I agree Cory, but that’s not how MLF works. He’ll rest Love even if it costs them a Win in Minnesota. It’ll then cost them a Win in the first playoff game because Love will need a few quarters to get back in sync. Losing is now acceptable in Green Bay as long as they can justify it.

Nope. Risking another injury to the guy you claim is "the focal point of a team" in a meaningless, EoS game is dumb in all caps.

I like the odds of JoLo against their WC foe way better than I do his proxy should he get banged up in the finale.

I don't think Love is a 'scratch'.
I believe he's the back up.
Who knows, i could be wrong.
Like that one time back in 2017.

If i was going to play Head coach, i think i'd play Love 2 or 3 series and call it a day.

There is a difference between resting guys who are banged up and resting people because you are scared. Has LeFleur ever been the not scared type? MLF almost always is the scared and timid type. He occasionally has bursts of aggression to try and make up for it but ends up as the same guy anyway. He is a contradiction. He preaches about being physical and running the ball but that doesn't jive with the personality he displays. If you are a tough, running type of team you show that throughout the team. You have solid hard hitting special teams. You stop the run on defense. You run a tight ship and are disciplined. Is this what we see? Sadly no. We are the Cincinnati Bengals with a self imposed governor slowing us down. If MLF would just lean into what he is we would be a team with a high scoring, fun offense and a risk taking all or nothing defense. Instead we are stuck in no mans land worrying about getting hurt. Sacre' bleu' LeFleur!

No, given our roster health. Tom needs to rest. Rhyan has a bad knee. Walker has played every snap essentially since October. Those players need rest too.

In no sane world do we put Love out there against the Flores blitzes or forego the chance to get key players healthy when, let’s face it, we need the best we can get from our OL from here on.

Further more, we have depth players that haven’t played. Monk being an example (Jennings being hit in the neck unfortunately won’t join him). Perhaps Morgan gets his first look at LT as well and that they elevate a OL with Jennings out. Did we learn nothing from the Glover/Telfort fiasco last year?

Beyond the OL, Love won’t have perhaps most of his regular targets. I can’t believe they will play Watson and Doubs is another who has played virtually every snap. Normally, we’d run with Willis in this situation, but he needs to heal in case he’s needed as well.

If one really wants maximum recuperation, the best way is not to have a player suit up and thus not prepare physically or mentally for game day. As much as possible that’s what we need to do for key individuals and walking wounded starters where we can.

Tom and, in our current situation, Rhyan are that. That ends the discussion for me, though the absence of Watson and probably Doubs and perhaps Reed also suggests that the chances are Love wouldn’t regain. Much meaningful rhythm anyway.

I suspect this is another heavy work day for Wilson etcetera: the last meeting was even with Love. I suspect this would have been again anyway if the game still had meaning, not a heavy passing game plan.

C'mon Cory. Love has played all year; Love has practiced for the past two weeks (and reportedly looked good). You think he "needs" to play in this game to be sharp?
He has been throwing for two weeks! I don't think playing for a couple hours would magically change his "feathery touch" or "rhythm."

I would play Love for the first half and have him knock off the rust before the Packers first playoff game. Since he was injured early in the Bears game means that Love will not have played in a month by the time he starts the playoff game next week. The Packers cannot afford for Love to take a quarter or more to knock off the rust from not having played.

Beyond that what kind of message does it send to the rest of the team especially the players who will play against the Vikings?

Nothing against Tune but I doubt that we can win this week's game which means the Packers are going into the playoffs on a 0-4 losing streak. So much for momentum or being a hot team going into the playoffs. I'm fine with resting the players who need to recover from nagging injuries but Love has cleared the concussion protocol so unless he has some other unmentioned injury the Packers should give him some snaps in a live action game and let him get some rhythm back before the first playoff game. Thanks, Since '61

How many teams are playing their Franchise QB's in meaningless games?

