The Green Bay Packers quarterback room could be their downfall this season following their decision to trade away Aaron Rodgers, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell believes.
The Green Bay Packers are entering a new era this upcoming season. Having moved on from Brett Favre to move onto Aaron Rodgers in the 2008 season, they are doing the same again in 2023 as they move off of Rodgers and onto Jordan Love, no doubt hoping that the Hall of Fame talent will strike three times in a row after the careers of the first two.
The Packers showed that they have real faith in Love this offseason, handing him an extension that keeps him part of the team through at least the 2024 season, meaning he isn’t going into this year in a ‘make or break’ situation when it comes to his performances.
However his performances, and indeed his availability, could well make or break the Packers’ season according to Bill Barnwell.
Green Bay Packers not packing enough depth?
Writing in a column for ESPN in which he analysed the offseason for all 32 NFL teams, Barnwell pointed out that the team does not have an established, veteran quarterback to help guide Love through this year, drawing even further comparisons to Rodgers and the situation that he had to deal with when he took over in 2008:
Green Bay didn't add a backup quarterback to tutor Love. Its depth chart at quarterback now consists of Love, Danny Etling and rookie fifth-round pick Sean Clifford. With 83 career pass attempts heading into the season between the three quarterbacks, the last time a team had this inexperienced of a quarterback room in training camp was ... 2008, when the Packers backed up Rodgers with rookie second-round pick Brian Brohm and seventh-rounder Matt Flynn. All of their combined 59 pass attempts heading into the season had been by Rodgers. Well, it worked last time!
Of course the other concern for the Packers is that if Love happened to succumb to an injury at some point this season, then you’re putting the hopes of the franchise in the hands of another inexperienced player. Which is all well and good if you’re OK with throwing this season away for the sake of ‘development’, but given the Packers’ storied history, it’s hard to imagine that the fans will be happy just settling for making up the numbers in 2023.
So perhaps that’s a move they should consider before preseason really gets underway, making sure that someone is on board to help Love whilst he’s there, but also stand in for him if he isn’t.