Packers: Jordan Love moving to No. 2 spot is right move

Jordan Love wasn’t active for the Green Bay Packers all season.

That’s about to change.

According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, the Packers won’t be bringing back backup quarterback Tim Boyle this offseason. Boyle is a restricted free agent.

This means Love will be the Packers’ backup quarterback moving forward. Any time Aaron Rodgers has to leave the game, it will be Love stepping in.

It was understandable why the Packers didn’t want that to be the case in 2020. Love was a rookie quarterback who they plan to develop for the long term. If he had to see extensive paying time, it could’ve been too soon.

Not to mention, they already had a backup quarterback who knew the system. Love had to go through an unusual first offseason with less time on the practice field than normal due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It made sense to keep him on the sideline where he could learn.

But that couldn’t go on forever. Love is a first-round pick after all. At some point, the team had to show confidence in him to be the backup. After all, he was picked to be the potential successor to Aaron Rodgers.

Well, the time is now.

With Boyle not returning, Love will jump up to No. 2 on the depth chart which means he should get some NFL snaps even if it’s only to kneel out victories. But if Rodgers ever has to leave a game through injury, Love will need to be ready.

With a full year to develop and learn from Rodgers in his third MVP season, it’ll be interesting to see whether Love makes a jump in year two. We didn’t get the opportunity to see him play any preseason games last summer. Hopefully they will return this year to give Love some live game action.

After drafting Love in the first round a year ago, at some point he would need to overtake Boyle as the backup. The time has come.