A rough first day of minicamp from second-year quarterback Jordan Love was followed up by one of his best practices since being drafted by the Green Bay Packers last year.
After dealing with accuracy issues on Tuesday, Love was locked in on Wednesday, consistently completing big plays downfield in live competitive periods against the Packers’ No. 1 defense.
“It was a good day for me and everybody else as well, just bouncing back from yesterday’s practice on offense, you know, it wasn’t our best practice all-around,” Love said. “Bouncing back meant a lot for everybody.”
Such is life for a young quarterback in the NFL. There are highs and lows and little in between. Creating true consistency always takes time, especially for a raw passer that was dealt a redshirt year as a rookie in 2020 in large part due to the pandemic.
Love, who is operating as the No. 1 quarterback and taking most of the live reps without Aaron Rodgers in attendance for minicamp, was on fire for a stretch on Wednesday.
According to Rob Demovsky of ESPN, Love produced four big plays in the passing game, including a long completion to A.J. Dillon and a free-play connection to Allen Lazard, and he later led the Packers on a scoring drive in the two-minute drill.
“I definitely think good days build confidence, and just stacking good days on top of each other,” Love said.
Coach Matt LaFleur said the Packers want Love to treat every play as “its own entity” in an effort to begin building the consistency that all great quarterbacks must have to be successful at this level.
First-round talents can always do something great once or twice. The true stars can consistently make the right plays. But it’s a long process to build consistency, especially at the game’s hardest position.
Wednesday’s practice was a step in the right direction as the Packers attempt to make up for lost time in the developmental pathway of Love, the 26th overall pick in the 2020 draft. He didn’t get a chance to play in preseason games last summer, and the Packers made him inactive as the No. 3 quarterback behind Rodgers and Tim Boyle for all 18 games.
If the situation with Rodgers doesn’t get resolved, Love will be in line for his first NFL start when the Packers travel to play the New Orleans Saints in the season opener in September.
Late in his media session, Love said he was “100 percent” ready to play Week 1 if needed.
“I was drafted here to play quarterback, so I’ll definitely be ready Week 1,” Love said.
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