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Carmen Vitali
NFC North Reporter
Green Bay did it again.
They ushered in their third-straight franchise quarterback in three decades. Jordan Love took the youngest team in the NFL to the divisional round of the NFC playoffs with a wild-card drubbing of the Dallas Cowboys on the way there. In the final eight games of the regular season, Love threw 18 touchdowns against just one interception. He grew and developed alongside his weapons and showed Green Bay its strategy of quarterback succession still works.
Pending a new deal, Love and the Packers offense is all set.
There’s room to get better, of course. Love’s first-year numbers were impressive at 4,159 passing yards and 32 touchdowns. His completion rate and success rate ranked within the top 10 of the league, as well. The next step is consistency and for Love to prove he isn’t lightning in a bottle.
For the Packers to take that next step, the team around Love has to take it with him. Love now has a high-priced running back in Josh Jacobs to lean on in the backfield but he’ll also have to be able to lean on the other side of the ball. The side with eight first-round picks. The side that just signed Xavier McKinney to one of the richest safety deals in the league.
Green Bay has gone through a defensive overhaul after dismissing Joe Barry in favor of former Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley. The new defensive coordinator will be switching the team’s scheme to a base 4-3, something not seen in Green Bay since 2008, albeit a more fluid version of that 4-3 than perhaps the last time. Safeties are crucially important in Hafley’s system, so Green Bay made sure to have depth at the position between McKinney and its draft class.
The change was sparked by the Packers’ under-performance on defense not just last year, but for the past couple of seasons. Love was supposed to inherit a unit that could complement his side of the ball in his first season. He was supposed…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/packers-jordan-love-success-now-hinges-defense
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Publish date : 2024-06-18 16:34:34
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