Jordan Love Praises Aaron Rodgers Ahead of Packers-Steelers Preseason Opener

The Green Bay Packers have a date with their past on Thursday night. Green Bay opens the preseason against Aaron Rodgers’ Pittsburgh Steelers, reuniting the franchise with the quarterback who ran it for nearly two decades. Ahead of the game, Rodgers’ former backup-turned-successor made clear there’s no bad blood between them.

Packers quarterback Jordan Love spoke about his old mentor during a Wednesday interview session, and the gratitude in his voice was hard to miss.

“I’ve mentioned it time and time again: I have nothing but great things to say about A-Rod and my time being behind him and watching him, how much I was able to develop and grow in my process seeing him,” Love said. “The transition — I think for the organization, that’s something that’s never easy, and for the players, it’s not something that’s ever easy, either. For a guy that’s been here that long and done so many great things, those are big shoes to fill. For me, I try to focus on being my best and doing the best job I can for the team.”

Love’s comments were shared on X by Zach Jacobson of PackersDispatch.com —

Jordan Love said that he and Aaron Rodgers have talked about their painless transition of power and how it compared to the controversy-filled summer of 2008 with Brett Favre.

"I've heard different stories, Aaron talking to me about his time coming up and how he wanted his…

— Zach Jacobson (@zacobson) August 12, 2026

The Packers drafted Love in the first round back in 2020, but he sat behind Rodgers for three seasons before ever taking a regular-season snap. He didn’t formally inherit the starting job until 2023, after Green Bay traded Rodgers to the New York Jets. That waiting period shaped how Love talks about his old QB1 today — less like a guy who got passed over, more like someone who says he got a free education.

Love Says Watching Rodgers Read Defenses Shaped His Own Game

Love has been reminiscing about his years behind Rodgers for several days now, not just Wednesday. He told reporters some of the biggest lessons he picked up watching Rodgers operate at the line of scrimmage.

“I think being able to sit behind Aaron, and see just the way he was able to control the line of scrimmage, see pressures make, protection adjustments and pick stuff up, was next level, and it gave me something to build up and to see and be like, man, that’s what I want to be able to do,” Love said, according to WFRV’s Carson Fowler.

That’s not small talk. Pre-snap protection calls — identifying which blitzer is coming, sliding the line, checking into a different play — are one of the hardest parts of playing quarterback in the NFL, and they’re mostly invisible to fans watching at home. Rodgers built a Hall of Fame case doing it better than almost anyone. Love says three years of watching that up close, before he ever had to do it himself in a real game, gave him a framework he still leans on.

Rodgers, for his part, has spent this week talking openly about Green Bay too. According to ESPN, Rodgers said Wednesday he’d hoped this preseason matchup would be played at Lambeau Field instead of Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium, since it may be his last shot to play there as a visitor before he retires. He called it “100 percent” something he wanted, joking about wanting to grab dinner at a Green Bay restaurant and get in a round of golf while he was in town.

Love Has Grown Into His Own Franchise Quarterback

None of this reads as Love feeling stuck in Rodgers’ shadow anymore. He’s earned that distance. Love signed a $220 million contract extension during the 2024 offseason, the kind of deal that only gets handed to a quarterback the front office is fully committed to.

The Packers and Steelers don’t share a division and don’t meet during the regular season, which means Thursday’s preseason opener is likely Love’s last chance to line up against Rodgers on a football field — barring an unlikely Super Bowl meeting between the two teams. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET at Acrisure Stadium.

Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur has confirmed Love will play in the game, though the Packers haven’t locked in an exact snap count. It’s Love’s fourth straight season playing in his team’s preseason opener. On the other sideline, Rodgers said this week he’s willing to play if new Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy — his former coach in Green Bay — wants him out there, but he’s made no secret that he views preseason football as low-stakes. He hasn’t taken a preseason snap since 2023.

There’s a real storyline underneath the pleasantries. Rodgers has already said this is expected to be his final NFL season. For Love, beating the team’s old franchise quarterback — even in a preseason game that means nothing in the standings — carries a little extra weight. For Rodgers, closing out his career without ever playing a road game at Lambeau is clearly something he’s still processing, even three years after the trade that sent him to New York and eventually to Pittsburgh.