Week 18 is officially upon us, and your Green Bay Packers are playoff-bound! Seeing how they are coming off a three-game losing streak, you’re forgiven if this maybe isn’t the most joyous feeling heading into the postseason – but at least their Super Bowl hopes are technically still alive.
However slim they might be, you can’t win if you don’t get in. Get in, the Packers did. They are officially locked into the seventh seed in the NFC field, making Week 18 a meaningless contest against the Minnesota Vikings.
While I won’t cover the entire list of who should sit and who should play – everyone’s favorite topic when approaching these types of games – it honestly never seems like a coach can choose the right answer. Start your starters, and someone gets hurt, making winning in the playoffs more difficult. Sit everyone and get boat-raced in the first round of the playoffs, and everyone will be upset and say they were rusty.
I wouldn’t want to be a head coach in that situation. However, there is an interesting situation when it comes to who to play and who not to: the quarterback position. Who should start and play on Sunday?
As if we needed any reassurance, Matt LaFleur reiterated that Jordan Love is this team’s starting quarterback. Even after backup Malik Willis shone again against the Baltimore Ravens in a spot start, LaFleur was asked about who his starter moving forward was going to be.
“It’s pretty clear that Jordan is our franchise quarterback,” he said. “When he’s healthy, he is going to be our starter. So, I just want to squash that.”
So we know that when Love is back and ready to go, he’ll be under center for the playoffs. It sounds less certain that Love will be playing this Sunday, though.
“We just want to get him through the protocol,” LaFleur said when asked about his plans for Week 18.
It’s pretty safe to say No. 10 won’t be the one taking snaps for the Packers, nor should he be. Coming off a concussion, Love should rest for an additional week and ensure he is 100% ready to go against either the Chicago Bears or the Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay’s first-round potential matchups. There’s no reason to expose him to any unnecessary hits against one of the most aggressive defenses in the league.
The biggest argument for resting players is the risk of rust from not playing over multiple weeks. However, I don’t think that’s much of a concern with Love. He has played a lot of football over his three seasons as Green Bay’s starting quarterback. Due to his injury woes last year, he has experience getting himself ready after several-week layoffs.
If he gets a full week of practice, that should be all he needs to get ready for the Wild Card round. Love was third in the MVP rankings before his concussion. The Packers have overcome myriad injuries this season, but they probably can’t win a playoff game without Love. Get Love healthy and don’t even think twice about it.
That brings the options down to Willis and practice squad quarterback Clayton Tune. Willis has looked like a starting quarterback when Green Bay needed to play him. The Packers would probably like their chances in pretty much any game Willis starts for them.
That’s such a luxury to have in a backup quarterback. Usually, this would be a no-brainer on who starts this game, except for the fact that Willis is dealing with a shoulder injury. Willis first injured it in the Bears game two weeks ago on the final play of regulation when he was slammed into the turf. He managed to finish that game and start and play most of the following week against the Ravens despite not practicing much.
He re-aggravated it on a throw to Christian Watson in the fourth quarter and left the game. LaFleur said later that he could have come back in if the game wasn’t out of reach, but he ultimately didn’t.
With Willis out, we saw Tune get his first action with the Packers, and it did not go well. To his credit, on his pass attempt to Bo Melton that got intercepted, Melton dropped the ball, and it fell into the waiting arms of Marlon Humphrey. Still, it wasn’t a great throw.
If the Packers need to turn to Tune for the start against Brian Flores’ defense, it could get pretty ugly. In his lone start in the NFL, Tune went 11 for 20 for 58 yards with two interceptions, while taking seven sacks and losing one fumble. He has a rushing touchdown in the NFL. Still, if he starts on Sunday, we can probably guess the outcome.
If I’m in LaFleur’s seat, I think the Packers should start Malik Willis, assuming he is healthy enough to play. When asked about his injury and leaving the game on Saturday, he said he was more spooked and wanted to get checked rather than risk re-injuring anything.
It probably comes down more to pain management. You wouldn’t want to go into the playoffs on a four-game losing streak by losing to the Vikings. If Love doesn’t play, you’ll still want to give yourself the best chance possible.
One could argue that with Willis all but gone this offseason, you’d want to see what Clayton Tune could do. He might be the favorite to be the backup next season, but I think the Packers should invest in a quarterback in the draft instead, which would make that moot. Even so, if the game is out of reach late either way, throw Tune in there for some snaps if you really want to see what you have.
Still, Malik Willis gives the Packers the best chance to win, not Tune, and they should start him on Sunday.