Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers era is over. But is Jordan Love any good?

T wo years ago, Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams decided to run it back for one last year together at the Green Bay Packers under The Last Dance moniker, aping the Michael Jordan propaganda/documentary series.

The tension at the heart of the Jordan doc was the idea that drives all great sports breakups: Who is responsible for winning championships? Organizations or players? Jordan-Krause, Belichick-Brady, LeBron-Riley, Keane-Ferguson. Across sports, dynastic runs have come unstuck as champions fight to claim the credit for winning.

“Players and coaches alone don’t win championships,” Chicago Bulls GM Jerry Krause infamously said. “Organizations win championships.”

Krause was portrayed as the villain of The Last Dance. But to the Packers, he was a soothsayer. They are the pre-eminent flag wavers for the idea of the organization above all. And who can blame them? With back-to-back Hall of Famers – Rodgers and Brett Favre – at quarterback, they have remained in title contention for all but a couple of seasons since 1992. In Green Bay, Hall of Fame play isn’t an outlier, it’s the expectation.

Only the Indianapolis Colts have come close to the kind of back-to-back quarterback talent that the Packers have run out since 1992. They followed the Peyton Manning era with Andrew Luck. And once Luck retired prematurely, the Colts found themselves leaping from one ill-conceived, quick-fix plan to another. They went from model citizens of the league to a laughing stock in the blink of an eye, with Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, and Jeff Saturday.

But the Packers aren’t the Colts. Just as when Rodgers succeeded Favre, Jordan Love will walk into the huddle with high expectations from the get go.

Stepping off the Rodgers’ ledge