I’m guessing the above Good Place-Jason gif buffet is pretty niche, but if you did watch ‘The Good Place,’ it’s probably one of the first things you thought of when the news broke at the Packers signed Bortles to a 1 year deal yesterday. Also: You should watch ‘The Good Place.’ Add it to the list of shows that people tell you to watch that you’re never going to watch.
Related: Packer Twitter was FREAKING OUT over the move to bring Bortles in. Plenty of fans taking it as a sign that the Rodgers drama is real and the Packers are making moves to cover themselves in case Rodgers really doesn’t show up to camp/retires/is traded.
Two things: #1) The Packers needed a veteran backup anyway. No chance they were going to go into training camp with just Jordan Love and Aaron Rodgers on the roster. Bortles isn’t all that old, has had some success, and has run a version of LaFleur’s offense before when he was in LA. #2) If Bortles is our insurance to losing the best player in the league over hurt feelings, then we are already up sh– creek. If Blake Bortles is starting for the Packers in Week 1 because Rodgers is gone and Love isn’t ready, I’ll eat my hat.
Double related: The full schedule dropped last night!
1 Monday Night game, 3 Sunday Night games, a Thursday night game, a Christmas Day game, and 5 3:25pm national TV game windows. I realize that there are flex options at the end of the season, but if I were to infer anything from this schedule about whether or not the NFL thinks Rodgers will be in Green Bay, I’d say they’re banking on it. The Packers are always a ratings draw on some level because the fan base is so passionate, but that amount of national LOVE (golf swing!) can’t be centered around a team expected to have Jordan Love as their starting quarterback. Maybe Blake Bortles, but not Love.
PS: I’ve seen a lot of record predictions floating around Twitter since the schedule release, and I have to say, it’s going to take me a LONG time to get used to what records look like with 17 games. 16 games was so perfect. 8-8, 9-7, 10-6, etc. I saw a prediction that had the Packers at 7-10 if Jordan Love is the starter. 7-10 looks and feels wrong as a football record. Join me next week for another edition of Old Man Yells at Cloud.
