A key figure in Jordan Love's development could leave within a year. How will the Packers replace him?

Tom Clements will return as Jordan Love's position coach for 2024, but he also just turned 71. When Clements retires, the Packers will have a hard time picking a worthy successor.

Aaron Rodgers has credited multiple coaches for helping him develop into one of the greatest players in NFL history. The list features Sterling Jackson, Craig Rigsbee, Jeff Tedford, and Mike McCarthy, all head coaches who worked with Rodgers at various times during his football career.

Yet for all the praise Rodgers has showered on those coaches over the years, he has more often singled out another longtime mentor for his development: longtime Green Bay Packers assistant Tom Clements.

"Tom doesn't realize when I was a young player, I wanted nothing more than to make Tom Clements happy," Rodgers recounted in 2022. "It was incredible motivation for me because I would have great games, in my opinion, have a hundred quarterback rating, three touchdowns, and Tom would give me a minus performance.

"But it motivated me because I love that Tom held me accountable in more ways than just a stat sheet. It was all about the fundamentals, the decision-making, the footwork, and stuff that really actually has molded me into the quarterback I am today."

Clements served as Rodgers' position coach from 2006 to 2011, a period which saw the signal-caller ascend from Brett Favre's understudy to nascent NFL starter to a league MVP and Super Bowl champion. That success led to Clements' promotion to offensive coordinator in 2012 and alter assistant head coach. He left the organization after the 2016 season, spending two years with the Arizona Cardinals before retiring in 2021.

But Clements' NFL story had another chapter. After other clubs raided the Packers' coaching staff in 2022, head coach Matt LaFleur needed to hire a new quarterbacks coach. Rodgers recommended Clements for the position, paving the way for a reunion.

"It's great to get an old head in Tom Clements back in the fold," LaFleur said shortly after the hire. "He's got a lot of great ideas. He must have been thinking about ball every day when he was away from the game, because, man, he is as sharp as they come. I can see why he was so instrumental in the development of Aaron, and I'm excited to add a guy like that to our staff."

Ostensibly, Clements returned in order to work with Rodgers for the final years of the QB's career. Ultimately, the veteran coach would up serving a different (but no less critical) function: guiding Jordan Love through his first season as a full-time starter.

Like Rodgers 15 years earlier, Love found himself in the unenviable position of replacing a legend. However, the Packers had some institutional advantages this time around to help facilitate the transition, Clements' experience chief among them. Love endured no shortage of trials and tribulations during his first full season as the team's starting quarterback, but Clements' steadying presence played no small role in the midyear turnaround and resulting playoff run.

Given Clements' substantial role in getting Love back on track and playing the best football of his career, LaFleur surely worried about what might happen if the veteran QB coach opted to head back into retirement this offseason.

"He wanted to take some time after the season to kind of mull it over," LaFleur said of Clements' decision. "Obviously, it's a huge commitment with his wife and kids living out in California. After a couple of weeks into it, he said he'd like to come back. And shoot, I was ecstatic. I just think his level of consistency with how he communicates, how he coaches. He just brings a steady presence for not only the quarterbacks, for myself and the rest of our staff. He is super consistent. You know what you're going to get from him each and every day. I think he's a hell of a coach and an even better person."

Clements returning for another season represents a boon for Love and the Packers offense, but the decision only delays the inevitable. Clements celebrated his 71st birthday earlier this week, an age by which most coaches have already retired. At some point, perhaps as soon as 2025, he will walk away for the final time.

When that moment arrives, the Packers will have a difficult time selecting a worthy successor. LaFleur has some intriguing candidates to consider on the staff as well as outside the organization, but no one has solidified his status as Clements' heir apparent.