Jordan Love did not practice on Thursday, putting the Green Bay Packers another day closer to lining up with Malik Willis at quarterback when they play the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
Love sustained a knee injury with six seconds remaining in the Packers’ season-opening 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles one week ago in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The quarterback hasn’t practiced since.
But on Thursday, Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur said Love didn’t have to practice to play on Sunday.
“He’s going to do everything he can to be out there,” LaFleur said, “and we’ll give him the week.”
In the meantime, Willis is continuing his crash course on the Packers playbook. Green Bay obtained the former Auburn quarterback in a trade with the Tennessee Titans after the preseason ended, and he practiced for the first time with the Packers on Aug. 28.
“It’s been pretty much around the clock since I got here,” Willis said. “That’s the reality of this thing. You try to come in and be ready to go if you’re called upon, and you just work each day and that’s it — that’s all you can do. That’s all you can control. …
“Just trying to put in as much time as I need to feel comfortable and just make sure that whenever my number is called I’m ready. Whether Jordan can go or he can’t, just try to be ready regardless, because even if he can go, I have to be ready just as last week.”
LaFleur praised Willis’ work since he joined the Packers.
“I thought he did a great job in his three weeks, which feels like three months that he’s been here,” LaFleur said, “of just kind of going through it, being dialed in, knowing the details of why we’re trying to get things called, showing him the necessary clips to get him prepared, to get him confident. And now it’s about going out there and doing. …
“He’s been awesome. He’s been great. I mean at the end of the day, it’s football. It’s something that these guys have been doing for a good majority of their life, and I think that’s the approach you got to take. You pour everything you got into it from Monday through Saturday, and then you got to go play and trust the training, trust the preparation. You got to go play on Sunday.”
When Willis came in for Green Bay’s final two snaps against Philadelphia, it was his 12th NFL appearance. A backup for two seasons at Auburn, Willis starred at Liberty for two seasons before joining the Titans in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
Willis worked as a backup to Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee. As a rookie, he started three games when Tannehill was injured.
“Call it what you want to, I wasn’t ready yet, but I had to go in,” Willis said. “And I’m a different player than then. But, you know, you control what you control. It’s not about what you know; it’s about what you can prove on the field.”
If Willis is the Green Bay quarterback on Sunday, LaFleur said the Packers would have a game plan tailored to his strengths.
“Certainly, we’ll go through it and comb it at the end of the week,” LaFleur said, “and probably X out some things if he’s not very comfortable with it and star the things that he really likes and that he has more comfortability with. And it’s not like we’re dealing with a rookie here that has no background. A lot of these offenses do similar things. It’s just how do you do it? When do you do them? Who are you putting where?”
After starting the season with a loss, the Packers have more concerns than the quarterback position for Sunday, LaFleur said.
“You got to get your team ready to play,” LaFleur said. “I mean, the circumstances does not dictate how we go about and how we approach a game ever. So never has, never will. So it’s just you think about how do we put our players in the best position possible no matter who’s out there. That’s the mentality. I mean that’s the only way I go about it.”
The Packers and Colts square off at noon CDT Sunday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
As a member of the AFC South, Indianapolis was on the Titans’ schedule twice each season during Willis’ time at Tennessee. LaFleur said preparing for those games would help Willis get ready for Sunday’s contest.
“I think there’s some familiarity with going against a guy like (Colts defensive coordinator) Gus Bradley and the schemes that he deploys,” LaFleur said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Gus. I think he’s one of the best in the business. There’s one thing that always stands out when you watch that team — whoever he’s coaching –their team play, and it is just they’re going to be fundamentally sound and they’re going to play as hard as anybody in the league and they do a great job of attacking the football.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
