Green Bay

Packers

There have been many reports on Love’s potential return from injury after suffering a sprained MCL in Friday’s loss against the Eagles. Between all the reports, Love is expected to return between Weeks 4 through 6, when the Packers play the Vikings, Rams, or Cardinals. Malik Willis is slated to start in his place, with Sean Clifford behind him.

Per Rapoport, Love suffered an MCL sprain between grade one and grade two in the final seconds of Green Bay’s Week 1 loss to the Eagles. Now all eyes are on the Packers’ backup situation. Malik Willis, who the Packers traded for late in the summer, opened the season as Love’s backup. He took two snaps to end the game on Friday. His second rep was a game-ending sack on a failed hail mary play. An inability to handle pressure plagued Willis in Tennessee and appears to have followed him to Green Bay. Sean Clifford, on the other hand, was waived when the Packers cut down to their 53-man roster and then landed on the team’s practice squad. Neither option looks good and the Packers could ultimately land a free agent addition as their best bet.

Per Rapoport, Tannehill is looking for a “playoff contender in need of a quarterback, a team with a strong offensive line and offensive weapons.” He also needs to get paid well. It’s a big ask coming from a 36-year-old quarterback who struggled to stay healthy in 2023 before being benched for rookie Will Levis. While Rapoport doesn’t say this directly, the timing of the report is clearly in reference to the Packers’ multi-week loss of Jordan Love. The young quarterback suffered an MCL sprain in Week 1 and is expected to miss a few weeks. If Green Bay is willing to pay Tannehill, they check all of his boxes. Even an aging Tannehill would bring more to the Packers’ offense than Malik Willis, their current backup, or Sean Clifford, who will get called up from their practice squad this week.

Love went down awkwardly with just five seconds remaining in the fourth quarter in Friday’s loss to the Eagles, staying down on the field for a while before being helped off the field by trainers. Love appeared to be in excruciating pain prior to limping to the sideline. Initial testing ruled out an ACL tear while follow-on testing revealed a sprained MCL. Packers nation can breathe a collective sigh of relief after what looked to be a devastating injury. Love will likely require significant time to rehab the sprain but it is not thought to be a season-ending injury. Further word on the expected rehab timeline should be passed by the team in the coming days.

Pelissero notes that there’s still a wide range of outcomes based on additional scans, which Love will have done once the team returns from Brazil Saturday afternoon. Love isn’t completely in the clear just yet and more will be known after he receives an MRI, but the fact that initial tests show his ACL intact is a positive. Diana Russini of the Athletic previously ruled out an ankle injury for Love in a report on Twitter. Love was removed from the Packers’ 34-29 loss against the Eagles in the fourth quarter after he took a low hit and suffered a lower body injury. Malik Willis and Sean Clifford are the potential in-house replacements at quarterback for Green Bay.

Russini says the team is in wait-and-see mode regarding further information on the quarterback’s lower body injury, but she’s been told an ankle injury has already been ruled out. The Packers’ team flight home from Brazil is set to return Saturday afternoon and at that time Love will receive an MRI. Love certainly isn’t out of the woods yet. More will be known after he gets an MRI, but the worry is a significant knee injury. Any time Love misses would be catastrophic to the Packers skill players with Malik Willis and Sean Clifford as potential replacements in the immediate. Love was removed from the game after he suffered a lower body injury when Jalen Carter hit him low with five seconds left in the Packers’ 34-29 loss to the Eagles on Friday.

With MarShawn Lloyd out because of a lingering hamstring issue, Wilson served as Josh Jacobs’ backup versus Philly. Wilson didn’t see the field much but looked incredibly explosive on his limited number of touches. His first touch came on the Packers’ fourth drive of the night. He sliced through the Eagles’ linebackers for a 14-yard gain. Head coach Matt LaFleur stuck with him on the following two plays for gains of five and 18 yards. Wilson is purely a backup and won’t see the field enough to have stand-alone fantasy value, but he would be an instant RB2 if Jacobs were to miss any time while Lloyd is still recovering.

While Kraft’s stat line looks disappointing on the surface, his fantasy stock is on the rise after this game. Kraft drew the start and played ahead of Luke Musgrave despite entering the game as questionable because of a back issue. He ran more routes than Musgrave and saw one more target than him. Musgrave failed to catch either of his two looks in the passing game. Jordan Love left this game early with a possible ankle injury. Love missing time would delay any potential breakout for Kraft, but the second-year tight end made his case to be ranked among the TE2s whenever Love is back in the lineup.

Musgrave was easily out-snapped and out-produced by Tucker Kraft, who caught two passes for 37 yards. This was despite Kraft dealing with a back issue leading into this game. The Packers clearly view Kraft as the starter and Musgrave as a part-time backup. Fantasy managers can send Musgrave packing on the next run of waivers.

Jordan Love had his leg rolled on by a Philly defender on the third-to-last play of this game and was unable to return. Willis threw an incomplete check-down to Romeo Doubs on his first play and took a game-ending sack on his second. The Packers simply needed to get a hail mary heave out of Willis and he couldn’t help himself but take a sack. The Titans immediately abandoned Willis because of his propensity for taking sacks and nothing appears to have changed after two plays with Green Bay. If Love can’t suit up for Week 2 versus the Colts, Matt LaFleur will have a brutal decision to make between Willis and Sean Clifford, who is currently on the team’s practice squad.