GREEN BAY \u2014 There was, as you would expect, a difference of opinion about what had happened on the play.<\/p>\n
It occurred midway through last week, during the Green Bay Packers\u2019 second in-pads practice of training camp. Defensive end Lukas Van Ness had beaten his man off the edge and was closing in fast on quarterback Jordan Love, who was looking for tight end Tucker Kraft on a corner route to the left.<\/p>\n
This is where the details get murky \u2014 or, more accurately, it depends on who you talk to.<\/p>\n
Love \u2014 feeling healthier than he ever was last year after sustaining a knee injury in the closing moments of the team\u2019s season-opening loss to the eventual Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil \u2014 saw Van Ness coming and, rather than taking off running, moved up in the pocket, sidestepped to his right and sidearmed the ball to rookie Matthew Golden crossing the field to the right sideline.<\/p>\n
Love, of course, was in the customary quarterback red non-contact jersey, so we\u2019ll never really know if Van Ness would\u2019ve gotten him or not. But when asked about what the play showed about his elusiveness and pocket awareness, the first words out of Love\u2019s mouth were, \u201cFirst off, it wasn\u2019t a sack [by] Van Ness.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Van Ness\u2019 view? Predictable.<\/p>\n
\u201cSack,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was a sack.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a D-lineman, I\u2019m going to have my bias and my opinion, and as a QB, he\u2019s going to have his bias and his opinion. That\u2019s the game \u2014 we all think we made the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you\u2019ve seen him do it in games, where he has guys in his face and make that move to make the throw.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that was the actual point of the conversation: Fully healthy again, Love is once again making those subtle-but-vital movements inside the pocket to elude pass rushers and create space to throw.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s\u00a0one thing he’s very good at,\u201d offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said leading up to Saturday\u2019s \u201cFamily Night\u201d practice inside Lambeau Field. \u201cAnd I think\u00a0[it\u2019s] his just personality \u2014 he’s calm in the pocket; he’s a calm guy. He’s not going to get rattled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s able to make incredible throws when he’s about to get\u00a0hit, and that, I think, is one of the special things about him as a quarterback. So yeah, it’s impressive to watch, and I think he’s shown you know so far this camp his ability to keep that going.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it was something his predecessor, Aaron Rodgers, also did well \u2014 remember that Houdini spin move he made in the pocket against the Atlanta Falcons during the 2010 Packers\u2019 run to the Super Bowl XLV title? \u2014 Love has shown a knack for those in-pocket adjustments from the beginning of his time as the starter.<\/p>\n
Even when other aspects of quarterbacking might\u2019ve taken him a bit longer to develop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the movement aspect of my game, being able to move in the pocket, was something that was limited for a good amount last year when I had my injuries,\u201d Love said before the \u201cFamily Night\u201d practice. \u201cBut [it\u2019s] definitely something I want to focus on going into the season, to amp up and do more of.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many instances where a defense does a good job covering the first couple reads, [but] you can work the pocket, [or] get out and scramble and just keep that play going.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always have that mindset to try to never get sacked and try to keep the play alive and try and work the pocket. It\u2019s one of those things where you just have to keep working through things and keep adding that aspect to my game. But it\u2019s one of those things I think will really come alive this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through his two seasons as the starter, Love has been sacked 44 times in 32 games, including only 14 in his 15 starts a year ago.<\/p>\n
While he took 30 sacks in 2023 in his first year, he was headed in the right direction at season’s end. He was sacked only twice during the Packers\u2019 three-game winning streak to end the regular season, and wasn\u2019t sacked in either playoff game, as he led the Packers to a blowout win in Dallas and had the San Francisco 49ers on the ropes heading into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s part of playing that position. And some guys are a little bit better at the pocket manipulation than others,\u201d head coach Matt LaFleur explained. \u201cI always look at the number of sacks guys take, and he has a good feel in the pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201c[He] understands when he needs to use his legs to try to manipulate the pocket or, [when] there\u2019s nowhere to go, \u2018Oh, shoot, where\u2019s my checkdown?\u2019 So I think he\u2019s done over the course of two years a pretty good job with that, whether he\u2019s got his legs or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the Packers No. 1 offense struggled during Saturday night\u2019s practice \u2014 especially in the red zone, where none of the four quarterbacks managed to lead their unit to a touchdown \u2014 and Love\u2019s initial 2-minute drill ended with him throwing an interception to Carrington Valentine when he overshot Golden, his camp on balance has been a strong one.<\/p>\n
And, more importantly, a healthy one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing I\u2019ve seen from him \u2014 especially over the last few practices \u2014 is he is moving around pretty well, and I think he is playing pretty decisively,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cAnd I think he\u2019s going to continue to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bCOPYRIGHT 2025 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREEN BAY \u2014 There was, as you would expect, a difference of opinion about what had happened on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,4247,267,6,428,15122,9577,9,1004,27989,27990],"class_list":{"0":"post-258305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-national-sports","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-packers","17":"tag-regional","18":"tag-shareable-stories","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-wisconsin-news","22":"tag-wisconsin-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114964389163028522","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}