Proposed Trade Sees Packers Ship QB Jordan Love to AFC

For a team as consistently great as the Green Bay Packers, it’s unique that one of their most interesting players is a guy who has played hardly any meaningful snaps in his career.

But such is the curious case of Packers’ backup quarterback Jordan Love, entering his third year in the NFL behind the winner of the league’s last two MVP Awards — Aaron Rodgers.

Love’s is an unenviable position to be sure. That wouldn’t be the case for a career middler like, say, Chase Daniels. Playing behind Rodgers is a dream for someone who knows their place in the NFL is as a career backup. But Love presumably has both the aspirations and the talent to be one of 32 starters under center. The question is: when, and where, is he ever going to get his chance?

The answer could be developing a couple of states over in Ohio, where the Cleveland Browns await the fate of embattled signal caller Deshaun Watson.

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Packers Can Command Strong Draft Compensation From Browns in Love Trade

GettyQuarterback Jordan Love’s future with the Green Bay Packers remains a question mark.

The most reasonable, and likely, trade proposal between the Packers and the Browns would read something along the lines of Love swapped for Cleveland’s sole second-round draft choice in 2023.

Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com laid out the Browns’ thinking, and how it might change, if an NFL appeal to Watson’s current six-game suspension for violations of the league’s code of conduct policy results in a more protracted punishment.

“The Browns will explore all of their options in the event Watson is out for double-digit games,” Cabot wrote. “But NFL teams won’t part easily with a good backup, and the Packers still view Love as their possible QB of the future.”

Green Bay’s leverage over Cleveland in a potential Love trade will grow stronger once the other shoe finally drops in the Watson case, as commissioner Roger Goodell is presumably looking for a longer suspension and there’s little anyone in Watson’s camp or the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) can do to stop him.

The Packers would probably be searching for a first-round selection from the Browns in return for Love, considering Green Bay traded up to draft him late in round one back in 2020.

Cleveland would probably try to make the argument that the extent of Love’s practical experience, outside of garbage time and preseason games, is a 13-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 9 of last year, during which Love was 19 of 34 passing for 190 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Lacking any true prove-it moments in any games that mattered over two years in the league, the Packers should accept second-round value and be happy to get it.

An NFC executive told Matt Lombardo of Heavy.com Monday that the San Francisco 49ers could probably garner a third-round pick from the Browns in a potential trade for Jimmy Garoppolo, were the deal to go down now. However, the exec added that if the Niners hold onto Garoppolo and another team or two ends up in need of a quarterback before August is out, that price is liable to skyrocket.

49ers’ Garoppolo May Factor Into Any Love Trade Between Packers, Browns

Getty Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo of the San Francisco 49ers looks on during warmups before a game against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field on December 5, 2021 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)

If the Packers believe the mostly durable Rodgers will be their QB for the next three years, then dealing Love before next offseason — when they must decide whether to pick up the fifth-year option on his rookie deal — is probably the reality. Otherwise, Love will hit free agency following the 2023 campaign and can seek a starting job elsewhere on his own.

That said, Green Bay doesn’t need to be, nor does it appear to be, in any rush to part with Love. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported after the NFL Draft concluded in May that multiple teams had inquired about Love. Rapoport suggested then that a second- or third-round draft selection in return for the quarterback might be enough to grab the Packers’ attention.

During the same time period, Packers’ general manager Brian Gutekunst spoke like a man who wasn’t ready to deal Rodgers’ backup, but was ready to listen.

“As far as what [Love’s] future is with us, we’ll kind of see how that goes,” Gutekunst told the media on May 6. “Obviously, with what we’ve done with [Rodgers] and how long [Rodgers] wants to play, that will factor in down the road. But we’re not making any of those decisions right now.”

Meeting the Browns in the middle on Love and agreeing to take back Cleveland’s 2023 second-round pick feels like the realistic bargain to be struck between the franchises, particularly if a player like Garoppolo is still dangling out on the trade market.

The Browns traded away their first-round pick in 2023, along with a haul of assets, to acquire Watson from the Houston Texans in March. Garoppolo carries a salary cap hit of nearly $27 million in the final year of his contract this season, while Love carries a cap hit of just $3.37 million in 2022 and $3.94 million the following year.