Round 1 Pick 26 (From Miami) QB Jordan Love Utah State

It's funny that not using a first round pick on an offensive weapon is all of sudden "they're not going for a Super Bowl".  That's all I'm hearing today, is that this a slap in the face to Rodgers b/c he needs weapons.  Packers have drafted 1 RB, 1 WR and 1 TE in the first round in the last 30 years - Darrell Thompson, Javon Walker, and Bubba Franks.  No Super Bowls between them.  Not their fault but fact is the Packers have won two Super Bowls without a first round offensive weapon.  So why is it that they absolutely had to draft an offensive weapon in the first to "go for it"?  

That said, I would have rather a LB or OL.  But the idea it had to be a WR is ridiculous.  

6 WR's selected in round 1.

Quite obvious the 7th WR on the board is not first round material. 

I would've preferred LB/DB/OL too but the FO really likes Love & had him rated highly. 

Rule #1 from Ron Wolf. -- Don't jump the board. 

@CUPackFan posted:

Not their fault but fact is the Packers have won two Super Bowls without a first round offensive weapon.    

So you're not counting Rodgers as a 1st round pick offensive weapon? 

Naw everyone knows that 2010 Super Bowl win was lead by Tom Crabtree.  Rodgers just piggybacked on his generational TE play.  

@CUPackFan posted:

Naw everyone knows that 2010 Super Bowl win was lead by Tom Crabtree.  Rodgers just piggybacked on his generational TE play.  

Pat Lee had to retire early because his back was sore from all the carrying he had to do. Show some respect.

@CUPackFan posted:

  Not their fault but fact is the Packers have won two Super Bowls without a first round offensive weapon. 

Actually, the 96' Packers featured three 1st round picks, Desmond Howard (4th overall), Keith Jackson (13th overall), and Andre Rison (22nd overall), as well as a QB for whom the team traded a 1st round pick to obtain.

It is true that the Packers did not select any of these offensive weapons with their own 1st round picks.

@CUPackFan posted:

It's funny that not using a first round pick on an offensive weapon is ....  

It is funny, cause a QB is kind of "an offensive weapon"  

Honestly.  I'm going to kind of watch.  But I'm 2005 JAPF right now.  The Love pick just crushed me yesterday

I will say, though, that vitaflo's post was fantastic (even though IC agreed with it).

@Packdog posted:

It is funny, cause a QB is kind of "an offensive weapon"  

Ask Bears fans about that.

@AtTheMurph posted:

No way was Indy giving up 34 and 44. Had to be 34, 75 and maybe one of the late rounders.

I'll ask my buddy from the Colts and see if he knows anything. 

Hear from your Colts buddy yet?

@YooperPackfan posted:

One of the greatest days of our lives 👍🏼

The Packers have had quite a few greater days, thank you very much.

This is too freaky.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1253798235426164737

LMAO, great side by side.

@Tschmack posted:

Gary Andersen took over for Matt Wells as HC in 2019. We all know Andersen pretty well from his short stint in Madison.  

. 

 

If Gary Anderson was my coach I'd enter the draft too if i could.  

@Packdog posted:

It is funny, cause a QB is kind of "an offensive weapon"  

So I guess the Packers did draft an offensive weapon in the first then......Rodgers should be happy!!

And good call on the other three WR/TEs tat were first rounders.  But that kind of makes my point - these guys can be had in free agency and trades without having to draft in the first.  Better to let another draft them in the first then you get them later.  

I like Winfield.  Gonna be a very good player on the back end. 

@michiganjoe posted:

Complete coaching staff change for Love in '19 and the team lost nine of eleven offensive starters. Pretty good breakdown of both his strengths and weaknesses...

Finally got around to watching this.  It's a very good breakdown.  One thing is for sure, he has a hell of an arm.  Those deep balls he throws are pretty.  He also has a bit of Rodgers in him with his off-the-back-foot throws and catching the defense in presnap substitutions.

