Getty Donald Driver after scoring a touchdown against the Detroit Lions on January 1, 2012.
When Aaron Rodgers took the reins as the Green Bay Packers’ starting quarterback in 2008, he inherited a roster that was fresh off of an NFC Championship Game appearance.
The 24-year-old Rodgers was throwing to an all-star cast that consisted of Donald Driver, Greg Jennings, James Jones and Jermichael Finley. Even Jordy Nelson — a second-round rookie who would eventually evolve into one of Rodgers’ favorite targets and form one of the league’s most lethal pass-catching duos — was at the bottom of the depth chart.
Driver was fresh off of topping 1,000 receiving yards for the fourth consecutive season, Jennings had eclipsed double-digit touchdown receptions as a second-year player and Jones’ sure hands served as a safety net for an uncertain commodity at quarterback.
It’s not quite the same luxury of riches Jordan Love has at his disposal 15 years later. The Packers equipped the first-year starter with the youngest roster in football and, to this point, the on-field product has been reflective of that.
And yet, it’s Driver — whose hands paved the way to three Pro Bowl campaigns in Green Bay while catching passes from both Rodgers and Rodgers’ predecessor, Brett Favre — preaching patience in Love.
Packers’ Struggling Young Team ‘Can Grow’
“Jordan Love is starting over. That’s fresh,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview on October 29. “All those guys are young. There’s no veteran guy in that locker room to lead that charge, and Jordan is young as well. This is a young team, but a team that can grow.”
After seven starts in 2008, the Packers backed up their confidence in Rodgers by signing him to a long-term contract extension on Halloween. He had showcased more than enough to cement himself as the quarterback of the future whereas Love has the Packers situated on the borderline of a top-five draft pick next spring. General manager Brian Gutekunst and head coach Matt LaFleur have all voiced their faith in Love, however, that’s all it is — voices. Not pen to paper.
That isn’t to say team brass is lying through their teeth. The Packers did already technically sign Love to an extension through the 2024 season, but they’ll have the 10 remaining games on their schedule to determine whether or not they need to bring aboard a new signal-caller next spring.
If you ask Driver, that won’t be necessary so long as the franchise stays true to its process.
‘Jordan Love Is the Future,’ Says Driver
“I think Jordan Love is the future. It’s gonna take some time for him to get his feet behind him, and I think at the end of the day, he’s gonna be good,” he said.
It’s the least the Packers can do for Love after surrounding him with blossoming talent that has yet to truly solidify themselves at the next level. Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson both flashed as rookies last year, but Doubs has a handful of drops and Watson missed a chunk of the season with a hamstring injury.
They invested a pair of second-round picks in wideout Jayden Reed and tight end Luke Musgrave this past spring, but as expected, they’ve both demonstrated their fair share of sporadic rookie miscues.
While there may be a sense of urgency for Love to dig the Packers out of the hole they’ve found themselves in — they’ve lost four consecutive games and they sport a dismal 2-5 record — there appears to be a universal understanding that development over the remainder of the season is paramount. Winning matters, of course, but there needs to be something encouraging to build from entering 2024.
In Rodgers’ first seven starts, he completed 65.6% of his passes for just south of 1,700 yards, 15 total touchdowns and four interceptions, according to Pro Football Reference. Love’s seven starts this season have produced a 57.7% completion rate with 13 total touchdowns and eight interceptions — double that of Rodgers’ in 2008. He’s thrown at least one interception in each of his last five games.
That isn’t to say Love needs to parallel the career arc of Rodgers because holding him to the standard of one of the best quarterbacks the league has ever seen would be setting him up for failure but to say his performance to this point has been a rollercoaster would be an understatement.
Driver, though, feels that Love can ascend to similar heights, saying, “Jordan Love can be that, too. It’s gonna take some time. I think the Packers’ organization is willing to give him time.”
Love, Rodgers Following Similar Career Arcs
Rodgers sat for three years behind Favre before being thrust into action while Favre was shipped off to the New York Jets. 15 years later, Love sat for three years behind Rodgers before being thrust into action while Rodgers was shipped off to the New York Jets.
The parallels are uncanny, and if the Packers have it their way, they won’t have to worry about who lines up under center for another 15 years. The Packers’ trajectory must be realigned and individual efforts have to be upped before that can ever be entertained — not just on Love’s end, but from the unit around him.
“We have 10 games left and it’s going to be a very important 10 games,” Gutekunst said on Wednesday, November 1. “He’s done a lot of really good things. I really like how he’s responded to adversity and how he’s led the team. We have to be better as a unit and I expect that to happen over the next 10 games.
“We knew what we would go through. We haven’t had the results we want, but I do like how the guys are responding to things.”