GREEN BAY – The commerce everyone seems to be ready for hasn’t occurred but.

However at this level sending Aaron Rodgers to the Jets stays a query of when, not if.

So when Rodgers is formally off to New York, a deal each golf equipment and the four-time MVP quarterback himself have publicly expressed robust curiosity in executing, the Packers shall be down to simply two QBs on their roster heading into the draft.

The primary, after all, is Jordan Love, to whom the Packers are turning over their offense in his fourth NFL season – the identical timeline adopted by Rodgers succeeding Brett Favre 15 years in the past.

A primary-round draft choose in 2020 out of Utah State, Love has watched, realized and absorbed all he may from Rodgers the final three years whereas getting a scant few snippets of significant taking part in time.

In 2021, Love bought his first NFL begin at Kansas Metropolis (when Rodgers went on the Covid listing) and performed the second half of the regular-season finale at Detroit (when the top-seeded Packers had been resting many regulars for the playoffs). Each outings had been uneven, with extra downs than ups, as Love went a mixed 29-for-51 for 324 yards with two TDs and three INTs, and Inexperienced Bay misplaced each video games.

Love’s most notable outing in 2022 additionally got here in a loss, however the temporary stint left everybody feeling very completely different about his play and his future. Taking on within the fourth quarter of a Monday night time recreation at Philadelphia, with the Packers trailing by two touchdowns and Rodgers sidelined by a rib damage, Love (6-4, 219) directed two scoring drives for 10 factors.

He hit receiver Christian Watson on a crossing route that the rookie became a 63-yard TD, after which Love linked with Watson for 15 yards and Allen Lazard for 17 yards – sandwiched round an almost spectacular sideline completion to Aaron Jones – to arrange a brief discipline objective. In whole on the 2 drives, he was 6-of-9 for 113 yards.

Inexperienced Bay left Philly with a 40-33 defeat to the eventual NFC champions, however the Packers had seen the kind of play from Love that offers them confidence now’s the time for him to take the reins. If Normal Supervisor Brian Gutekunst has mentioned it as soon as this offseason, he is mentioned it 100 occasions, Love is “able to play.”

The upcoming offseason program will truly be Love’s third in a row taking nearly all of the first-team snaps on offense throughout OTAs, making the primary main on-field shift coming in coaching camp, when he’ll be entrance and middle with the No. 1 unit.

Who shall be No. 2 at that time stays an open query. Former LSU starter Danny Etling, a seventh-round choose by New England in 2018, is the one different quarterback at the moment on the roster, however he has but to see any NFL regular-season motion.

Over the previous 5 years, Etling (6-3, 220) has frolicked on the follow squads of the Patriots, Falcons, Seahawks, Broncos, Jaguars and Packers. He additionally had temporary offseason stints with the Vikings and within the Canadian Soccer League.

Etling has remained in Inexperienced Bay since arriving in December of 2021, and he appeared in all three preseason video games for the Packers final summer time, finishing 17-of-22 for 220 yards and one TD.

The Packers are sure so as to add one other quarterback (or two) to create a contest for the backup spot behind Love, however the group’s tight salary-cap scenario may make it troublesome to signal an out there veteran – a listing of prospects that is not very lengthy to start with.

Including to the place group within the draft is virtually a given, but it surely is not clear how quickly Gutekunst will make investments a draft choose on a quarterback when the precedence is to construct round Love. Again when Rodgers took over at QB in 2008, then-GM Ted Thompson drafted two quarterbacks, Brian Brohm within the second spherical and Matt Flynn within the seventh, with Flynn finally successful the backup job.