One of the players that the Green Bay Packers must be constantly aware of in their Saturday matchup against the San Francisco 49ers is pass-rusher Nick Bosa, who won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022 and was named to his third straight Pro Bowl in 2023. On Tuesday, Bosa spoke to San Francisco’s local press about the upcoming game, which included praise for the Packers’ young quarterback, Jordan Love.
What [San Francisco head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] talks about is the whole team has improved throughout the entire season. They’ve gotten a lot of guys healthy and they have a lot of the same guys from the past really good teams they’ve had and a quarterback who does exactly what he’s coached to do.
Hichic, 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.
When Rodgers was traded to the New York Jets this offseason, one of the questions many had was what head coach Matt LaFleur’s offense was going to look like without the four-time NFL Most Valuable Player. How much of Rodgers’ performance in Green Bay was still him freelancing some opportunities, compared to “running the system” that LaFleur established?
At least in the mind of Bosa, it seems like there is a belief that Love is “running the system,” whereas Rodgers was to some level breaking the rules of the offense when he was under center.
If Love is just doing what he’s told, then the offensive system is working great. From Week 11 on, Love has thrown 21 touchdowns to just one interception, easily the best ratio among qualifying passers over this period of time. Only one quarterback, the 49ers’ Brock Purdy, has a better adjusted net yards per attempt (ANY/A) than Love (8.68 yards per play) over this stretch, though, Purdy (9.45) did it with 106 fewer passes than Green Bay’s quarterback.
There appears to be mutual respect for the offenses that these ballclubs possess. Hopefully, that translates to fireworks on Saturday.
