Paul Bretl | 9/13/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — As we saw in the movie Shawshank Redemption, depending on your viewpoint, hope can either be a dangerous thing or a good thing. Well, when it comes to Jordan Love’s status for Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, the hope of him playing is still alive.
The Packers released their final injury report of the week on Friday afternoon, and despite Love not practicing all week, he is listed as questionable with an MCL sprain. Earlier in the week, when Matt LaFleur was asked if Love would need to practice in order to start, he emphatically answered with a “no.”
Although Love hasn’t been participating in practice, he’s been on the practice field and remained engaged in the entire preparation process throughout the week.
“He’s been out there at practice,” said LaFleur on Thursday. “He’s been engaged, knows every play call, is always coaching up Malik, coaching up Sean and is doing a good job with it.”
Despite what initially looked like a bleak injury outcome for the Packers starting quarterback just a week ago, LaFleur has continued to keep the door open from the get go about the possibility of Love being able to play Sunday.
On Monday, with reports swirling that Love could miss 3-6 weeks, LaFleur said Malik Willis would start if Love was not cleared. On Wednesday, when asked about the figurative door being either open or closed when it came to Love’s status, LaFleur called it “pretty open.” Then in a sit-down conversation with Larry McCarren, LaFleur described Love as “day to day.”
Throughout the entire week, now knowing Love’s status, you can’t say that LaFleur wasn’t direct about his potential availability for Sunday.
Ultimately, if Love is going to be on the field Sunday, he has to be medically cleared to do so, with both Love and the team having confidence in that he can go out there and protect himself, along with playing free and not concerned about aggravating or worsening the injury.
“If he gets cleared, we’ll give him every opportunity like we always will,” LaFleur said on Monday. “I know he’s doing everything in his power. I know he’s spending a lot of time trying to get back as soon as possible. But certainly we’re not going to put him in a position where if he can’t protect himself that he’d go out there.”
It goes without saying, but obviously the complexion of this game changes drastically if Love is able to play. The Indianapolis Colts come into this matchup shorthanded in their secondary with cornerback JuJu Brents being placed on injured reserve earlier in the week and safety Julian Blackmon being ruled out on Friday.
This was already a unit for the Colts that had a number of question marks coming into the season–both about their starters and the overall depth–and now that depth is going to be put to the test right away. When it comes to this matchup, there may not be a bigger advantage that one team has over the other than the Packers’ wide receivers against the Colts’ secondary.
“He’s doing good, you know,” said LaFleur about Love on Friday. “He’s got a great attitude and is working hard and getting better every day.”
From the Colts’ perspective, the unknown around whether it will be Love starting or Malik Willis has muddied the waters when it comes to game-planning for this week’s game. The two have different play-styles, and with Willis having just arrived in Green Bay, how exactly the Packers plan to utilize him is a big question mark.
“It’s interesting,” Colts coach Shane Steichen said. “Obviously, you’ve got to prepare for both, right? Whether Love possibly plays or Malik (Willis) plays, obviously, you’ve got to have a plan for both because they’ve got different styles. So, defensively, we’ve got to be all over whoever’s out there.”
Also listed as questionable on the Packers’ injury report is running back MarShawn Lloyd and receiver Jayden Reed. Lloyd is still working his way back from a hamstring injury that he suffered during training camp and kept him out during Week 1. Reed popped up on the Friday injury report with a shin/calf injury.
“He doesn’t just show up in the games,” said LaFleur about Reed. “He’s a competitor out there on the practice field and so it’s not shocking to me that it translates over to gameday.”