The career of Aaron Rodgers used to be held up as a paragon of quarterbacking excellence, for everything but his increasingly fruitless postseason runs.
His recent pattern of questionable comments in public have eroded that veneration, but his on-field legacy has never been in much doubt. His quarterback play has been held up as close to the gold standard.
But with Jordan Love taking the mantle in Green Bay and stunning a Dallas Cowboys team in a 48-32 Wild Card win with three passing touchdowns, Rodgers' drawbacks — and Love's upside — are coming into focus.
For the first time in recent memory, the 49ers pointed out that Rodgers' tendencies towards playing outside of the scheme were, at least at times, a detriment to the Packers.
Take it from Kyle Shanahan, Chris Foerster, Steve Wilks, and Nick Bosa. While teams are always going to sweeten up to the opposing quarterback, it's not hard to find the truth in their statements.
Bosa raved about Love's fit for the Packers compared to Rodgers'.
“[They have] a quarterback who does exactly what he’s coached to do, which, Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer and unbelievable, but he kinda went outside of the realm of coaching, and sometimes it’s good when you have a guy who does what he’s coached to do," Bosa said.
Wilks, meanwhile, said he sees LaFleur "dedicated and committed to running the ball," which he believes opens up the rest of the offense. He said it's different "... when you have a first-ballot Hall of Famer, a guy like that who can throw the ball 55 or 60 times and go win you a game."
He immediately clarified that he was "not saying that Love can't do that," but with him at the helm, LaFleur is taking a more balanced offensive approach.
Both Shanahan and Foerster — who know LaFleur from their time together in Washington in the early 2010s — identified the offense as looking far closer to what they would expect LaFleur to run without Rodgers in the mix.
"They started the thing with Rodgers and now it's evolving a little bit more towards what I would think Matt would be," Foerster said. "Not as similar to us, but there's a lot of things they do [that are similar]."
Shanahan was asked specifically about the "hallmarks" of a Matt LaFleur team and said he's "not sure," because there's been so much evolution with and without Rodgers.
"I think they change each year and it's definitely different with Aaron [Rodgers] not there," Shanahan said. "I think it looks a little bit more similar to how I know Matt and his offense and that was always mixed in with Aaron too. Anytime you have a quarterback who's played a long time, you're always going to just mix all that stuff in.
"But, it looks a little more consistent with what he's done earlier in his career and just how they're balancing it out. Matt's going to get his guys to play hard. He is always going to be honest with them. Matt's a very high character guy who understands scheme very well.”
Shanahan also credited Love specifically for "buying in" to the scheme.
Now, Rodgers status as a Hall of Famer is not in question.
But what seems to be indicated here is that Rodgers, in the latter stage of his career, may not have been the right quarterback for LaFleur, or wasn't wholly sold on running the scheme the way LaFleur may have hoped. At the very least, the indication is that Love has bought into a scheme that matches what LaFleur would be expected to run, as opposed to one adapted to Rodgers.
LaFleur had three-straight seasons of winning 13 regular season games with Rodgers before the Packers' 8-9 campaign in 2022 without DaVante Adams. In those three-straight playoff appearances, they had a 2-3 record, with two of those losses coming at the hands of the 49ers.
There's plenty to dissect in all of this, especially from the perspective of how gifted offensive-minded coaches view their scheme versus their quarterback's fit in it.
The comments praising Love can be reflected towards Purdy, in that Purdy also executes the 49ers' scheme, and like Love, can make plays out of the rhythm of a play design. But that playmaking option for those quarterbacks is secondary, not the default.
You could, of course, take a galaxy-brained examination of every person referring to and distinguishing Rodgers as a Hall of Famer before assessing Love's play, and tying it to LaFleur's scheme, but that's probably getting lost in the weeds.
What's evident, more than anything from this week, is that the 49ers don't view Love's play as flukey. They see a quality scheme they're familiar with, and a young, talented quarterback who's executing it at increasingly effective levels.
As much as Green Bay's season was on the brink early, and the first half performances from Love were uneven, that's in the rearview. Love has 20 touchdowns and one interceptions in his past nine games.
With the Packers' defense putting together rare, coherent performances that could theoretically save oft-criticized defensive coordinator Joe Barry's job, the 49ers seem to see a compelling opponent.
Everything is in San Francisco's hands, and if they play up to their standard, they'll control every game they're in. But a quarterback with talent, trust in and ability to execute a high-level scheme is something they take seriously.