Professional football Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre thinks the Green Bay Packers should try to choose Jordan Love as the New Orleans Saints with Taysom Hill, but it’s a terrible idea and chances are good that the Packers don’t even entertain the thought of that.
“I think there are ways to integrate it a bit like Taysom Hill with the Saints,” Favre told TMZ Sports over the weekend. “Use it as a back half, a back half pass, but let it run from time to time just to show you will do it.” Something like that.”
In New Orleans, the Saints use Hill – a former Packer – as the ultimate gadget weapon. He gets tracks designed for the quarterback, opportunities to run routes (and catch passes) from a variety of positions and a ton of shots on special teams. Last year, Hill ran 27 times, caught 19 assists and played nearly 300 special team snaps. He only threw six assists.
Hill is also an elite athlete, with a speed of 4.4 and a thick, muscular frame. In the NFL, there is essentially an H-back who can kick football. And this is exactly how Sean Payton and the Saints use it, often with great success. The threat that he throws the ball at a given game heightens his threat as a gadget player.
Love, on the other hand, is an excellent athlete for the quarterback position, but has no speed or elite size. It has a taller, thinner frame. It is built like a traditional pocket quarter. Love can run (4.74), and it has sometimes been effective on games with the option of reading in the State of Utah, but it will not frighten any defense with its legs. The idea of using it as a halfback, as Favre suggests, is silly and most likely dangerous.
I mean, Favre doesn’t really think the Packers are going to give Aaron Rodgers to Love, right?
Love may add marginal value to some games with a play-by-play option. But again, there is not a revolutionary speedster who will keep the defensive coordinators struggling to defend a bunch of games every week. Love is a quarterback. Hill is an athlete.
The Packers will have a solid development plan in place for Love, who is the future of the quarterback, but may not replace Rodgers as a starter for two or three years. The assumption here is that a set of games like Favre suggests is not part of the plan.
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