Now QB1, Jordan Love 'grateful' for time behind Aaron Rodgers - ESPN

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The one thing Jordan Love had as Aaron Rodgers' backup was time. Three years to watch how Rodgers practiced, prepared and played.

That doesn't mean the lessons won't continue now that Love has Rodgers' old job as the Green Bay Packers' starting quarterback and Rodgers has moved on to the New York Jets.

«We talked after the trade,» Love said of Rodgers. «Kind of just, 'Wish you the best going forward.' He wished me the best and [is] always there for me if I need anything, if I have any questions or anything. I'm always just grateful to be around him and for the time I had with him, to be able to learn and be behind him. It's very grateful for me.»

That doesn't mean it was always easy.

«I'll admit, I think the hardest time was when he re-signed the contract last year,» Love said of the three-year, $150 million contract Rodgers signed with the Packers in March 2022.

«It was kinda like, 'OK, well, where do we go from here? What do I 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 knew he wouldn't play right away even though Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst traded up to draft him at No. 26 overall in 2020. As a rookie, he was robbed of preseason action because the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out all the preseason games. In his second year, he started only one game — a loss at Kansas City — that Rodgers missed. Last season, his only meaningful action came in the fourth quarter of a late-season loss at Philadelphia.

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