NFC Notes: Jordan Love, Lions, Packers, Panthers

Lions

• Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown isn’t leaning on last year’s success and is hoping to take another step forward this season: “I feel like you’re only as good as your last year. This is a new year. We’re all at zero. I have zero catches. Zero touchdowns. I’m the same as everyone else. So, I feel like you’ve got to restart each year.” (Eric Woodyard)
• Lions OC Ben Johnson on rookie TE Sam LaPorta: “He’s earned the right to be in that first-team huddle with Jared and that offensive line.” (Colton Pouncy)

Packers

Packers president Mark Murphy said it will take about half a season for the team to know whether or not QB Jordan Love can be a long-term starter for them.

“I’m comparing it a little bit to Aaron’s first year as a starter, yeah, I’d say at least half a season to know,” Murphy said, via ESPN. “And I think even though we ended up with a losing record that year, but we saw enough of Aaron to know that we had something special.”

Murphy credited GM Brian Gutekunst for selecting Love in the first round of 2020’s draft which put them in a position to remain successful after the departure of QB Aaron Rodgers.

“He was highly criticized when he drafted Jordan Love,” Murphy said. “That draft, though, now put us in a position where we feel we can be competitive in the long term.”

Rodgers departure signaled a youth movement which has reinvented the energy within the building.

“I think that’s one of the reasons people are excited, because there’s, I don’t know if I’d call it uncertainty, but we’re a much different team than we were last year,” Murphy explained. “We’ll be younger, but I’m optimistic. I obviously have a lot of confidence in Matt. I think our defense probably will have to carry us a little bit in the early season.”

Murphy explained that with Love now under center, HC Matt LaFleur‘s true offense may finally show.

“I think, offensively, you’re going to see probably a little bit more of Matt’s true offense,” Murphy said. “Obviously, when you have a great quarterback like Aaron and somebody who’s been in the league as long as he has, we gave him the flexibility to change plays and get in and out of things that really helped, but I would anticipate a strong running game and play-action off of that.”

• According to Packers VP Paul Baniel, there are 5,204,625 shares of stock in the team held by 538,967 shareholders. (Rob Demovsky)

Panthers

Panthers HC Frank Reich said the team views TE Hayden Hurst as a player who can do it all at the position.

“Yeah, Hayden looked good,” Reich said, via Panthers Wire. “He was limited, right? Much of the offseason. And he’s got a lot of energy, juice, passion. You feel it out there. He’s a versatile player. We really see Hayden as a guy who can do it all at that position.”

Reich added that the team is very excited about the tight end room and said each brings a different set of skills to the table.

“That whole room, though, we’re excited about,” he added. “They all have a role. We like that. They each have certain strengths that we can emphasize and continue to talk to that room about we have big plans for them. But we gotta roll it out day by day.”