Mark Murphy says it will take ‘at least half a season’ to know whether QB Jordan Love is the future for the Packers

Fifteen years ago, Aaron Rodgers took over from Brett Favre and proved pretty quickly that he was going to be just fine. Now, with Jordan Love preparing to replace Rodgers as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, team president Mark Murphy looked back at that summer and fall of 2008 as a road map for how Love’s future could be judged.

“Comparing it a little bit to Aaron’s first year as a starter, yeah, I’d say at least half a season to know,” Murphy said Monday following the team’s annual shareholders meeting. “And I think even though we ended up with a losing record that year, but we saw enough of Aaron to know that we had something special.”

They did end up with a losing record that year, going just 6-10. But Rodgers wasn’t the problem, as he threw for 4,038 yards, 28 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. It earned him a contract extension in the middle of the season. But Rodgers had some proven weapons on the outside to work with, including Donald Driver and Greg Jennings. That won’t necessarily be the case for Love, who will be looking to second-year players like Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, along with rookies in tight ends Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft, to move the ball.

“There will probably be some ups and downs with Jordan and we’ve got young receivers,” Murphy said. “But we’ve got a lot of talent there and I think our thought is, or the hope is, that they will all get better and grow together.”

Murphy also expects the offense to look a little different with Love at the controls. Though coach Matt LaFleur has pushed back on the idea that they haven’t been running the exact offense he would like to the last four years with Rodgers, Murphy made mention of it during his time with reporters.

“I think offensively, you’re going to see probably a little bit more of Matt’s true offense,” Murphy said. “Obviously, when you have a great quarterback like Aaron and somebody who’s been in the league as long as he has, we gave him the flexibility to change plays and get in and out of things that really helped. But I would anticipate a strong running game and play-action off of that.”

The process of building that offense continues Wednesday when the team hits the field for the first practice of training camp.