of the football out of his hands because he’s already been doing it for three years,” Gray said. “So, this is nothing new. The biggest thing is that when you get ready to go against him, what can we do to make him hold it a little bit so the rush can get there?
“Do things … that’ll help our team going against a guy that I kind of have a little insight on.”
Over the past two drafts, the Packers have been committed to putting weapons in place for Love. They added wide receivers Christian Watson (second round 2022), Romeo Doubs (fourth round, 2022), Dontayvion Wicks (fifth round, 2023), Jayden Reed (second round, 2023) and Samori Toure (seventh round, 2022) over the past two drafts. They also picked up tight end Luke Musgrave in the second round of the 2023 draft.
“They’re all different, (and) they can do different things,” Gray said. “You look at their roster, they got six guys, and all of them are two years or younger. But they’re all athletic.”
Falcons defensive end Calais Campbell trains with Love for about two weeks in the offseason.
“He knows what Aaron was doing,” Campbell said. “So, he’s light years ahead of an actual rookie. He doesn’t have the experience, so it’s going to take a little time to get all of that. He’s definitely someone that you have to respect as one of the guys already.”
Campbell enjoyed his workouts with Love.
“He’s a good athlete, I’ll tell you that,” Campbell said. “He’s going to try to make plays with his legs. That’s going to be a big key for us to stop him. We can’t let him extend plays, create time to throw the ball or even run. He has all of those attributes. It’s going to be a tough challenge, but we’ll be ready for him.”
The Bow Tie Chronicles
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