From ESPN:

"L.A. might be locked into the No. 6 seed before it kicks off Sunday against the Cardinals, but coach Sean McVay said his starters will play in Week 18. It's a departure from his philosophy for the past two seasons, but after back-to-back losses, McVay said his starters need to be out there. "We need to play," McVay said. "We need to play better football. So, I don't know what the consequences are in those different types of things, but we got to play better."

Winning the game is more important than playing Love. Now is that going to happen ? Maybe or maybe not. Let’s finish the season and be has healthy as possible for the playoffs. Go Pack Go!!!

Why play him

I would rather him coming in fresh than playing him with starters out.

It’s like riding a bike

READ MY LIPS

5-3. at home is the difference.

FOR a home playoff GAMES …

.

I think we still win with baby Micah
and

Tune. Tune going to surprise some folks

Off topic, but there is a really interesting article on APC about Cole Van Lanen. A former sixth round draft choice of the Packers, Van Lanen was signed to a three year, $51MM contract by Jacksonville to be their starting left tackle. This was after he displaced Jacksonville's second round draft choice at LT this year and entrenched himself as a quality starter.

There has been much discussion on CHTV lately about Gute's ability to draft O-linemen versus Lafleur/Stenovich/Butkus's ability to develop O-linemen. I think Van Lanen puts a pretty heavy thumb on the scale in favor of Gute versus LaFleur. LaFleur and company buried Van Lanen on the depth chart and it certainly looked like he was going nowhere in Green Bay. Jacksonville offered Gute a draft pick for a player his coaching staff didn't seem interested in, so he moved Van Lanen. Now he is a starting LT on a playoff team.

Gute finds quality O-linemen all over the third day of the draft (Tom in the fourth round, Walker in the seventh, Van Lanen in the sixth). How would the Packer O-line look today if they had Van Lanen available? Gute needs an O-line coaching staff that will have the patience and eye for talent to develop all them. Not ignore them (Van Lanen) or rotate them (Rhyan and Morgan) or play them out of position (Morgan and Belton).

The difference between not playing in the preseason and not playing in the last two games of the regular season is that there has been 15 games in between for Love to work with the offense.
With almost a full season of play thus far, Love should be fine missing the last two games.
I still agree somewhat with Cory that it might be good for Love to get some reps against the Vikes to shake off the rust, but I think it's better for Love to get some further rest and to avoid the risk of injury. At this point in the season, I think practice should be sufficient to get Love ready for the playoffs, as well as other guys who would do better with a week off.
Let's use this last game of the regular season as a preparation for the first game of the postseason. Let's see if we can plug in some subs who could help us get some wins in January.
Play all out against the Vikes with whomever we have on the field; but I would rest some guys against the Vikes as needed to go all in for the playoffs.
I agree that success in the playoffs this season is a longshot, but also believe that the Packers can beat any team in the NFL.
Let's recall the glory of 2010 to go for it all in the playoffs of 2025, one game at a time.

Why do we hear that da Pack are so young a team, as being a negative...then some talking headz say it's a young man's sport???

Put down the Grape Nutz and let's eat some Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cereal come playoffs!

Pantz watching the movie Antz

Sorry, personal note here:

Before I joined CHTV, I felt like a loser and unintelligent. Now, fast forward to today: I feel love, respected, quite intelligent and a super duper winner.

Thank you all for helping change my narrative.

Love and hugs,

Burp

I don't think choosing to allow your franchise QB to heal from a brain injury is playing scared. It's wise to let him have another week of non-contact. Just because he passed the concussion protocol doesn't mean his brain if fully healed. There's nothing to be gained by having Love play against the Vikings.

"Love will be showing signs of rust. His feathery touch will likely be off and his deep ball won’t be the same."

Hmmm...So it's already a foregone conclusion Love will be rusty. His touch will be a bit off as will his deep ball. Funny thing, or maybe not so funny is I actually agree with that from Cory.

Question...Has anyone ever noticed when Willis comes in his "Touch" is there and he throws a BETTER deep ball than I ever seen Love throw.

