As the Packers turn the page from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love at quarterback, Love’s teammates have his back.
Following a spirited rant from Adam Schein of CBS Sports Network regarding the struggles of the offense under Love, Packers linebacker De’Vondre Campbell took up for Love on Twitter.
“Ain’t no way you just got on here with that baggy ass Steve Harvey suit and them thick ass dollar tree glasses and disrespected my QB by saying he can’t play football,” Campbell tweeted. “He only has one career start let him play at least half a season before you open your big dumb ass mouth.”
Campbell’s reaction, while a bit over the top and personal, makes a little sense, given the intensity of Schein’s vitriol.
“I loathe Love,” Schein said. “Despise Love. I mean everyone looks great during preseason practices, except apparently for Jordan Love, who by his own admission has struggled. . . . I mean, this is a flat-out debacle. It’s also predictable, because Jordan Love can’t play football. Simple as that. . . . Jordan Love can’t do a damn thing. . . . This is going to be a predictable disaster with Jordan Love in Green Bay.”
Schein’s scorchingly hot take on Love and the Packers was fueled in part by reporting from Matt Schneidman of TheAthletic.com, who recently detailed cornerback Rasul Douglas’s profane assault on the offense during practice.
Still, it does seem a little premature. Love looked pretty good last year, on a Sunday night against the Eagles. While the Philly defense didn’t have a chance to prepare for Love, he came in cold and got it done.
The simple reality is that no one knows what Love will do until we get to the week-in, week-out grind of the season. Too many factors go into it, factors that are impossible to discern and predict in advance.
What kind of blocking will he get? How will the running backs perform? How effective will the play-calling be?
Will the receivers get open? Will they catch the ball? Will opposing defenses spot trends and tells in the offense that will make it easier to slow it down?
And so, yes, it’s a little cartoonish to say Love “can’t play football.” While Schein surely was doing that for effect, there has to be a more measured way to sound the alarm without creating a clip that truly does disrespects a player who was a first-round pick, and who has not had a fair chance to prove himself through three NFL seasons because he’s been stuck on the bench behind an all-time great.
The good news for Love and the Packers is that the comments possibly have given them a genuine source of motivation. A reason for them to become determined to show Adam that he can stick it where the sun don’t project its rays.