Jordan Love on Davante Adams, Tee Higgins and Packers’ Receiver Corps

Jordan Love loves the Green Bay Packers’ young receivers, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t welcome the addition of a high-profile veteran.

What if the Packers were to trade for Davante Adams?

“I’m not mad about it,” Love said on Up & Adams at the Super Bowl on Friday.

Or how about signing Tee Higgins?

“Tee’s a phenomenal player,” Love said on ESPN.

After a red-hot finish to the 2023 season in which the team’s top young receivers all looked like breakout candidates, the Packers’ lack of a proven No. 1 receiver was one of the early story lines of training camp. Would one of those players emerge as a No. 1? Was it even necessary?

The conversation made coach Matt LaFleur “want to vomit.”

After the season, the lack of a proven No. 1 receiver is a story line again. It would have been, anyway, after the passing game failed to meet expectations in 2024, but the spotlight was cranked up after running back Josh Jacobs said “we need a guy that’s proven to be [a No.] 1.”

Did the team’s choice to not add an established playmaker work?

“For what we have, the guys we have in there in that receiver room, yes,” Love told Kay Adams. “That’s the same group we had the year before. And it works. We have a great group. There’s definitely areas that we need to focus on and improve on to get better and kind of get over the hump that we hit this year.

“Just get more consistent, focus on the details. But I love those guys. We got a great group. I definitely think that is a group that, if we keep growing and building this thing together, we can do some special things. No one has reached our full potential yet on our offense. So, there’s a lot of room for growth and a lot of areas we need to improve on.”

That said, Love said he’d “definitely” welcome a veteran presence at receiver because of how Jacobs impacted the offense and Xavier McKinney impacted the defense.

“When you add those good players, it’s only going to help our offense,” Love said. However, he continued, “It’s got to be the right guys, the right fit for the group we have and it’s all about the mindset. You want guys that’s going to come in and want to win and want to push the envelope and do all the extra things, like Josh Jacobs did for us.”

One obvious target would be Adams, who was a five-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro during eight seasons in Green Bay.

Before the 2022 draft, the Packers traded him to the Raiders, who traded him to the Jets in October. Adams could be on the trade block again.

While Adams and Love didn’t work much together in Green Bay in 2020 and 2021, Adams has spoken highly of Love during his two years as the Packers’ starter.

Adams has recorded five consecutive 1,000-yard seasons; the Packers haven’t even had a 900-yard receiver since Adams was traded.

“You see it every week, the playmaking ability that he has,” Love said. “When I was with him, he might have dropped three passes in the years that I saw him. So, he’s just a phenomenal receiver. Creates so much separation off the line, and that’s his game – killing guys off the line and making crazy catches and making big-time plays. He’s a phenomenal receiver.”

Ultimately, it’s out of Love’s hands. He’s not the general manager. He has no control over whether Adams would be interested in a reunion – or if he’ll even be available, for that matter – or if Higgins will have any desire to play for the Packers.

So, Love was smart to not say too much, because there’s a decent chance the only noteworthy addition at the position will be a draft pick who will have to fight his way up the depth chart.

“I’m a competitor. It doesn’t matter who we got, you know what I mean?” Love said. “We’re going to find a way. That’s the beauty of the game. Obviously, every year, it’s new teams. Faces change, you got a new draft class coming in, so you got to find ways with the guys you have in that building to do some great things and to come together and gel.

“So, like I said, I love that group. They do some phenomenal things. And if we add a guy, we add a guy. If we don’t, we don’t.”