If the Weekly is a little late today (it shouldn't be too behind schedule), it will be because of extensive reworking of the Green Bay-Kansas City game preview. The anticipated Aaron Rodgers-Patrick Mahomes tilt won't happen, with Rodgers testing positive for COVID. He's been ruled out of the game, and Jordan Love will make his first career start.
Rodgers is reportedly unvaccinated (though he apparently indicated he was), and the league's COVID protocols mean he won't necessarily be available in Week 10, either. For now we'll focus on this week, and what his absence might mean for the Green Bay offense. With Love having thrown all of 7 regular-season passes, while mopping up the team's blowout loss to the Saints in Week 1, it ain't good.
Rodgers has started every game the last three seasons, so you need to go back to 2017 to find a stretch of games he missed. Brett Hundley started 9 contests and played most of the 10th for the team that year. It's a few years, different quarterback and a different coaching staff, but here's how that went.
| GREEN BAY'S LAST 10 WITHOUT RODGERS (2017) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Res | Com | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Sk |
| at Min. | L 10-23 | 18 | 33 | 157 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| N.O. | L 17-26 | 12 | 25 | 87 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Det. | L 17-30 | 26 | 38 | 245 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| at Chi. | W 23-16 | 18 | 25 | 212 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Balt. | L 0-23 | 21 | 36 | 239 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| at Pit. | L 28-31 | 17 | 26 | 245 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| T.B. | W 26-20 | 13 | 22 | 84 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| at Cle. | W 27-21 | 35 | 46 | 265 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Min. | L 0-16 | 17 | 40 | 130 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| at Det. | L 11-35 | 14 | 24 | 172 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
The Packers went 3-7 in those games, passed for more than 245 yards just once, and threw 9 TDs and 12 interceptions.
Love's not Hundley; he's the team's first-round pick a year ago. The Kansas City defense is pretty bad, and Green Bay will doubtless emphasize the run. Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon -- those guys should be very busy.
But Kansas City will certainly sell out to stop the run, doing all they can to force the Packers to beat them through the air. Can Love do it? All we've got is some preseason action (he appeared in two games in August, throwing for 122 and 149 yards, with 1 TD and 1 interception) to go on. And the team's faith in him in the 2020 draft.
--Andy Richardson