For the Packers, quarterback Jordan Love's old-school seasoning brings hope for a new era

The Green Bay Packers are a crockpot team in a microwave league when it comes to seasoning a quarterback for the toughest job in all of sports.

And that makes Jordan Love the NFL's most intriguing player — and most unpredictable wild card in a wide-open NFC North — as the league kicks off its 104^th season with the Lions visiting the defending Super Bowl-champion Chiefs on Thursday night.

Weeks after the fickle 49ers gave up on 23-year-old Trey Lance's future after 262 snaps in eight games over two seasons, the steadfast Packers are handing their post-Brett Favre/Aaron Rodgers/first-ballot-Hall-of-Fame-QB-for-31-seasons era fate to the 24-year-old Love after 157 snaps in 10 games over three seasons behind Rodgers, who's now with the Jets.

Lance started four games, which is the same number of high draft picks (three first, one third) the 49ers spent to move up and select the Marshall, Minn. native third overall in 2021. Love has started one game since the Packers spent a fourth-rounder to move up four spots to take him 26^th overall in 2020.

"It's not easy for a first-round quarterback to come in and have to wait his turn in today's NFL," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. "That doesn't happen, in my opinion, often enough in this league. I do think there would be a much higher success rate amongst these quarterbacks if you allowed them to develop and learn.

"I think confidence is a big deal in this league. In life, too, right? It doesn't matter if it's in this league or life, you got to be confident in what you're doing to be able to produce to the best of your ability. I think when guys are afforded an opportunity to learn and grow they got a much better chance at succeeding."

LaFleur isn't saying Love is the next Rodgers or Favre or future Hall of Famer. If anything, the fifth-year head coach is tapping the brakes a bit in saying, "I think we all need to temper our expectations for him. … It's going to be a process, but it's going to be exciting for him and for us."

Even Rodgers needed a little time to figure things out as a 24^th overall draft pick who sat for three years behind Favre. After throwing only 59 passes in seven games with no starts his first three years, Rodgers was 6-10 in 2008 before going 11-5 in 2009, winning the Super Bowl in 2010 and posting the first of his four league MVPs in 2011.

What LaFleur is saying, however, is this: Love is poised beyond his years, has the work ethic to grind over inconsistencies that currently include an erratic deep ball, and, oh yeah, he definitely is ready for Sunday's starting debut at Chicago.

"He's taken the right approach since the day he's gotten here," LaFleur said. "Not just taking advantage of sitting and learning but also being urgent in his process and not just complacent with hey, 'I can just sit back. Nobody is counting on me to go out there and play.' I've seen it pick up each year, just the urgency."

Or, as Love puts it, "I definitely think I'm ready for the Bears in Week 1.

"I'm confident," he added. "I'm confident in the offense. When we get to be consistent and hit on all our big plays, we're going to be tough to stop."

Good luck predicting the NFC North. With Love in Green Bay, an entirely new defense with unproven cornerbacks in Minnesota, a roster-wide rebuild in Chicago and the dangers of high expectations in Detroit, the division the Vikings won by four games over the Lions last season appears to be more of a mystery than at any point in recent memory.

The Vikings certainly don't mind lurking in the shadows as the Lions stand center stage as the trendy national pick to win their first division title since 1993 when it was the NFC Central.

"It's not a surprise," receiver Justin Jefferson said. "Every single year since I've been here, everyone has pretty much been doubting us, not really keeping us on the eye chart. It's not anything new. We'll just keep that in our back pocket, keep that as a chip on our shoulder and go into the year strong."

As for the Packers, well, who the heck knows what to expect. After finishing 8-9 with Rodgers a year ago, a very good 2023 season would go something like this:

* Love proves himself worthy of LaFleur and General Manager Brian Gutekunst's belief in him. It was Gutekunst, by the way, who finalized the Rodgers trade in April by declaring, "I think this is a good day for the Packers, a good day for the Jets."

* Seven of the eight pass catchers Gutekunst drafted the last two years — receivers Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Samori Toure, Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks, and tight ends Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft — develop right alongside Love.

* The Packers sneak into the playoffs.

* Rodgers plays at least 65% of the Jets' offensive snaps, bumping the conditional 2024 second-round pick the Packers got in the deal to a first-rounder.

* The Jets' dream team turns into a nightmarish season and a high pick for Green Bay.

* The financial burden of Rodgers' $40.3 million in dead money comes off Green Bay's salary cap heading into 2024.

* And the Vikings miss the playoffs and reach the end of Kirk Cousins' contract with one heck of a conundrum to face at quarterback.

In today's quarterback-driven league, Love, of course, holds the key.

The 6-4, 219-pounder was small and lightly recruited coming out of Liberty High in Bakersfield, Calif. He went to Utah State, grew into a man and played 38 games with 32 starts. He had 32 touchdowns and six interceptions as a junior but posted 20 touchdowns and 17 picks as a senior.

LaFleur bucked an NFL trend this preseason by playing his starters in all three exhibitions. Love played 12 snaps in a win over the Bengals, 17 snaps in a loss to the Patriots and 28 snaps in the preseason finale, a win over Seattle. He completed 63.6% of his 33 preseason passes with three touchdowns, no interceptions and a 109.8 passer rating.

While his accuracy, timing and deep balls remain a work in progress, Love has received more than ample praise from coaches and veteran Packer watchers for not getting frazzled under pressure.

"I think that's one of my strengths," Love said. "I think as a quarterback you kind of have to be that guy for the team. The guy that's not going to let anything faze you if things aren't going right. You're going to be kind of that steady rock that everybody can look to and know that if you're good, they can be good as well."

LaFleur knows "the process" for Love ramps up immeasurably starting Sunday in Chicago, which, by the way, will be the first Packers game without Favre or Rodgers as QB1 in Green Bay since Sept. 20, 1992.

"There's a lot of work left," said LaFleur, referring to Love on the field and himself as play-caller.

"You want [the quarterback] to feel comfortable and confident. Because if you get good quarterback play, you've got a pretty good chance of winning games."