Packers drafting Jordan Love should put a scare into the Bears

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Brett Favre took over as the starting quarterback of the Green Bay Packers in 1992. Sixteen years later, Aaron Rodgers replaced him. 

Eventually, it seems, Jordan Love will replace Rodgers. Maybe sooner rather than later. 

What the Packers did in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft is how a franchise winds up having 40 consecutive years of QB superiority in its division. 

[MORE: Read Adam Hoge's pre-draft analysis on Jordan Love]

The 21-year-old Love has an ultimate boom-or-bust profile. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler summed it up: “Overall, Love is still very raw as a passer and his inconsistent decision making is a concern, but he has immense, high-ceiling talent that is ready to be cultivated, projecting as a high-risk, high-reward NFL prospect.”

Not to scare you, but here’s what NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein wrote three years ago about a guy Love has been compared to: 

“(Patrick) Mahomes is a big, confident quarterback who brings a variety of physical tools to the party, but he's developed some bad habits and doesn't have a very repeatable process as a passer. Mahomes' ability to improvise and extend plays can lead to big plays for his offense, but he will have to prove he can operate with better anticipation and be willing to take what the defense gives him in order to win from the pocket. Mahomes will be a work in progress, but he's a high ceiling, low floor prospect.”

That’s not to say Love is going to be the next Mahomes, winning the NFL MVP in 2021 and a Super Bowl in 2022 while Rodgers plays elsewhere. But I see this as a great plan for the Packers. Drafting a quarterback with immense upside who probably needs a year or two before he starts is ideal when you have a guy like Rodgers ahead of him. 

When your franchise is legitimately set up to draft a high-upside quarterback and not play him in Year 1, you take it. 

It’s rare for a team to draft a quarterback in the first round, barely play him as a rookie and still make the playoffs. Green Bay did in 2005 with Rodgers, Kansas City did in 2017 with Mahomes. The Chargers pulled it off with Philip Rivers in 2004 and the Vikings did it back in 1999 with Daunte Culpepper, too. 

Most of the time, those plans to sit a quarterback are blown up after a handful of ineffective games by the starter (like, you know Mike Glennon). It’s hard to see that happening with the Packers in 2020. It took three years for Rodgers to finally force Favre out; the rookie wage scale means Love might push Rodgers out quicker than that, but he won't this season. 

We won’t know for a few years if Green Bay’s plan for Love pans out. But the idea of drafting him is smart. And the thought of him following Favre and Rodgers as a tormentor of the Bears through, say, 2032 — four decades after Favre arrived — should be an unsettling one here in Chicago. 

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