GREEN BAY, Wis. — Matt LaFleur watched from the Green Bay sideline last November as his quarterback dropped back. The Packers faced third-and-16 from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 35-yard line, a 10-point deficit threatening to deepen if they didn’t strike.
But Jordan Love didn’t panic.
He dropped back, and then dropped further, before unleashing a cross-body throw to the end zone.
Just beyond the hands of two defenders, receiver Jayden Reed came down with the score.
A realization fell over LaFleur.
His quarterback was seeing the game more like the fourth-year vet that Love was than the first-year full-time player he also was.
“Early on, you’re trying to protect him — protect everybody, quite frankly, not just him, but all the youth,” LaFleur told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday after practice at Packers training camp. “We got a little too conservative. The mindset we always [say] around here with the coaches is, ‘Shoot or shoot.’
“We started doing that, our guys were making plays and it obviously served us well down the stretch.”
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A late-season surge and playoff win later, the Packers enter 2024 with a still-young team in a competitive division. But they learned enough about their young quarterback in his first full year to decide that his success wasn’t a fluke. Rather, the Packers view 2023 as a realization of potential they’d watched burgeon for three years in practices. Watching Love’s command of the huddle and decision-making on game days, Packers management was sold.
So general manager Brian Gutekunst said resolutely this week: Green Bay no longer has a decision to make at franchise quarterback.
On Friday, they confirmed it, agreeing to a four-year, $220 million extension with Love, after a week featuring a training camp hold-in centered on the exact price of his services rather than whether the partnership is of interest to both parties.
“We feel very, very confident that the success he had…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jordan-love-got-packers-trust-to-tune-of-220m-inside-hold-in-week-at-green-bay–and-why-they-were-sold-despite-limited-body-of-work-011519043.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-07-27 01:15:19
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