The Green Bay Packers won 14 games last season, including playoffs, and they’re poised to continue to contend for a Super Bowl title.
With this considered, most thought this year’s draft was the perfect time to add a weapon to Aaron Rodgers‘ receiving corps. Instead, the Packers prepared for the future, trading up to No. 26 overall and taking Utah State quarterback Jordan Love.
Rodgers should be familiar with this situation, because as the 24th overall pick of the 2005 draft, he was once in Love’s shoes. Rodgers was selected to succeed Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. Now Rodgers is the Hall of Fame quarterback who’s learned who the Packers hope will one day take his place.
Understandably, he wasn’t exactly thrilled by the move, according to Favre.
“I’m not going to talk about all that we talked about,” Favre said during an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show. “He was, let’s just say, surprised that they went that direction.”
Fair. Rodgers did, however, reach out to Love shortly after he was selected, which came as a surprise considering the circumstances surrounding the pick. It didn’t surprise Favre all that much, because as mentioned above, Rodgers has experienced what Love is encountering now.
Favre did echo the sentiments shared by most Packers fans, though: Why plan for the future when the goal is to win now?
“Nothing against Jordan Love. I mean no disrespect,” Favre said. “But you trade up to get a guy who might turn out to be great, and I hope he does, but you trade up to get more of a project. He’s a little bit unproven. A lot of upside, no doubt about it. But he can’t help you get to the Super Bowl immediately.
“And I just think that if you’re playing for now as all the teams in the league will tell you they are — or most will tell you that, some certainly are not — but Green Bay’s one of them that should be playing for now. They don’t draft any weapons, not just in the first round, but any weapons that can help immediately, to my knowledge. And that just sends a disrespect message, I would think, to Aaron Rodgers. He has every right to be disappointed if he is.”
Rodgers can rightfully be upset Green Bay didn’t invest in now, instead looking to life after Rodgers when the quarterback still has elite football left to play. He can also rely on his own experience to empathize with Love and help make his transition smoother than his was with Favre’s Packers.
How that affects the Packers‘ future — both in 2020 and well beyond it — remains to be seen. But it’ll be a topic to continue monitoring in the years ahead.