Packers' Jordan Love '100%' Prepared to Start Week 1 amid Aaron Rodgers Rumors

The Green Bay Packers surely want future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers under center when the 2021 season starts, but Jordan Love is ready just in case.

"A hundred percent," Love said when asked if he is ready to start in Week 1, per Rob Demovsky of ESPN. "Obviously, this is a time where I'm getting a lot of extremely valuable reps that I might not have been getting in a normal circumstance. So I'm just going to take it day by day. ... But yeah, that's what I'm here for. I was drafted here to play quarterback, so I'll definitely be ready Week 1."

Love's comments came at the team's mandatory minicamp where he is the defacto starting quarterback because Rodgers is not in attendance.

While moving on from Rodgers, who has a Super Bowl title, three league MVPs and nine Pro Bowls on his resume, would likely lower Green Bay's 2021 ceiling, Packers fans can at least take solace knowing that Love impressed Wednesday.

Demovsky noted the Utah State product found AJ Dillon, Allen Lazard, Juwann Winfree and Aaron Jones on multiple deep balls and looked much better than the inconsistency he showed Tuesday.

It will take much more than quality throws in practice to fill the void left from Rodgers if this offseason's drama results in the team and quarterback parting ways.

Rodgers could raise the stakes by holding out into training camp, but for now Packers president Mark Murphy wrote on the team's official website that the plan is to keep one of the all-time greats even if he is currently disgruntled with the only NFL franchise he has ever known.

For his part, Rodgers appeared on SportsCenter in May (h/t NFL.com) and said he is not unhappy with the Packers because they traded up to draft Love in 2020: 

"With my situation, look, it's never been about the draft pick, picking Jordan. I love Jordan. He's a great kid. A lot of fun to work together. I love the coaching staff, love my teammates, love the fan base in Green Bay. Incredible 16 years. It's just kind of about a philosophy and maybe forgetting that it is about the people that make the thing go. It's about character, it's about culture, it's about doing things the right way. A lot of this was put in motion last year and the wrench was kind of thrown into it when I won MVP and played the way I played last year."

There will be plenty of pressure on Love to replace a legend if he is the starter in Week 1, and the fact it would be at the raucous Mercedes-Benz Superdome against the New Orleans Saints would make it an even more daunting task.

Still, he says he is ready.