Jordan Love might return from his Week 1 MCL injury sooner than anticipated.
In fact, the Green Bay Packers quarterback has a “50-50” chance of playing against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday (1 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app), ESPN reported Thursday. Love practiced on Wednesday, marking the first time since he suffered an MCL sprain in the Packers’ Week 1 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. He was officially listed as a limited participant.
Following Wednesday’s practice, Love told reporters that he’s “feeling a lot better.” However, he said he’s taking his knee injury “day by day” and didn’t reveal what his status for Sunday’s game would be.
“The trainers are seeing everything I’m doing, and they’re not gonna put me out there unless they feel confident that I can protect myself,” Love said. “But at the same time, that’s why it’s good to get some practice reps in and get that feel of what it’s like again.”
Whether Love plays on Sunday, his fast progress is a bit of a surprise. When he went down with the MCL sprain, it was initially reported that he would miss at least three weeks and could be out for as many as six weeks.
Love admitted Wednesday that the thought that his season could be over crossed his mind when he suffered the injury, describing it as “very painful.”
“When it happened, it was one of those things that was very scary,” Love said. “Not knowing what happened. I had a torn meniscus in college, but I’ve never had an ACL [injury] or anything like that. I didn’t know what that felt like. I didn’t know what it might be. So, a lot of thoughts.”
Love was seen wearing a protective brace during Wednesday’s practice, a sign that he still isn’t 100 percent. Packers coach Matt LaFleur didn’t say if Love was working on a rep count, either. But Love knows that practice alone might not fully prepare him to play in a game whenever he returns.
“There’s just nothing like when it’s live bullets, you’re in the game and that rush is real, so there’s a lot of things I might not experience before I get back in the game,” Love said.
At the very least, it does seem like Love has a good chance of playing in Week 4 against the Minnesota Vikings. That matchup has become an important early-season clash, with Minnesota jumping out to a surprising 2-0 start in the post-Kirk Cousins era. Green Bay also has games against the Los Angeles Rams, Arizona Cardinals and Houston Texans in the following three weeks. Ideally, the Packers would want to have the quarterback they made one of the highest-paid players in the NFL this offseason able to start each of those games.
First, the Packers have to get through the Titans. While Tennessee is 0-2 and Green Bay was able to beat the Indianapolis Colts without Love last week, the Titans are familiar with the quarterback who would start in place of Love if he can’t go on Sunday. Malik Willis was drafted by the Titans in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft, but was traded to the Packers for a seventh-round pick in August.
Willis isn’t viewing Sunday’s matchup as a possible revenge game, though.
“I could care less, man,” Willis said. “I think I got paid the whole time I was there. I’m more than blessed for the opportunities given me. They brought me into this league, whether those guys are there or not. That organization, they took a shot on me. … They did a great job by me.”
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