Watson’s injury appears to be more serious than Love’s
The Green Bay Packers lost two significant offensive players on Sunday against the Chicago Bears: quarterback Jordan Love and receiver Christian Watson.
It was initially believed that Love went down with a hand injury, as he was seen shaking his throwing hand wrist and yanking on the fingers on that hand, but the Packers later announced that he was questionable to return to the game with an elbow injury. While Love didn’t return, he was seen warming up throughout the game, including coming out of halftime and after a series when his backup, Malik Willis, appeared to injure the thumb on his throwing hand.
According to Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, Love was cleared to return to action against Chicago, but the coaching staff decided not to put him in that position. “There was a chance that he was going to have to go back in,” said LaFleur. The NFL’s third quarterback rule, which allows an extra quarterback to enter the game while inactive, is only permitted if a club carries three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. Love and Willis are the Packers’ only quarterbacks on the active roster, as Sean Clifford — the team’s 2023 backup — is currently on the practice squad.
Love confirmed that he could have reentered the game, but said that he wasn’t 100 percent in his press conference. When he was asked whether he felt good or not about his odds of playing against the Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs, though, he stated, “Yes.”
The Watson situation seems more serious. Before Love’s injury, Watson went down with a non-contact knee injury opposite of the knee that had him listed as questionable for this game. Watson was able to initially walk off the field under his own power but was later carted to the locker room.
LaFleur said after the game that he’s not “super confident” in Watson’s situation, but it’s clearly never a good thing when a player is carted off the sideline. The head coach also mentioned that receiver Romeo Doubs’ illness, which landed him on the injury report on Saturday, is not a long-term issue, but was a factor in keeping Watson active on Sunday. He expects that Doubs will be able to play against the Eagles, but wasn’t in “shape to play today.”