The departure of Aaron Rodgers from the Packers wasn't enough to yield a favorable result for the Cowboys, which dropped their third straight playoff meeting against them on Sunday. It's now been 28 years since Troy Aikman outdueled Brett Favre in the 1996 NFC Championship, sending Dallas to the Super Bowl. The Packers' new quarterback, Jordan Love, appears to be the next franchise leader who seamlessly grabs the baton. He certainly grabbed everyone's attention with his dominant performance at AT&T Stadium.
Love has racked up a laudable 12 touchdowns with no interceptions during the Packers' current four-game winning streak, and what's most impressive about him is his willingness to, well, spread the love around. Seven different Green Bay receivers finished Sunday's NFC wild-card game with a reception. It didn't even matter that Jayden Reed, the team's leading receiver during the regular season, was targeted once. Packers fans never saw Reed pout on the sideline, which speaks to Love's leadership and the culture he's helped build.
Green Bay is all about winning by any means necessary, and Love wasn't only willing to trust less-targeted receivers, but he was also content with handing the ball off to Aaron Jones, who amassed 118 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries. While Rodgers also relied on his stable of running backs during his 18-year tenure at Lambeau Field, he also loved being the hero in the spotlight. Would Rodgers have approved a game plan featuring only 21 pass attempts? Perhaps. It's also easy to see him wanting to seize control away from coach Matt LaFleur under those circumstances.
After being picked off eight times in the Packers' first seven games, Love’s thrown only three interceptions since. He's grown tremendously during the second half of the season, coming up with signature road victories over the Lions (on Thanksgiving), the Vikings, and most recently, the Cowboys. Other teams should realize the value in patience, and allowing a young quarterback to learn behind an established veteran. Love's opportunity to show out didn't come until his fourth season in the NFL, and he's certainly made the most of it following a rough start.
It remains to be seen whether Love's ceiling will ever be as high as Rodgers', but it's clear he's quite talented, coachable, and unfazed by the big moment or allowing his supporting cast to take over. Those attributes are all crucial to finding sustained success. In a playoff structure centered around striking the iron while it's hot, there's no remaining quarterback worth trusting more than this past month's version of Love.
Even with hindsight being 20/20, Green Bay made the right decision trading Rodgers to the Jets last offseason, and taking the training wheels off Love's bike. There’s no telling if the 40-year-old Rodgers would've gotten hurt with the Packers. But, given how his situation with the Jets unfolded, it's hard to imagine any seller's remorse from Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst.
While Love steadily developed and put a rough start to the year behind him, Rodgers became an off-field distraction with some pointed opinions during appearances on The Pat McAfee Show. One team involved is overachieving with a bright future, while the other team remains rudderless with plenty of long-term questions. Take a wild guess on which team is which.
The theme of negative uncertainty radiated down from the NFL teams that didn't reach the playoffs to the college football programs that have felt the impact of a coaching carousel. Capitalizing on some positive momentum is important, but one must wonder if newly-hired Alabama head coach Jedd Fisch jumped the gun too soon by leaving Washington.
Fisch certainly saw coaching at Arizona as a stepping stone job and he was vastly underpaid, making just $2.8 million during a 2023 campaign in which his team finished 10-3. Last season marked the first time since 2014 -- and just the fourth time in school history -- that the Wildcats reached a double-digit win total. With highly-touted Pac-12 quarterback Noah Fifita paired with his former high school teammate, receiver Tetairoa McMillan, Arizona looks poised to make a major run as they join a weaker Big 12 conference.
Well, think again. Fisch's low salary was impossible to ignore as the athletic department balked at every opportunity to give him a raise amidst reported budget cuts to the football program. Even when they found somebody who made it easy to forget a 70-7 loss to rival Arizona State during a winless 2020 campaign, Arizona was unwilling to pony up the money for a Fisch extension. It's easy to see why Fisch could've benefited from playing the waiting game for a better situation.
Having patience when feeling unappreciated at a job is easier said than done. Next offseason, though, Fisch could've had an even higher market value with a job at his alma mater, Florida, possibly opening up. It was smart of Fisch not to get too greedy in the upgrade he's pursuing, but another lights-out year in Arizona could've made him the most sought after candidate in the next cycle.
A solid first season in Washington can still help him accomplish that goal. The deck in Seattle seems a lot more stacked against him, given that the program is losing a lot of the talent that helped them reach the national title game this season. If that wasn't challenging enough, Washington has to go through the gauntlet of the Big Ten, with matchups against Oregon, USC, Penn State, and newly-crowned champion Michigan. Now compare that to Arizona, which will face just one ranked team, Kansas State, in 2024.
Fisch being able to bring some of his standout players with him and attacking the transfer portal will flatten the learning curve. Envisioning a total replication of results is difficult, though, and now he has the pressure of filling a recently departed Kalen DeBoer's shoes on the heels of a perfect regular season. The situation isn't all gloom and doom, plus Fisch can always jump ship after 2024 if things go really well. It does seem like Fisch will fall off the national radar a bit more if Washington's not as successful, especially when considering how desirable he would've been with one more good season at Arizona.
Fisch's one of the most likable college coaches out there, being a part of the minority that never played the game. He's grinded for everything, dating back to his days as Eagles general manager Howie Roseman’s roommate in college. Hopefully having his first semblance of success in his first head coaching job didn't force Fisch to make a short-sighted decision that'll backfire.