While the Green Bay Packers haven’t closed the door on Jordan Love playing in Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts despite his sprained MCL, they are reportedly preparing to play Malik Willis for the foreseeable future.
“The anticipation is that Malik Willis will be the starter this week and probably the next several weeks,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Thursday.
The update comes after Packers head coach Matt LaFleur told reporters Wednesday the door is still “pretty open” for Love to play.
Yet Rapoport’s update suggested the starter will not play against the Colts. So did initial reports from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero suggesting Love could miss between three to six weeks early in the season.
Still, Pelissero’s report pointed out “there’s some early optimism he could return sooner than later, pending a second opinion.”
Green Bay also hasn’t placed Love on injured reserve yet, which may hint that the expectation within the team is he could be back in sooner than four weeks.
Love suffered the injury on the final drive of the Packers’ season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. They had to put Willis into the game for what figured to be the final Hail Mary pass, but he was sacked to end the game.
Expectations were high for the NFC North team entering the season largely because of the presence of Love and the hope he would take another step in his second full year as a starter. But those plans are on hold for now, and quarterback could be a significant concern for an extended stretch to start the campaign.
Willis has appeared in 12 games since the Tennessee Titans selected him with a third-round pick in the 2022 NFL draft and has zero touchdown passes to three interceptions. He has attempted just 67 passes in that stretch, although he could hurt opposing defenses with his legs if given an opportunity.
It seems like it will be Willis under center against the Colts and beyond, which means the Packers may be treading water for the first month-plus of the season.
