Getty Quarterback Jordan Love of Utah State throws a pass during the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 27, 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The NFL and NFLPA have finally reached an agreement to resolve lingering issues ahead of 2020 training camp, which means Green Bay Packers fans can start counting down the days until first-round quarterback Jordan Love’s first practice.
Love and the other eight new players from the Packers’ rookie class were originally scheduled to report to training camp this Tuesday, but ongoing negotiations between the league’s owners and player representation led to the Packers putting their plans on hold. Now, NFL rookies and veterans alike have clarity on the weeks ahead with testing and virtual meetings scheduled to begin as soon as next Tuesday and practices set to follow in less than three weeks.
According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, here’s the timeline for 2020 training camps:
- July 28: Test/virtual meetings.
- July 29-30: Virtual meetings.
- July 31: Testing/virtual meetings.
- Aug. 1-2: Physicals.
- Aug. 3-11: Strength and conditioning (including day off).
- Aug. 12: Practice begins.
- Aug. 14: Practice with helmets begins.
- Aug. 17: Practice with pads begins.
Though fans will be no allowed to attend training camp in Green Bay this preseason, there will no doubt be excitement surrounding the arrival of Love after the Packers traded up and selected him at No. 26 overall in this year’s NFL draft. As ESPN and other media outlets have noted, one of the team’s biggest preseason storylines is how the relationship between Love and veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers begins, especially given Rodgers’ own saga with Brett Favre.
“Aaron is a pro, and he’s the leader of our football team,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said back in April. “And I anticipate that for a really long time. I have so much respect for him not only as a player but the person, and some of the stuff that nobody sees. So I can’t tell you how much I like working with him.”
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How Quickly Will Packers Integrate Love?
Love isn’t entering his first NFL training camp with the expectations of winning a starting job right away, but the Packers are still looking forward to seeing how much the rookie quarterback managed to learn during an unprecedented virtual offseason with no OTAs.
“We’re going to try to show (Love) as many good examples of what it looks like because the challenge is he’s going out on his own and working those different techniques and fundamentals, but you’re not there to be able to correct him or show him the right way,” LaFleur said in May about Love’s offseason work. “So we’ve got to present as much to him so he can get that good visual so that he can go out there and replicate that.”
Barring an injury to Rodgers, the Packers won’t need Love to “go out there and replicate it” on the game field in 2020. The two-time MVP quarterback still has four seasons left on his contract — even if the likelihood of him playing it out has diminished — and has said he would welcome any challenge to his job, confident in his abilities to prevail.
Love isn’t opposed to getting some action in his first year, though, if LaFleur finds a creative use for his newest quarterback.
“I’m a quarterback,” Love told Fox 11 News in June. “Whatever way they can use me, I guess.”
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