The Green Bay Packers trip to Brazil was almost a complete nightmare start to the season. With sloppy play after sloppy play, the Packers struggled with consistency. This prevented them from putting away the Eagles and it cost them the game and ultimately, Jordan Love.
Being gifted two early scoring opportunities to start the game, the Packers only were able to put up six points. Likewise, when the offense finally found its rhythm, the defense wasn’t capable of stopping a nose bleed. Finally, when it seemed like the offense and defense were finally doing just enough to win, the special teams fell flat on its face. They had a missed field goal by rookie undrafted kicker Brayden Narveson. And, probably even worse, was when Keisean Nixon took out the kickoff return before the final drive. This cost the Packers 15 yards of field position on the last drive.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but complimentary football was not achieved.
But enough about this game. What about the rest of the season? With only six seconds remaining in the game, Jordan Love, trying to make a play to win, got injured. What matters now is how is Love and how long will he be out?
Finally, on Saturday, we got some answers.
Jordan Love’s Injury
I’m normally a pretty optimistic person. So, when I initially saw the injury, I thought that maybe he was having a really bad cramp. This was because it looked like he was dealing cramps all game long. I then saw that he had his ankle rolled up on. This led me to think maybe an ankle sprain. However, just before I finally gave up on looking for updates on X, I saw the replay of the play, zoomed in and in slow-mo of the injury and saw the knee pop.
I, like many others, expected the worst but I continued to try and stay positive because, while I have taught high school anatomy and physiology, I am no doctor.
Finally, on Saturday, we finally received an update of the injury.
Other than, “nothing was found to be wrong at all, and Jordan Love will be completely fine”, this was the best news we could have hoped for!
Timetable and Example of Others With Similar Injuries
So, depending on the severity of the MCL sprain, we can expect Love to be out anywhere from one to eight weeks.
According to UCSFHealth.org, “[a] grade 1 (minor) MCL tear can take from a few days to a week and a half to heal enough for a return to normal activities, including sports. A grade 2 tear can take from two to four weeks to heal. A grade 3 tear usually takes four to eight weeks to heal, unless the ACL is also damaged, in which case recovery may take longer.”
Furthermore, according to Ian Rapoport, the grade is somewhere between a grade 1 and a grade 2:
One doesn’t have to look too far to look for a recent player to have gone through a MCL sprain. Aaron Jones, who now plays for the Vikings, had an MCL sprain in 2017 (missed two games), 2018 (missed the final two games), 2021 (missed one game), and in 2023 (missed three games).
Jones had a grade 2 injury on all of those except 2023 where it was a grade three. Everybody recovers differently, so this isn’t something to expect for Love. It’s just a reference to compare to.
Tom Pelissero reported that the “initial timetable for return is in the 3-6 week range.” He also went on to say that “he could return sooner than later, pending a second opinion.”
With Jordan Love Out, Now What?
So, let’s assume no optimism and say Green Bay puts Love on IR for four weeks. What does that mean for the Packers playoff chances now? What do they need to do to put themselves in a realistic position to get where they want to go?
The Packers play the Colts (home), Titans (away), Vikings (home), and Rams (away). If the Packers want to make the playoffs, they minimally have to go probably 9-8. Andy Herman already did the math for us on this one:
I believe the Packers realistically can still go 2-2 in this stretch with Malik Willis or Sean Clifford starting. I won’t make any predictions here about who they will win against but having two home games doesn’t hurt anything either.
Therefore, if the Packers can still go 2-2 in the next four weeks while Jordan Love is out, then they will have a record of 2-3 on the season. This means that once Love gets back, the Packers will have to finish the season 7-5 to reach a 9-8 record. These games are against the Cardinals (home), Texans (home), Jaguars (away), Lions (home), Bears (away), 49ers (home), Dolphins (away), Lions (away), Seahawks(away), Saints (home), Vikings, (away), and Bears (home).
You tell me, is it doable? I believe so. Now, breathe and know this. The Packers season is not over. As Aaron Nagler of CheeseheadTV says, “lotta ball game left.”
Go Pack Go!
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Damon is a diehard, fully-immersed cheesehead who currently lives in southern Missouri. He teaches at a local high school and has a family YouTube channel about all things Packers. You can follow him on twitter at @packersfamily and on YouTube at The Packers Family.
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