Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre thinks the Green Bay Packers should try and use first-round pick Jordan Love like the New Orleans Saints do with Taysom Hill, but it’s a terrible idea and there’s a good chance the Packers won’t even entertain the thought of it.
“I think there’s ways to incorporate it much like Taysom Hill with the Saints,” Favre told TMZ Sports over the weekend. “Use him as a halfback, a halfback pass, but occasionally let him run it just to show that you’ll do that. Something like that.”
In New Orleans, the Saints use Hill – a former Packer – as the ultimate gadget weapon. He gets designed quarterback runs, opportunities to run routes (and catch passes) from a variety of positions, and a ton of snaps on special teams. Just last year, Hill ran the football 27 times, caught 19 passes and played almost 300 snaps on special teams. He threw only six passes.
Hill is also an elite athlete, with 4.4 speed and a thick, muscular frame. In the NFL, he is essentially an H-back who can throw the football. And that’s exactly how Sean Payton and the Saints use him, often to great effect. The threat of him throwing the ball on any given play accentuates his threat as a gadget player.
Love, on the other hand, is a great athlete for the quarterback position but doesn’t have elite speed or size. He has a tall, leaner frame. He’s built like a traditional pocket quarterback. Love can run (4.74), and he was effective at times on read-option plays at Utah State, but he’s not going to scare any defense with his legs. The idea of using him as a halfback, as Favre suggests, is silly and most likely dangerous.
I mean, Favre doesn’t really think the Packers are going to have Aaron Rodgers handoff to Love, does he?
It’s possible Love could add some marginal value on a few read-option plays per game. But again, he isn’t some game-breaking speedster who is going to keep defensive coordinators scrambling to defend a package of plays every week. Love is a quarterback. Hill is an athlete.
The Packers will have a strong developmental plan in place for Love, who is the future at quarterback but might not replace Rodgers as the starter for another two or three years. The guess here is that a package of plays like Favre suggests isn’t in the plan.