He actually seems to go through real progressions unlike a lot of college QB's.  That 3 progression read on a 3 step drop was pro level.

It's also obvious he has some more to learn. Rodgers is the perfect guy for him to watch, as they seem to have similar styles.  I don't think a team drafting him to start right away would be wise, but he seems to be the complete package if he can grow into the position.

As for all the INT's, even Rodgers had 13 INT's his first season as a starter, after 3 years sitting on the bench.  Even the great ones can start off slow.

I thought teams got until year 4 to decide on the 5th year option...apparently not. After Rodgers final year on his contract GB will have to decide on Love’s $21M 5th year option! Did GB pick one year too early? This could be a really dicey situation if they take that 5th year and he absolutely blows in year 4. HUGE gamble here, that changes a lot about taking a QB for me. Not sure of the wisdom here. 

@Grave Digger posted:

I thought teams got until year 4 to decide on the 5th year option...apparently not. After Rodgers final year on his contract GB will have to decide on Love’s $21M 5th year option! Did GB pick one year too early? This could be a really dicey situation if they take that 5th year and he absolutely blows in year 4. HUGE gamble here, that changes a lot about taking a QB for me. Not sure of the wisdom here. 

Which tells you that Rodgers will be a Packer for at most 2 more years. And, if that's really the case...

You almost HAVE to ditch Rodgers before his contract is up to get a real look at this kid. I don’t know, this scares me. Did we just fuck up? 

He HAS to play in the 3rd year to know what you have for the exact reason Kirwan pointed out.  You can't wait to let him play in year 4 for the first time and realistically make a call on the next deal.  

Rodgers has at most 2 more years. And I'll say it again with all seriousness, if that's really the case, then you trade him now for as many draft picks as you can get. You go with Boyle/Love in 20, hope to get a top 3 pick, mabye you get #1 and you can decide to take Trevor Lawrence, or sell it for a King's Ransom

I think Kirwan has that wrong.

Wonder where he got the $21mm number for the option?

I'm sure we'll know everything we need to know about him from the preseason.  The regular season is overrated.

The numbers for Goff and Wentz’s 5th year options was ~$22M. I don’t know if that has changed with the CBA and if it’s based on draft slot, but there are other examples. Paxton Lynch, who was taken later, his number would have been $15M.

 Please tell me the 1st round QB projections in next years draft that would have been better that drafting Love this year. 

I mean. Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields are probably going 1 and 2. 

Lot of people love KJ Costello, and a year with Leach could have him blow up to a Top 10, or he could fall into Day 2/3.  Jamie Newman could be a mid/late 1st rounder.  

Fair enough. Do you really think the Packers would have finished anywhere close to those picks if they would have went WR or OL in the 1st and 2nd rounds this year? 

For Lawrence or Fields - of course not. The others? Maybe? But, definitely in range that a trade up is well within reason. 

And I get your point is that you think Love is better than anything they could have realistically gotten next year. You might be right. He's definitely got a lot of people thinking he's a high reward type guy. I personally don't see Love as being this franchise type QB. His game has Jay Cutler written all over it to me. Big arm, has the physical tools, looks the part, but makes mistakes over and over. 

And, I still wonder - if GB wants to move to this Titan/Niner run heavy scheme that doesn't look to sling the ball over the place, wouldn't a Jacob Eason/Jake Fromm be a better fit for that?  Both make good decisions, get the ball out quickly, and stay within the rhythm of the offense. Neither has the arm strength scouts love, but they played pretty damn well against some the best competition in the NCAA. 

But, Love is the guy and has 2 years to fix that stuff. I hope he does, as he will almost certainly be starting for the Packers in Sept of 2022...

Now that the dust has settled, I am grateful to have Love on the team and I am over my initial shock and disappointment with the pick.  He has some things that you can't teach, but he is going to need plenty of reps and teaching to fix some of the things that went wrong with him last year. 

