Fantasy Footballers’ biggest ‘boom or bust’ players in 2022
The Fantasy Footballers joined Sports Seriously and discussed some of the biggest fantasy topics of the 2022 fantasy draft season.
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GREEN BAY, Wisc. — Go through team by team, and you’ll find roughly half of the NFL is looking to replace its starting quarterback almost every year.
So now that Jordan Love has finished his third training camp, the question at its most basic is whether he’s a keeper.
In other words, if Aaron Rodgers were to up and retire after this season – and to be clear, we’re not predicting that – does Love have a real chance to be a guy the Green Bay Packers wouldn’t be looking to replace?
The answer is, yes, he at least has that chance. That’s not to say he’s anything close to a great bet. It’s hard to think anyone who’s watched this preseason would say he is. But he’s shown enough this training camp and preseason that if Rodgers were to retire in 2023, the Packers wouldn’t have to prioritize drafting a quarterback. Love would warrant a full season to prove whether he can be the guy.
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As for his fifth-year option, possibly trading him next offseason and the rest, those are subjects for another time. Let’s stay closer to the here and now.
After the Packers wrapped up their preseason Thursday night at Kansas City, there are several reasons to think Love at least has a chance.
First, he has the physical traits NFL teams look for in a quarterback. He has good size (6-4, 219), good arm talent and decent mobility. His footwork and decision-making also have improved in practice since the start of camp and from the first preseason game to the last. And though he’s mobile, he wants to play from the pocket and looks to run so he can throw, rather than taking off at the first sign of trouble. That’s the NFL game. At some point, even the best running quarterbacks have to win by throwing, and Love wants to be as a passer.
The issue is how much his decision-making will improve as he plays more. That was the red flag coming out of college. He threw 32 touchdown passes and six interceptions as a sophomore at Utah State, but then 20 and 17 in his final season as a junior.
The scouts who liked him attributed the interception leap to Love attempting to carry an under-talented offense that returned only one other starter from his sophomore year, as well as his playing for a new coaching staff. The scouts who didn’t like Love thought he was interception prone because he doesn’t see the game fast enough.
So we’ll start with Love’s interception in the two-minute drill at the end of the first half. After the game, coach Matt LaFleur said that while he wanted to reserve judgment until he saw the video, in real time he had no problem with Love’s decision to throw to tight end Alize Mack down the middle seam against Cover-2. That route in theory is a Cover-2 beater.
LaFleur’s tape review presumably changed his mind. The throw was simply a very bad decision. Mack was covered underneath by a linebacker, over the top by a safety, with the second safety also squeezed toward the middle of the field. Granted, with only 20 seconds left in the half it wasn’t the worst time to take a chance, and the interception didn’t really hurt the Packers. But Love had no throwing window, a timeout remaining and an open checkdown to Amari Rodgers. That’s where the ball should have gone.
Those are the kinds of throws he simply can’t make if he’s to become a keeper.
There also were a couple of plays early that showed the gulf between Love and Aaron Rodgers, and the difference between a young quarterback with some potential and a highly experienced future Pro Football Hall of Famer.
On the Packers’ second series, Love on second down was pressured up the middle, tried to step up and escape but took a zero-yard sack. Rodgers probably would have hit the quick checkdown to tight end Josiah Deguara for a short gain, avoided the hit and set up a shorter third down.
Then on the next play Love was chased out of the pocket from the backside and tried a tough throw on the run to Deguara about 30 yards downfield. Love didn’t have the arm to get the throw over the top, where it needed to be, and instead came up several yards short for an incompletion. Rodgers probably could have hit that throw. Love has arm talent, but Rodgers’ arm talent ranks among the best who have ever played the game.
Still, Love played a solid game despite his bad rating (61.1). Unlike the preseason opener, his short throws early in the game were on the money. He hit a groove in the first half where he confidently zipped a 19-yard completion to rookie Samori Toure near the sidelines and a 15-yarder to Amari Rodgers over the middle. And in his two-minute drill, he threw a rope to tight end Tyler Davis along the sidelines in a place where only Davis could get it.
Bottom line is, Love has talent and showed poise and improvement in his third camp. He still hasn’t proven he’s a keeper, and things will only get tougher in real games, when there’s extensive game-planning and blitzing. But he’s shown enough to at least get his chance in a year or two, whether it’s with the Packers or another team down the line.
