Jordan Love’s first training camp practice as the Green Bay Packers starting quarterback had its ups and downs. He missed a few deep throws that got caught up in the wind at Ray Nitschke Field but then completed a nice pass to Samori Toure for a first down on the final play of Wednesday’s practice. Even though Love’s day wasn’t perfect, you could tell something was different than in years past, according to corner Rasul Douglas.
“It’s different, I want to say it’s different,” said Douglas. “I’m just going off the first day…but it’s different. I think this year he’s got an aggressive mindset. He’s not holding back this year.”
Just recently, Douglas appeared on the Big Play Slay podcast hosted by Philadelphia Eagles corner Darius Slay, where he made some positive remarks about Love.
“Last year, he was cooking us in practice,” Douglas admitted while saying he liked how Love carried himself into games and the swagger he had.
And as far as his arm talent, “Every throw, he can make it. By far. Last season, he hit in the pocket with no looks and everything. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ He’s got everything in his game.”
Douglas also mentioned how much Love has grown since his first NFL start against the Kansas City Chiefs in 2021, which saw him under constant duress against a blitz-heavy defense.
“I think he’s a way different player than he was (in that game). He makes the right reads and he can throw every throw. To me, once he gets in that groove and gets his feet wet, he’s good.”
At the end of Wednesday’s practice, Love was doing push-ups along with the entire offense. Douglas said there were a couple of periods where whoever won more downs, the loser would have to do push-ups.
If the friendly wager continues through the rest of camp, the offense may have arms like edge rusher Lukas Van Ness at the start of the regular season.
All jokes aside, Green Bay’s defense is expected to win most days while the offense tries to find its footing with a ton of youth at the skill positions and a new, inexperienced quarterback delivering the ball.
In the end, Douglas was complimentary of Love’s performance on Day 1 and wasn’t overly concerned about the offense overall.
“He made some good throws today, underthrew a couple of things today, but it’s just his touch of how he’s seeing things. He’s still getting that feel of where the receiver is going to be at, but he’s going to be good. And our offense, they’ll make plays, and we already know (AJ Dillon) and (Aaron Jones) are going to run that ball, so, we’ll be fine.”
