Era Of Love 

By Lawrence Lang 

The Aaron Rodgers era in Green Bay has ended as Rodgers will be heading to East Rutherford, New Jersey, to be the new quarterback of the New York Jets. On Monday, the deal everyone had waited for was finally completed. The Packers traded the future Hall of Famer along with the 15th overall pick and a 5th rd pick (170) in exchange for the 13th overall pick, 42nd pick, pick 207, and a conditional second-round pick that becomes a first if Rodgers plays 65 percent of the plays this season. 

After what was a dismal season for the Green Bay Packers, where they went 8-9 and had a shot of making the playoff the last week of the season but would lose to the Detroit Lions 20-16 ending their season about what was supposed to be a promising season. 

Rodgers, the reigning NFL MVP, found himself with his star wide receiver Davante Adams who went to Las Vegas Raiders in the off-season and had to go with two rookies at wide receiver. Christian Watson and Romeo Dobbs to go along with veteran wide receivers Adam Lazard and Randall Cobb. Rodgers would have himself a subpar season. He would average 217.4 passing yards per game, have 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, and was sacked 32 times. The 12 interceptions from Rodgers this season also put him over 100 career (105) interceptions in his 17 years in the national football league. 

What’s the season behind us? The Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay Packer saga has also ended. This turmoil has grown since Jordan Love was taken in the 2020 NFL draft 26th overall pick. Rogers has always wanted to say who the Packers should get or sign, and they would never really listen with Love being drafted; it seems to be the Titanic hitting the iceberg with the relationship with Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers, front office. Packers had plenty of opportunity to try and keep Davante Adams, but they ended up trading him. He also had opportunities to get one receiver, such as Odell Beckham Jr. Even though I was hurt at the time, signing him could’ve kept Rogers on the Packers. Who wouldn’t want OBJ on your team? 

Aaron Rodgers was a constant in Green Bay, bringing the team numerous NFC North division titles for NFC championship appearances. The team won the Super Bowl when they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl 45; he was also named Super Bowl MVP. 

We can also ask what happened here in 17 years with Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. A quarterback who, in the words of certain sports personnel, says he’s a bad man to have only won. Super Bowl win an appearance in 17 years. It’s pretty shocking Rogers, in 17 years, is a four-time NFL MVP and has the highest single-season QBR in 122.5, which he set in 2011. He is also 25 touchdowns away from being in the 500 passing touchdown club and is 945 passing yards away from the 60,000 passing club. He would have at least 2 to 3 Super Bowls. But it seems over the last 17 years. The Packers have only been focused on defense instead of trying to build the office because we’ve seen numerous times the Packers use that first-round pick to draft a defensive player. Instead of an offensive player, granted, we have seen a few offensive players drafted by the Packers in the first round, Eddie Lacy and Christian Watson. We know how to Lacey experiment went to a fat dead end, and Watson had a solid rookie season.

But we can’t relish in the past time to look towards the future in the future for the Green Bay Packers is Jordan Love. In one game in the 2022 season, he completed 14 passes on 22 attempts at 193 passing yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions. If you need to know who Love is, he was Utah State’s quarterback. From 2017 to 2019, he had 8600 passing yards, 60 touchdowns, and 29 interceptions. Like Rodgers, Love has been sitting and waiting for his time to be a full-time starter as the Green Bay Packers quarterback.

Love could be the third franchise quarterback. A team has had an inevitable backlash for 30 years. It was Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. I didn’t know 30 years, we’ve only seen two Super Bowl wins, one from each. Love could be the one to break that and get the Packers a couple of Super Bowl wins. We hear very little from Love. He stays low-key and out of the media, and during this whole Rogers Packers fiasco, he’s not had much to say focus on the game. If you can keep that mentality for the last three years, he should easily transition into being a full-time Packer quarterback. We only quite well the Packers build around him, or will history repeat itself for a third time?