Green Bay Packers’ Preseason Plans: Matt LaFleur’s Take on Jordan Love’s Role

In an era where quarterbacks have played sparingly during the preseason in recent years, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur plans to forge ahead against that grain when it comes to Jordan Love.

When the Packers open up the exhibition slate on Saturday night against the Cleveland Browns, LaFleur plans to have Love behind center guiding the offense.

“I think just going through kind of reevaluating the last couple years from when we’ve had guys not play and last year having them, all the guys play, I thought it was beneficial for us early on, especially Week 1, just to kind of knock some of the rust off,” LaFleur told reporters Tuesday.

“I think there was a lot of value of going through getting your mind right to get ready to play a football game. Obviously we’re going to be smart with those guys. The last thing we want to do is put guys at risk. I mean, there’s an inherent risk, right, every time you go out on the field, but we’ll be smart with him. But at the same time I do think just the preparation of getting ready for a game is invaluable and why not use those opportunities?”

Last season, Love appeared in all three preseason games as a dress rehearsal for his first season as the Packers’ starting quarterback.

Not only did Love emerge injury-free from the exhibition slate, but he went on to steadily improve as the regular season progressed while leading the Packers to a blowout victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Wild Card before making a strong upset bid the following week before falling to the San Francisco 49ers 24-21 in the divisional round.

Love parlayed his strong 2023 campaign into a record-setting four-year contract worth $220 million, which includes a $75 million signing bonus and upwards of $100.8 million fully guaranteed.

The Packers are aiming to build on last season’s postseason run, and Love chemistry with an abundance of offensive weapons that includes dynamic wide receivers Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, along with dominant tight end duo Luke Musgraves and Tucker Kraft.

It sounds like Love will get plenty of additional snaps with his cast of weapons this preseason.

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