Where is the Love? Packers must make due without QB1
It's Malik Willis or Sean Clifford (read: Malik Willis or bust) as the Green Bay Packers try to stay alive long enough to get Jordan Love back after an MCL injury.
Good morning!
OK, maybe overenthusiastic for Monday after a loss when the star quarterback is reportedly set to be out a month with an MCL sprain. It makes Week 1’s loss even more painful because the Green Bay Packers outplayed the Philadelphia Eagles play to play but fell 34-29.
In today’s Leap newsletter, we focus on what comes next for the Packers offense without Jordan Love. What can Malik Willis bring and who must step up to keep them alive?
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How will the Packers survive without Jordan Love?
Peter Bukowski: The beautiful irony of this answer is it’s the same way they survived with Love in Week 1: play with good enough balance and hit a couple of big plays while relying on a proven mix of coaching and player talent. In other words: lean into the variance.
Willis comes to the Packers capable of making every throw. He has “wow” arm talent. He’s a dangerous runner on scrambles and designed runs where he offers tantalizing speed and elusiveness with the ball. But his arm talent causes him to try and make difficult throws that he can’t consistently execute, and his decision-making hasn’t been tested.
Love played one of his most inconsistent games in Brazil with his ball placement, missing open receivers and press with his decision-making at times. But then, he’ll escape the pocket and throw a dime to Jayden Reed on the run for a 70-yard touchdown.
Willis can’t be asked to win the game alone, but guys like Reed, Christian Watson, Josh Jacobs, and, perhaps most importantly, Matt LaFleur can ease his burden as they have for Love in the past. LaFleur did it for former Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota who had the best completion percentage of his career as a preferred starter by more than five percentage points during their shared season in Nashville.
LaFleur understands how to scheme around a quarterback with some limitations.
When the Packers traded for Willis, general manager Brian Gutekunst was asked how much the offense would have to change with Willis in there as opposed to Love.
“Not much at all,” Gutekunst said shortly after the trade. “In fact, he’s got some crossover in this offense anyway.”
The scouting report on Willis also reads like a Love report. He has a huge arm to make every throw, can throw on the move, and make plays with his legs. However, he can be over aggressive at times and scattershot with his accuracy. Still, Gutekunst mentioned the progression they saw in Willis a number of times during his session with the media following the trade.
“He’s always shown the traits. He’s a really good athlete. Very strong athlete. Strong arm. Able to make all the throws,” Gutekunst said, before comparing Willis directly to Love as a small-school prospect
“You saw the flashes early on in his preseason work. But then I thought this year … the way his patience and the way he was going through his progressions and ability to play from the pocket -- when to run, when not to run. Those kind of things progressed.”
Willis made the game-winning throw against the New Orleans Saints on fourth down in the preseason if that sort of thing matters. Critics will point out that he lost the QB2 job to Mason Rudolph, a quarterback we have seen be actively bad in the NFL for a long time. Still, the Packers picked Willis over Sean Clifford, and Gutekunst raved about the way the front office feels about the latter’s talent.
Willis’ running ability in particular can bring a unique element to this offense, something opponents won’t have much tape on, at least this week for the Indianapolis Colts. Remember early in the season the Packers busted out some option runs with Jordan Love? The fourth-down zone read touchdown against the Saints?
Willis can amplify that part of the Packers offense right away.
What’s the biggest non-Love takeaway from Week 1?
PB: Reed’s rookie season was just the beginning. After setting the franchise’s record for rookie receptions, he kicked off his sophomore campaign with an explosive performance, becoming only the third player ever with a 70-yard receiving touchdown and a 30-yard rushing touchdown in the same game.
Reed’s ability to create after the catch -- in the designed run game as well as a vertical shot player from the slot -- can ease the burden on Willis to make read-it-out plays every single time the Packers went to drop back to pass. The jet sweep push pass was a staple of the offense last year, as was the flip en around that Reed scored on against the Eagles.
It can’t be the whole offense, but if Reed’s getting a handful of designed touches and creating explosive plays with them, the less consistent the rest of the offense has to be.
In that same vein, Jacobs came to the Packers with a reputation as this stay-on-schedule back who wouldn’t bring the explosive runs of his predecessor, Aaron Jones. Jacobs dispelled that notion quickly, ripping off multiple runs of 20-plus yards, including a 32-yard gain in his Green Bay debut.
If he’s breaking off chunks in addition to grinding out the tough yards, he can be a serious weapon for this offense with whoever plays quarterback.
Where can the defenses find answers?
PB: Perhaps the better question is are the answers on the team? And my answer to that is a resounding maybe. The honors for highest-graded defender against Philly -- an award like being named the cleanest gas-station bathroom -- goes to rookie linebacker Edgerrin Cooper who made several impressive plays in limited snaps. He made three tackles in 11 snaps, including a violent run stop.
Cooper played with the sub-package starters to open camp and going back to the spring. He’s a playmaker, and the Packers drafted two linebackers on Day 2 because they knew incumbents weren’t cutting it. Green Bay may not have two quality linebackers, but Cooper can be a solution for what has been a consistent problem for what feels like 15 years outside of 2021 De’Vondre Campbell and half a season of Desmond Bishop back in 2010.
Green Bay “only” gave up 5.5 yards per play to the Eagles, a mark that would have been 10th in the NFL as a season-long number. It wasn’t terrible, and the footing contributed to the sub-par evening. Better communication and a deeper bag of tricks from defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley can ameliorate some of the concerns as the team gets more comfortable in the system.
And Green Bay’s star players didn’t play like stars. Rashan Gary’s sack came on a play where the entire Eagles offensive line thought the Packers jumped offsides and stopped playing. Kenny Clark got worked the entire night. None of the secondary pass rushers made their presence felt. In fact, no other front player had a quarterback hit besides Gary.
That won’t last all season because the Packers won’t be playing contain rushes every week to stop the quarterback run game. The flip side of that is, it worked! They got Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts to make two costly mistakes off platform because they stayed disciplined in their rush lanes while the secondary took away his first options. Hurts managed 33 yards on 13 carries and got stopped on a tush push.
It’s also fair to wonder how different this defense would look on a different surface. The Packers preached speed and decisiveness all spring and summer, then opened the year playing on a tile bathroom floor. It will get better.
Parting shot
Up next for the Packers: the Indianapolis Colts. They came up just short against the Houston Texans in a 29-27 loss. However, Anthony Richardson dazzled … well, a few times. Three of Richardson’s throws were unlike almost any other quarterback in football. Maybe, literally any other quarterback in football. He tossed a pair of beauties that traveled 50-plus yards through the air and another deep shot on a 54-yard touchdown. His three plays of 50-plus yards accounted for the vast majority of his total on the day.
Outside that trio of rocket balls, Richardson went 6-of-16 for 41 yards and an interception. He did also add 56 yards and a touchdown on the ground, but right now, he’s a highly volatile passer. If the Packers can limit the deep shots, this Colts offense struggled to move the ball on the ground with Jonathan Taylor who finished with 48 yards on 16 carries for a paltry 3 yards per carry.
Richardson will make some incredible throws but is wildly inconsistent. That’s also the scouting report on Willis. The hope for the Packers is the latter can be slightly less wild, the pieces around him can be better, and the defense will play better than an Indy group that gave up over 200 yards on the ground to Joe Mixon and the Texans on Sunday at home.