On Saturday it was reported that Jordan Love will “be active” for the Green Bay Packers on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings but…
Ya know, I am a pretty positive person overall and that won’t change here. However, there are some things Packers fans must consider going forward now that Love is seemingly back in the lineup. Today, I am going to evaluate some of those considerations.
Let’s start!
Jordan Love Is Back But… Don’t Expect Him To Be 100%
I feel like this is obvious, but don’t expect Jordan Love to be moving around as much as he normally would be. Having a MCL sprain can limit a person’s mobility and impact explosiveness. Additionally, it does hurt which can be quite distracting when trying to make a play.
Last season, Love began to take off later in the season once he started to use improvision to his advantage. Have to deal with this injury could impact his improvisational abilities.
Another thing to consider, Love may have played against the Eagles in week 1, but other than that, he hasn’t play much so far this season. Love was given only a series in the preseason, then played basically the full game against the Eagles before getting injured. Ever since then, he has gone from a nonparticipant in practice to limited. Expect Love to be a little rusty.
Because of this, Malik Willis might not be done yet.
Love is Back But… Don’t Think That’s It For Malik Willis
Matt LaFleur could very well still use Malik Willis due to Love’s limitations. There are a couple of different reasons for this.
One, LaFleur could try and use Malik Willis to spell Love on a couple of plays and ease Jordan Love back into the lineup. Willis has shown that he can get the job done.
Two, Malik Willis has shown to be a dynamic runner especially using the read option. Because of Jordan Love being limited in his run capabilities, Coach LaFleur could choose to use Malik Willis in the game on obvious running downs and really stretch the opponent’s defense in what they have to defend.
This brings me to the next thing.
Jordan Love is Back But… Don’t Expect the Packers to Abandon the Run
Just because Jordan Love is back doesn’t mean that Green Bay now needs to throw it all over the field. The run game got the Packers to 2-1 and the run game is what will continue to bring Green Bay success in the future even against the Vikings and their crazy defense.
With the great play of Josh Jacobs and the emergence of Emmanuel Wilson and of course with the capabilities of the run with Malik Willis, the last thing the Packers need to do is abandon the run.
Ultimately, don’t expect Jordan Love to be the reason the Packers win. It’ll take everyone. And, just like everyone had Malik Willis’s back over the past two weeks, everyone will need to have Jordan Love’s back. It’ll take everyone.
Down with the Vikings, and…
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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