Jordan Love played a competitive football game for the first time in 603 days on Saturday night. The wait for his second NFL preseason game won't be quite as long, but it may not come this week.
Love suffered a right shoulder injury late in the first half of the Packers' first preseason game against the Texans. He was strip-sacked and felt a strain in his shoulder. He played one more series during the game but didn't throw another pass.
ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that an MRI of Love's shoulder came back clean, and the injury isn't expected to be serious. But could it keep Love out for the Packers-Jets game?
"Potentially, yeah," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said, per ESPN's Rob Demovsky.
MORE: Jordan Love impresses in preseason debut with Packers
And even if Love is able to get back on the field, he may still miss some valuable practice time.
"I think he's doing fine," LaFleur said of Love. "[The injury is] something, though, that is significant enough where he could miss a couple days of practice. We'll see where he's at at the end of the week, but we're going to kind of take it day to day."
Love's injury will likely prompt the Packers to sign another quarterback. They have three on their roster right now in Love, Aaron Rodgers and Kurt Benkert, but they aren't planning on playing Rodgers during the preseason. Blake Bortles spent part of the offseason with the Packers, so perhaps they'll re-sign him.
The Packers will surely be disappointed if their second-year quarterback can't suit up on Saturday. They're hoping to get Love — who impressed during his preseason debut, completing 12 of 17 passes for 122 yards and a touchdown — plenty of action this preseason after his rookie preseason was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"He did a nice job," LaFleur said of Love's debut, per NFL.com's Nick Shook. "What we were really looking for is just going out there with command, making sure our operation was clean, making sure that he was decisive and on point with his decision-making. I thought by and large it was pretty solid.
"If there's one thing to just encourage him to continue to do is 'Hey man, you've got to let that sucker rip. When you see it, trust what you see. Don't worry about being perfect. Don't worry about throwing a perfect, on-target pass. Usually when you do that, you're not as accurate. You've got to let the ball go.' But by and large, I think he did a really nice job."
