How Jordan Love will devote his time before training camp

The Packers report for training camp in less than a month. Jordan Love will use the time until then to hone his craft and prepare for the long season ahead.

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For the most part, late June and most of July represent the rare quiet period in the NFL calendar. While some less-than-stellar news will surface such as the league suspending four players for violations of its gambling policy, this period largely features little attention-grabbing developments from a personnel or coaching standpoint.

However, the lack of headlines doesn't mean that important developments can't transpire in the background. For the Green Bay Packers, who will formally embark on the first season of the post-Aaron Rodgers era in a matter of months, the weeks that comprise the break before training camp could make a world of difference. That holds particularly true for Jordan Love, the team's newly minted starting quarterback.

Love, of course, enters the 2023 season with multiple years of experience in the Packers' offensive system. After a rookie campaign in which he saw no game action due to the COVID-related cancellation of the preseason and spending every game day on the inactive list, Love played extensively during exhibitions in 2021 and started his first regular-season game that November. He saw additional action this past year, filling in admirably for Rodgers during a Week 12 tilt with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Even so, Love's work has come in short stints in isolation from one another. The situation will look far different in 2023 when he steps onto the field as the Packers' full-time starter. Not only will head coach Matt LaFleur have catered the offense and weekly game plans around his skill set, but Love will also have to show more than mere competency over an extended stretch while defenses continually adjust to him. The challenges for the young signal-caller have increased in both complexity and range from his time as Rodgers' backup.

With that in mind, Love will use the break to fine-tune his game, and he has several ways of doing so.

Throwing on the move

To date, Love's best performance in NFL came last year against the Eagles. The 24-year-old quarterback navigated two scoring drives, including one capped off by a Christian Watson touchdown off a staple LaFleur passing concept. While limited in scope, the showing provided the strongest in-game evidence that Love might eventually become a capable starting signal-caller.

But for all the positives Love displayed that day, he didn't work much from outside the pocket. His two throws on the opening drive came off a three-step drop or play-action, neither taking him far from the center. He largely operated from empty formations on his second drive, mostly dealing the ball quickly to preserve time. Only two throws, both second-reaction plays during the two-minute drill, saw Love break the structure of the play and extend with his legs. Each time he threw toward the end zone. Neither attempt resulted in a completion.

While a quarterback should do much of his damage within the design of the offense, a high-caliber QB has to find ways to progress the ball when the play breaks down. In fact, whether Love improves his play out of structure and on the move ranks as one of the major questions the Packers hope to resolve before the start of the regular season. For his part, Love seems to agree.

"There's a lot of different points we wanted to attack," Love said during mandatory minicamp. "Throwing on the run was kind of a big point we wanted to hit this offseason and we did a lot of drills in the beginning. I think we improved with that.

"But I'm always working on my game, working on things I see on film. Maybe I missed the throw. Maybe I moved in the pocket and my feet weren't set. Just trying to find all those little things."

Love cannot simulate an NFL pass rush while away from the Packers' facility, but he can work on his touch and throwing mechanics while on the move. Private quarterback coaches have a number of drills to practice and refine these skills, and Love will continue to work on them as training camp approaches.