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Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, who will turn 70 years old in June, was retired from coaching in 2021. Although when his star pupil Aaron Rodgers, who developed and won his first two NFL MVPs plus a Super Bowl XLV MVP award during Clements' first tenure in Green Bay from 2006-2016, recommended head coach Matt LaFleur connect with Clements, he rejoined the staff once again prior to the 2022 season. Despite Rodgers now being a New York Jet, Clements is still sticking around in Green Bay coaching quarterbacks because of the promise of Jordan Love. 

"Well, that was the initial reason I came back, a chance to win another Super Bowl, coach Aaron," Clements said on Thursday, per Sports Illustrated. "I came back and enjoyed it, enjoyed working with Jordan [Love] and Danny Etling. Any time you can coach a guy and you think you can help him, and it looks like you've helped him a little bit, that's gratifying."  

Love, the team's 2020 first-round pick who has sat behind Rodgers for his first three seasons (the exact same situation Rodgers was in with Clements in the late 2000s), showed Clements and the entire organization how much his development was helped when he came off the bench in Week 12 of the 2022 season on "Sunday Night Football" on the road at the eventual NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles. He completed six of his nine passes that night for 113 yards, including a 63-yard touchdown pass to Christian Watson. Love's second and final drive of the night culminated in a 33-yard field goal by kicker Mason Crosby, the final points in a 40-33 defeat. 

That flash Love showed that Sunday Night in Philadelphia doesn't mean he's going to do what Rodgers did when following in Brett Favre's footsteps. However, Clements could have easily gone back to relaxing as a retiree if he didn't believe Love could be an engaging, successful player to coach. So far, Clements has seen enough traits in the 24-year-old to continue his football life. 

"He can throw the ball, No. 1, which you need to do in the NFL," Clements said. "He's athletic, he can move around, buy time, and he's intelligent and he generally makes good decisions. He, at this point, just needs to play and work on processing information, making quick decisions, then getting it to the right guy. He has all the qualities that you're looking for in a guy to be successful."

Clements views a quarterback's footwork as arguably the most important part of the position's mechanics, something Love has fully embraced. 

"That's really a big aspect of playing quarterback," Clements said. "If you can try to watch a quarterback's feet and not watch anything else, you might have a good idea if it's going to be a good throw. If you can have your feet in position to make a throw -- assuming everyone in the NFL has a certain degree of talent -- you're going to have a chance to have a successful play. … He bought into it because he saw the drills we did with Aaron, saw the success Aaron had, so he worked hard at it and had some improvement."

Clements ran Rodgers, and now Love, through all potential footwork situations, from straight dropbacks and shotgun pocket throws to letting the ball rip when being pressured or passing on the run. 

"The drills we do every day, I think it translates to the drills and movements and things that you do in a game," Love said earlier this month. "It all ties in. I think Tom's a great coach, he's been doing it for a long time, and he knows what he's talking about. Any pointers he might have for me to try and elevate myself, I think it's all huge."

The only way to know how huge Clements' drills are in terms of their impact on Love is to see how they're utilized. Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich says the entirety of LaFleur's playbook is available for Love to use in Year 1 as Green Bay's starter. Now, it's on the young quarterback return their affection and prove his coaching staff and general manager Brian Gutekunst right for putting their professional lives in his hands.