What Does Jordan Love’s Injury Mean for the Packers?
In the game's waning seconds, Jordan Love underhanded a pass behind him to his running back to try to help the Packers come back and win the game against the Eagles. While trying to pass the ball, he was tackled by Eagles defender Jalen Carter around the ankles and went down awkwardly. Clearly in severe pain, Love was lying on the field while fans around the NFL held their breath as the rising star looked like he had suffered a gruesome injury. This moment brought flashbacks to last season's opener between the Jets and Bills when Aaron Rodgers went down and remained out for the rest of the season with a torn Achilles.
In replays of the play, fans could see Love’s knee pop and everyone feared the worst, a torn ACL. Since last night, fans have been nervously waiting for the Packers to return to Green Bay from São Paulo and conduct the MRI on Love to put the fears of a season-ending injury to rest. Finally, after hours of speculation, the Packers confirmed his injury was an MCL sprain and his ACL is still intact. An MCL injury is still not good, but it is much better news for Packers fans than hearing Love tore his ACL or Achilles. The return timeline depends on the severity of the sprain and how long the Packers want Love to rest after. In a season where the Packers have Super Bowl aspirations, it might be better for him to return sooner rather than later but they risk re-injuring or hurting Love more.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, "a grade one MCL sprain typically takes one to three weeks to heal, grade two takes four to six weeks and a severe sprain takes six to eight weeks to fully heal.” Love will need to complete physical therapy and get back into the swing of things. Plus, Love will need to ensure he does not re-injure his already worrisome injury. However, this news is good because Packers fans can sigh with relief.
In the meantime, the Packers must evaluate if they trust Malik Willis to start in Love's place. For the small sample size last night where he did play, he threw a bad pass out of bounds and then got sacked to end the game. The Packers still have Sean Clifford on the practice squad but after his awful performances in the preseason, the team might be very hesitant to put him in games where they will need him to elevate his play. The Pack have other options at quarterback, where they could trade for Josh Dobbs, Ryan Tannehill, or any other free agent quarterbacks who could hold down the ship for a few weeks while Love recovers. The offense might suffer, but at least they can continue developing and rally around Love to ensure this season does not go to waste. It is unfair to blame Jalen Carter for the injury because he was only doing his job, and injuries are unfortunately part of this game. I wish players did not get injured because there is less time to enjoy their play.
