Just like it happened to Aaron Rodgers when he entered the league, Jordan Love had to wait for three seasons before the Green Bay Packers gave him the starting quarterback job. In both cases, all it took was a trade request by the franchise legend.
While Rodgers moved up in the depth chartwhen Brett Favre joined the Jets, the Utah State productisgetting a promotion now that the four-time NFL MVP is also moving to New York.
The Packers have been preparing for this transition for a long time, since Love was selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Many wondered how the young signal-caller felt with being on the sidelines all these years, and he recently admitted it was hard to go through it.
Jordan Love gets real on being a backup for three seasons
“It’s very hard. It’s not easy. Obviously, you want to be the guy. Everybody wants to be the guy. Everybody wants to be on the field, make plays. But it was the situation I was put in,” Love told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’ll admit, I think the hardest time was when he [Rodgers]re-signed the contract last year. It was like, all right, where do we go from here? What do we do?And I think I sat back, thought to myself and just came back with the approach, like, ‘Let’s just go ball out any opportunity I get. I’m gonna get preseason and who knows what happens after that, so just grow and try and become the best version of myself, and I can’t really control what happens after that, so let it play out.'”
Love’s comments make sense, since he may have found more playing time elsewhere. However, he knew that at some point he would be handed the baton, and now he’s heading into his first season as starter full of confidence.