I just hope that Rodgers can stay healthy these next 2 seasons.  I suspect Love is going to need a lot of work and study the next 2 years to figure out the NFL. He was at what coach Gary Anderson called "A High School level" of passing sophistication compared to what he'll be required to do with the Pack. 

When listening to Anderson talk about him, he raved about his physical skills, attitude, and competitiveness but felt he was going to need an adjustment period in the NFL before he was ready from a scheme comfort standpoint.  Not a huge shock, but Anderson also said he was the most physically gifted QB he had ever been around.  Take that with a grain of salt though as the only guy Anderson was around who became a solid NFL QB was Alex Smith. 

Does Love know what a nickel defense is?

Link

Rapoport reporting they were locked in on Love and he was their guy all along.

Let's go to a heavy RPO type offense. Hard to defend. Fun to watch.

@AtTheMurph posted:

No way was Indy giving up 34 and 44. Had to be 34, 75 and maybe one of the late rounders.

I'll ask my buddy from the Colts and see if he knows anything. 

Anything from your Colts buddy?

Yes....would be interested to hear any info because on Friday, the Colts FO fed Ian Rap a bunch of horseshit "they never tried to trade up with Seattle"

Yet they drafted Eason in round 4.

Riiiiiiiiiiigghhtt......and I'm Cyndi Lauper 

In the business that's what we call -- Damage Control because another team beat them to their guy & if they say ANYTHING about another teams player (Love is now a Packer), they'll get fined.

@Dr._Bob posted:

Does Love know what a nickel defense is?

I was thinking the same thing.  

I "Love" the pick.  If he is the Packers 5th NFL HOF QB, I will be able to tell Viking fans that their team passed on a HOF QB TWICE in the first round - one more time.  Couldn't make this stuff up if we tried.  

Peter King reporting that the Packers had "significant intel" that a team was moving up for Love so they did it first (also reporting they tried to move up for a WR in the second). 

Edit: Here's a piece about it.

According to Peter King of NBC Sports, the Packers had “significant intel” that a team picking early in the second round – King guesses the Indianapolis Colts – were attempting to trade up into the first round and get Love. The Packers blocked the attempt, executing a trade with the Miami Dolphins for the 26th pick, where they happily took Love.

Here's a look at the scores of the 12 quarterbacks who took the Wonderlic in 2020:  

Nate Stanley (Iowa): 40
Jake Fromm (Georgia); 35
Joe Burrow (LSU): 34
Jake Luton (Oregon State): 29
Jordan Love (Utah State): 27
Justin Herbert (Oregon): 25
Anthony Gordon (Washington State): 25
Brian Lewerke (Michigan State): 25 
Jacob Eason (Washington): 23
James Morgan (Florida International): 23
Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma): 18
Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama): 13

interesting eh??    

@michiganjoe posted:

Peter King reporting that the Packers had "significant intel" that a team was moving up for Love so they did it first (also reporting they tried to move up for a WR in the second). 

Edit: Here's a piece about it.

According to Peter King of NBC Sports, the Packers had “significant intel” that a team picking early in the second round – King guesses the Indianapolis Colts – were attempting to trade up into the first round and get Love. The Packers blocked the attempt, executing a trade with the Miami Dolphins for the 26th pick, where they happily took Love.

From the same article:

One last note: Gutekunst said the Packers had two receivers they were targeting in early and middle part of the second round. They tried to move up with several teams, he said, until the second receiver they preferred got picked, and then they stopped. Seven wideouts went in the first 27 picks of the second round; Green Bay, with the 62nd overall pick, took running back A.J. Dillon. Not good. As much as the draft pick itself, the price for Love included not addressing that big need at receiver. We’ll see if that comes back to haunt the team this year or next.

It sounds like he DOES see WR as a need, but after their immediate impact guys were gone they didn't feel it would make a difference to take a WR. I don't think he's wrong either, after the first ~10 WRs in this draft, I don't think there's anyone who would help GB in 2020 (which is what everyone wants). I think this is why we see a UFA investment in WR prior to game 1.