Now that all the dust has settled (for now) with the Green Bay Packers front office and Aaron Rodgers, the attention has pivoted towards the preseason.
The slate begins August 14 for the Packers as they will welcome in the Houston Texans to Lambeau Field to kickoff the exhibition portion of their schedule.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur laid out a pretty clear blueprint for the preseason as far as plans go for quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love.
Here it is: Jordan Love will indeed start Saturday’s preseason opener against the Texans and “will play the majority of the game” and Kurt Benkert will finish it.
Coach Matt LaFleur said Aaron Rodgers will “most likely not” play in the preseason. pic.twitter.com/GClSM4L5yG
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) August 10, 2021
The plan laid out by LaFleur shouldn't come as much of a surprise. With the preseason schedule trimmed down to just three games, there's really no point in throwing the reigning MVP out there. Keep in mind due to the pandemic in 2020 there was zero preseason in the NFL. The Packers went on to go 13-3 in the regular season, earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
What's most intriguing is that with Love playing the majority of the preseason games, it will give the Packers an extended look at their 2020 first round pick out of Utah State. With a brief offseason program a year ago and no preseason, Green Bay never really got to see much from the then rookie.
Nobody has any clue what the plans are for Rodgers with the Packers past this 2021 season so, Green Bay will use this preseason as a good opportunity to evaluate Love and see what he has. Rodgers will keep his focus on the regular season and getting the Packers back to the postseason and over the hump in the NFC Championship.