Tag: Green Bay Packers

Jordan Love will need to continue growing as the Green Bay Packers’ starting quarterback without his respected position coach, Tom Clements.

The Packers announced that Clements, 71, is retiring, and head coach Matt LaFleur said that the next step for Love’s development is to take on a stronger vocal leadership role within the team.

“I think the next step is just to continue to evolve as a vocal leader,” LaFleur said of Love during his season wrap-up press conference on Tuesday.

Clements will be remembered as the only coach to have worked with Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, and Jordan Love.

This marks Clements’ second or third retirement, depending on how he views it. He first joined Green Bay as quarterbacks coach in 2006 under Mike McCarthy and left after the 2016 season. He took two years off before the Arizona Cardinals hired him to work with Kyler Murray, who was named Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019.

Clements also coached for the Saints, Chiefs, Steelers, and Bills.

In 2023, Clements told ESPN that if he had retired after his first stint with Green Bay, then he would have been “retired, retired” after the 2020 season in Arizona. However, Rodgers convinced him to return to Green Bay in 2022 after Luke Getsy left to become the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears.

“Man, it’s been a cool ride with him for the last three years,” LaFleur said about Clements, a former star quarterback in the Canadian Football League after his college career at Notre Dame.

“Talk about Favre, Rodgers, and then the development of Jordan Love. I mean, that’s pretty cool. I know he’s meant a lot to this organization — his contributions — and he will definitely be missed. I can’t say enough great things about him. I really appreciate him.”

Clements had two stints with the Packers, coaching quarterbacks Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, and Jordan Love during his 14 seasons with the team.

The Packers have several in-house candidates to replace Clements, including assistant quarterbacks coach Connor Lewis and former NFL quarterback Sean Mannion, who joined the Packers’ staff this season as an offensive assistant. Getsy also spent part of this season as a consultant after he was fired as the Raiders’ offensive coordinator.

The next coach for Love will be responsible for helping him grow as a starting quarterback. LaFleur called Love “an ascending player that is going to get better and better and better,” adding that he believes Love’s leadership role will keep growing.

“I think that just kind of comes with the position naturally,” LaFleur said. “I think he’s taken steps to get there, but I think he can really demand a lot because the locker room respects him. And they respect him not only as a person but by the work he puts in. He’s a grinder. He’s one of the guys; I think that’s one of his best qualities is he is one of the guys.”

“They all respect him, but I think, when things aren’t quite right, I think he can voice that as well. When guys aren’t quite doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and he’s one of the guys to talk to [them] about that. I just think it means more when it comes from your quarterback than it does from me or one of our other coaches.”

After a strong finish to his first season as a starter in 2023, which led to a four-year, $220 million contract extension, Love missed two games early in the season because of a knee injury and dealt with a groin injury midseason.

He threw 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions during the regular season, but went the last seven regular-season games without an interception, only to throw three in the playoff loss to the Eagles on Sunday.

The Packers finished the season with 11 wins but ended with a three-game losing streak, including the playoffs, during which the offense struggled.

“Do I think he can play better? Absolutely,” LaFleur said. “Do I think I can help him out and be better? Absolutely. Do I think we can play better around him? Absolutely.”

“I just think it’s too much to put it on one person. I really do. I think collectively, we have to be better, and I expect better. We performed at a pretty high level a majority of the season and then took a dive. That’s why it feels, I’d say, different than a year ago.”

By the end of the game, the Green Bay Packers had lost their top two remaining wide receivers, a couple of offensive linemen, and a starting defensive tackle.

The bigger issue, however, was that their once-promising season was already over before they lost those five players.

In a game that mirrored many of the losses the seventh-seeded Packers suffered during the regular season against the NFC’s top teams, their struggling offense and some poor special teams play caused them to lose again in Sunday’s 22-10 wild-card defeat to the second-seeded Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.

Even though they won two more games this year compared to last season, the feeling after Sunday’s loss was much more discouraging than the previous year. In 2024, the Packers only won nine regular-season games but ended the season strong, winning six of their last eight games to make the playoffs before losing in the final minute of the divisional round.

“I think it’s tough to say right now after a loss,” said Packers quarterback Jordan Love when asked about the difference between this season and last season. “I don’t know if I’d say it’s pointing down.”

The Packers were down 10-0 to the Eagles in the third quarter when wide receiver Romeo Doubs suffered a concussion. Doubs had fallen hard in the end zone after a potential touchdown pass was broken up and didn’t return after being diagnosed with his second concussion of the season. The Packers ended that drive with a field goal, their first points of the game, with 5:46 left in the third quarter.

By then, they were already without left guard Elgton Jenkins, who had suffered a shoulder injury in the first quarter. The Packers tried two replacements: rookie Travis Glover, who was pulled after committing three penalties, and Kadeem Telfort, who finished the game but also added a holding penalty.

In total, the Packers were penalized for five holding calls, tying their most in a game since Matt LaFleur became head coach in 2019.

The Packers were down 16-3 when wide receiver Jayden Reed left in the third quarter due to a shoulder injury and didn’t return. After the game, Reed confirmed that he had dislocated his shoulder. With Christian Watson already out with a torn ACL the previous week, Love was left without his top three receivers by the end of the game.

The Packers also lost center Josh Myers in the fourth quarter due to what appeared to be a serious knee injury. However, Myers later said it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, although he couldn’t return to the game. He mentioned that the injury might be a hairline fracture in his lower leg. Myers also revealed that he played the second half of the season with a torn pectoral muscle.

“So frustrating, man,” said Myers, who will become a free agent this offseason. “It’s such a long year, there’s so much that goes into it that it’s just incredibly disappointing.”

“Just felt like we didn’t have any rhythm, felt like we were just shooting ourselves in the foot. We were getting penalties, we were turning the ball over. All the stuff you can’t do against a team like that, you can’t do.”

On defense, the Packers lost lineman Devonte Wyatt, one of their top run stoppers, due to a lower leg injury in the first quarter. Despite solid defensive play, they couldn’t generate turnovers and allowed Eagles running back Saquon Barkley to rush for 119 yards on 25 carries.

Love’s second season as the starter ended with a poor performance. He tied a career-high with three interceptions and became the first Packers quarterback to throw three interceptions without a touchdown in a playoff game.

When asked if he made progress this season, which began after signing a four-year, $220 million contract extension, Love said, “That’s a good question.”

“I think there’s obviously areas that I improved on, that the team improved on,” he added. “And there’s some stuff I want to clean up, be better at, for sure.”

This marked the end of a season in which the Packers won 11 games but went 0-6 against the NFC’s top three teams: the Eagles, Lions, and Vikings, losing twice to each.

“All those games, we were right there,” said Packers running back Josh Jacobs, who had 121 total yards and a touchdown. “My biggest message this offseason — from the coaches to the players — is how do we take that step? We figure out how to take that step, ain’t nobody gonna be able to f— with us in this league.”

In many of those games, the Packers were hurt by slow starts, just like the one they had against the Eagles. They finished with four turnovers, starting with a fumble by Keisean Nixon on the opening kickoff.

“I think that’s going to be a great reflection point this offseason because obviously, if we had the answers, it wouldn’t have been a problem,” said LaFleur, whose playoff record dropped to 3-5. “And for it to come up multiple times is disappointing.”