Paul Bretl | 9/18/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers were back on the practice field Wednesday in preparation for their Week 3 matchup with the Tennessee Titans. Also back out there was quarterback Jordan Love, open the door open for a potential return this week.
“It’s definitely feeling a lot better, a lot better from when the injury happened in Brazil,” said Love at his locker after practice. “So the whole thing is, like we’ve said before, we’re just taking it day by day and see how it feels every day and come in here, keep doing treatment, going to rehab. I was out there today and just trying to take it day by day and just keep feeling it out, but it’s doing better.”
Love would practice in a limited capacity, according to head coach Matt LaFleur. Love suffered the knee injury in the team’s Week 1 loss to Philadelphia. At first glance, things appeared to be much more bleak than the eventual diagnoses of an MCL sprain.
“When it happened, it was very painful,” said Love about the injury. “It was definitely, I was telling people it’s the most pain I’ve been in so, you know, just a lot of emotions, but definitely very painful and didn’t know in the moment what might have happened, what the injury actually was, how long I might be out. It was definitely a scary moment, but it was very painful.”
While initial reports suggested that Love would be out for 3-6 weeks, internally, the Packers seemed to be more optimistic about the timeline for a potential return. Now, less than two weeks later, he is back at practice and hopeful that he’s at a point where he can continue to progress towards being available.
“It’s one of those things,” said Love, “I’m going to take the week and just take it day-by-day and see how it feels but I’m not going to make any decision on that right now. I’m hopeful that I’ll get to that point where I can get in there, but we’re just going to take it day-by-day and see.”
While, of course, the Packers want Love back on the field as soon as possible, LaFleur has made it clear since the injury happened that they wouldn’t sacrifice the long-term for some hopeful short-term gain. Step one in this process was always going to be Love getting medically cleared, giving him and the team confidence that he can go out on the field, protect himself, and not have to worry about the injury worsening.
In order to get to the point where Love would feel comfortable playing, he mentioned that there are a lot of boxes to be checked.
“I mean there’s a lot of boxes,” Love said about returning. “Obviously I think being back at practice and doing that and feeling what it feels like to take those drops, be in the live fire, things like that. But like I said, we’re taking it day by day, the trainers are doing a great job of monitoring me and seeing how I’m doing and how I’m reacting to every play. They’ll be the ones to clear me when the time comes.”
Love is currently wearing a knee brace to provide additional stability. This isn’t the first time he’s had a brace on–he wore one at one point in college–but admittedly, it does limit his mobility to a degree. And having that element of Love’s game affected could impact how he plays the game.
“Not as fast, no,” Love said about the brace. “I’ll say that. It’s just different than not having anything, I’d say. It’s a piece of metal on your knee, so definitely not as fast, but it’s one of those things that you just gotta adjust. It’s gonna help protect me and keep me stable in everything I do, so might change my game a little bit, but at the end of the day, I’m not a receiver that has to run all these crazy routes downfield, things like that, where I can stay in the pocket. But definitely affects mobility a little bit.”
Getting back to this point where Love can be on the practice field consisted of a lot of rehab, exercises, and treatment. Love may not have been an active participant in practice last week by taking snaps, but he was heavily involved, communicating with Malik Willis after every drive and talking through what each player saw. In terms of the mental side of things, Love took on his normal workload heading into the Colts’ game.
“Last week was a lot of treatment and rehab exercises just trying to get my knee back.” said Love. “Didn’t practice last week. Just taking it day by day again. There was a lot of mental reps of going through the game plan and trying to keep myself in the game and just being in the film room and learn from those reps I was missing, so just trying to stay as fresh as I can and stay ready if there was the opportunity for me getting cleared.”
Although it was a run-heavy performance by the Packers with Willis under center, with 53 running plays called, there was a lot on the new quarterback’s plate as well, having just arrived in Green Bay not even three weeks prior to kickoff. As LaFleur said post-game, the Packers have a lot of long calls for Willis to quickly learn and then make. The Packers also threw a lot at the Colts in the run game, both from a personnel and schematic standpoint, which in turn, put a lot on the shoulders of Willis.
Then, when asked to throw the ball, Willis was 12-14 overall, for 122 yards with a touchdown. He had a passer rating of 126.8 and was an impressive 7-for-8 passing on third downs, where 94 of his 122 passing yards came from, along with his touchdown pass to Dontayvion Wicks.
“I’m very proud,” said Love about Willis and the team’s win. “I think offensively we played really well. I mean, the O-line dominated all game. The backs did a really good job. And it takes everybody. The tight ends, the receivers blocking, doing their job, but the run game was on point, I think Malik did a great job.”
Love being back on the practice field is certainly a good sign and a big step in the right direction. However, his status for Sunday’s game in Tennessee is still up in the air. The Packers will see how his knee responds to the current workload and give him the week to see how he’s feeling before ultimately making a decision.
There are a few added challenges that the Packers face this week from a preparation standpoint. For one, there isn’t going to be the same unpredictability for the Titans as there was for the Colts when it comes to how LaFleur might utilize Willis. There’s a full game’s worth of tape for Tennessee to study, and only so many plays LaFleur can draw up for a quarterback still learning the offense.
In addition to that, as the week progresses, the Packers hope to gain some clarity around who could be the likely starter because splitting starting reps in practice can prove to be challenging as there are only so many reps to go around in the allotted time frame.
“That’s always a challenge,” said LaFleur, “and so, throughout the course of the week, hopefully, you get a better indication, and that kind of leads to some of the decisions you have to make.”