Aaron Rodgers Out For Matchup With Chiefs, Jordan Love To Start

The Green Bay Packers faced availability challenges within their receiving corps for their Week 8 game with the Cardinals, with Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling all out for the Thursday Night tilt with Arizona.

Despite all of that, the Pack squeaked out a 24-21 win. As Lazard and Valdes-Scantling return to practice for this week, it looks like Green Bay will be down their starting quarterback.

NFL insider Ian Rapoport tweeted news Wednesday morning that Aaron Rodgers would be sidelined for their Week 9 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, reporting Jordan Love would get the start on Sunday.

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The reason for Rodgers not playing? The same reason for last week's absence of Lazard (following contact policy for non-vaccinated players after contact with Davante Adams) and the ongoing absence of Adams (who continues to recover from infection) - COVID-19. Rodgers has reportedly tested positive for COVID, forcing him out of the game, and giving Love his first regular season start.

NFL.com reports that Rodgers, who is unvaccinated, returned a positive COVID-19 test. Due to his nonvaccinated status, the quick decision was made to sideline Rodgers and look to Love for at least this week's game.

As mentioned in Rapoport's tweet, Love was a first round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. We all remember the drama through the offseason with Aaron Rodgers, with the team preparing to make Love their starter into the season if things didn't work out with #12. Of course, Rodgers and the team worked things out, and the rest is history.

Now Love will get his first start in an NFL game, who made his NFL game debut against the New Orleans Saints Week 1 this year in relief of Rodgers. He took 15 snaps at the end of a brutal 38-3 loss. In that game, he was 5-of-7 for 68 yards. The following week, he did take 3 snaps in the following week's game against the Detroit Lions, ultimately earning a stat line of -3 rushing yards in that game.

With the Packers returning Lazard from COVID protocol and Marquez Valdes-Scantling from injured reserve, Love will at least have a couple of higher-profile targets going into Sunday's game. On Monday, the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported Matt LaFleur was hoping for a rough return date for Davante Adams of Thursday, penciling him in for Sunday's game as well. This is, of course, tentative and all based on how his recovery goes.

The Love-led Packers travel to Kansas City for a 3:25 matchup against the 4-4 Chiefs on Sunday afternoon.