Will the Indianapolis Colts face Jordan Love or Malik Willis at quarterback for the Green Bay Packers? The unknown has left the Colts having to prepare for both.
Love suffered an MCL sprain during the Packers’ Week 1 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. The reported timelines for his return have been in the 3-6 week range. The Packers, however, have been more optimistic, with Matt LaFleur even telling Larry McCarren of Packers.com that the injury is more “day-to-day.”
Love is now officially listed as questionable for Sunday.
Of course, whether it’s Love under center or it’s Willis drastically changes the dynamic of the game. There’s the obvious in the difference in the level of play that each player brings, but as Shane Steichen said on Friday, the Colts are also having to prepare for two quite different play-styles.
“It’s interesting,” Steichen said on Friday. “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.”
With Love, the Colts will have to provide additional help to their secondary against a talented group of receivers, while still making sure they don’t get ran over in the run game like they did against Houston.
With Willis, we could see the Colts take a more aggressive approach with more defenders near the line of scrimmage in an effort to put the ball in Willis’ hands and not running back Josh Jacobs. The Colts will also have to be prepared for the added mobility that Willis brings as well.
The added wrinkle that comes with preparing for Willis is the general unknown of how the Packers might use him. For one, he’s still an inexperienced player with only 67 career pass attempts, but on top of that, he’s been in Green Bay for under three weeks as well.
What he looks like in the Packers offense is just educated guesswork at this point. The Colts are likely looking back at what Willis did well at Tennessee and in college and pairing that with core principals of the LaFleur offense to get an idea of what might be coming.
For more on how to game-plan for the Packers, click here.
Earlier in the week, the Colts had to place JuJu Brents on injured reserve and Julian Blackmon was ruled out on Friday. DeForest Buckner and Kwity Paye are both questionable.