NFC Notes: Jordan Love, Cardinals, Packers

Cardinals

• Field Yates notes Cardinals recently claimed WR Elijah Higgins had four other teams put in waiver claims on him including the Colts, Titans, Commanders, and Packers.
• Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon said they are keeping recently claimed TE Elijah Higgins at his position instead of switching him to receiver, per Howard Balzer. 
• Cardinals hosted CB Divaad Wilson for a visit. (Aaron Wilson)

Packers

• Packers HC Matt LaFleur said they plan on managing OT David Bakhtiari on a “week-to-week” basis throughout the season: “I think it’s going to be fluid. I think we’ve learned that by now,” per Ryan Wood. 
• The Dolphins and Packers were both willing to give RB Jonathan Taylor a contract that made him among the highest paid running backs in the league. (Josina Anderson)

Jordan Love

Packers GM Brian Gutekunst has been encouraged by QB Jordan Love‘s development through the preseason.

“There’s things that not everybody sees but little mistakes that I think he’s going to really grow from,” Gutekunst said, via ProFootballTalk. “And then there’s things that maybe didn’t affect the play. And there’s successes that he had, too, that gives him confidence to move forward. So, I think it was just really, really good. When you put those guys out there, sometimes you’re a little bit — we haven’t done that a lot around here. But I think it was such an important thing to get out of it clean where he played really well, I think that was a real benefit to our offense. So, I’m excited about it. But I don’t know if I really learned a ton. I think it was just really good for him and our offense.”

Gutekunst thinks Love has shown progress from when they drafted him at No. 26 overall in 2020 and pointed out Green Bay took time to build after transitioning to Aaron Rodgers from Brett Favre.

“I think there’s certain things you see and you see him grow and you say, ‘OK, he handles much differently than maybe he did a year ago, two years ago,’” Gutekunst said. “But the quarterback position, I would argue, is one of the hardest, if not the hardest position to play in all of team sports. I’ve only been through it the one time, seeing it up close when we went from Brett [Favre] to Aaron [Rodgers]. But even when they’re able to go out there and perform at a high level, to be able to perform at a high level and then to learn how to win — there’s time that that takes. I think when Aaron went into his first two years, I think midway through that second year, we were like 10-14 or something like that. So, it just takes a little bit of time.