After a month and a half of contemplation, NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers is returning to the Green Bay Packers. The biggest puzzle piece of the Packers’ offseason is now in place, and the rest of the roster can take shape around him.
One question that will need to be answered: What should the Packers do with Jordan Love?
If Rodgers signs a multi-year deal tying him to Green Bay, the idea of trading Love will become a real possibility.
But the Packers won’t and shouldn’t just give him away. So what could the Packers realistically get back in a trade for Love?
Jim Nagy, the director of the Senior Bowl, asked that question of several NFL scouts. The answer? Potentially a second-round pick, given Love’s perceived talent and upside at the game’s most important position.
Just hit up a few NFL scouts about potential asking price for Jordan Love. Most think Packers could get a 2nd round pick for him. Feeling is talent & upside worth that roll of dice.
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) March 8, 2022
It would be a “roll of the dice,” as Nagy mentioned.
Love, a 2020 first-round pick of the Packers, is still only 23 years old and has only played in a handful of regular-season games. He’s sat behind Rodgers for the last two years and learned in one of the NFL’s preferred offensive systems. He was a raw but talented prospect coming out of Utah State.
Love didn’t play particularly well in his only NFL start against the Kansas City Chiefs last season, and he wasn’t able to lead a comeback in the second half against the Detroit Lions in the season finale.
Overall, Love has thrown only 62 career passes in the NFL. He’s both inexperienced and a big unknown at this point in his career.
However, teams are always looking for quarterback help, and a weaker class of quarterbacks in the draft and free agency could push a handful of teams to pursue a trade for Love.
In 2019, the Arizona Cardinals traded Josh Rosen for a second-round pick, so Love netting a second-round pick for the Packers wouldn’t be unprecedented.
Getting a second-rounder in return for Love would be a tempting scenario for the Packers, especially if the team is comfortable with Kurt Benkert as the primary backup behind Rodgers for 2022. The cap-strapped Packers will need to build out the roster through the draft, which provides cheap and young talent, and an extra second-round pick would, at least theoretically, allow the Packers to add a player at a need position elsewhere and build the best possible roster around Rodgers.
Also worth noting: Love wants to play. He needs to play. He could develop behind Rodgers for another year and assess his options after 2022, but his path to playing in Green Bay is blocked in the short term. Love may want out now, and it’d be hard to blame him.
The Packers could keep Love as a low-cost insurance policy behind Rodgers, who turns 39 in December. But it might also be hard for general manager Brian Gutekunst to pass up acquiring something like a second-round pick for a player who is no longer the long-term future at quarterback in Green Bay.