Love is the starter, I'm not one of the suggesting a QB competition. But whether it's Gute or a new GM next season they might want to think long and hard about trying to KEEP Willis.

I have no idea what other teams will offer him this offseason but considering Love has missed games the last few seasons already, someone like Tune or Clifford CAN'T be a backup to Love.

Just saying...

Devil's Advocate:

Let's play Love and encourage some quasi-dirty player, like A Booker, to hit him in the head with his helmet---and re-injure a 2-week-old concussion, take him out of a meaningless game & Play-offs. And, let's not forget he is playing behind weak OL back-ups.

PFF ranked the Packer's "A" team OL at 26th--- 6 days ago.

Love is not playing because MLF doesn't trust this make-shift OL nor the 'real' one-I agree with him.
No one wants to talk about the failure of the backbone of the Packers-the OL (and DL)

This game is similar to an exhibition game. It won't affect the Packers standings in the playoffs, and it would put players the team needs to be on the field some rest before the second season begins. Will Love be "rusty" if he doesn't play? Maybe. It might even take him a series or two to shake that off. But, if he were to get hurt in any way, standing behind a makeshift OL, that would be devastating.
It would be very nice to enter the post-season on a winning streak (looking at the Ravens), but the risk is simply too great, versus the possible reward. It is very unlikely this is not the Packers year, which leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. Time to regroup, reassess, and possibly move on from a HC who doesn't seem to have the ability to get this team over the finish line.

Let's play the Tune and see what happens.
The Szotman

Avoiding a catastrophic injury, such as the Watson injury in the '24 finale vs the Bears, is the reason GB rests a majority of the starters in '25.

If there were any important strategic advantages to be gained by winning, of course the starters would be playing.

But there aren't.

I'd love to sweep the hated Vikings, but I'd much rather go into the Wild Card game with a full, healthy squad of what's left of the starters.

I watched some college highlights of Tune, and it looked like he has a good arm, quick release and he can run, too.

At the least, he's probably no worse than Vikings' McCarthy.

I'll be glued to the TV watching all the young guys showing what they can do when given a great opportunity.

It'd be great to beat the 'mini-Scrotes' with our backups.

Packers already secured the playoff spot. According to so many Packers fans, the only thing that matters is winning the Superbowl.. so that means this Sunday vs. the Vikings would be literally a meaningless game.

What you have in a truly meaningless game that I haven't seen mentioned here is an extremely, extremely rare opportunity for a #3 QB to get an entire game of regular season action on film to assess.. going into a 2026 season that will likely be without Malik Willis on the roster.

We're also talking about a Malik Willis who is banged up and may need to be relied upon in emergency during the playoffs.. So why not get him healthy as possible, as well?

I do believe there is something to be said about not wanting to roll into the post season on a potential 4-game losing streak and playing Love gives you the best chance to see that to fruition.. but that being said, consider the potential advantage in preparation if Love isn't asked to play vs. the Vikings this week: Love could have spent the entire week studying nothing but Eagles tape the last 7 days, which potentially means he'd have two full weeks of prep to go into match up vs. the Eagles. If the Packers end up facing the Bears, a division rival we're obviously more familiar with, he then shifts gears back to a "regular" week of prep for the playoff game vs. the Bears.

Between the invaluable opportunity to evaluate Tune and potentially decide whether or not its worth retaining him and spending valuable snaps on him during training camp or finding 2 or 3 brand new QBs to try to coach up from scratch in 2026, being able to rest Malik Willis' arm to get healthy just in case he's needed in a playoff run, and allowing Jordan Love to get a full extra week of prep for a potential playoff game vs. the Eagles, I think the approach that the Packers seem to be taking is the best one.

Besides, it'll be fun if the Packers manage to dog walk the Vikes with a completely untested QB at the helm.
I wouldn't be upset if they decided to play Love the entire game, either, but I have no issues with them playing Tune the entire game win or lose. There's a lot of value to be had from taking this approach.