• Rob DemovskyJan 7, 2026, 05:10 PM ET

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      Rob Demovsky is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Green Bay Packers. He has covered the Packers since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2013. Demovsky is a two-time Wisconsin Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the NSSA.

GREEN BAY, Wis. — When the Green Bay Packers kick off Saturday’s NFC wild-card game against the Chicago Bears, it will have been three weeks since Jordan Love last took a snap in a game.

Love left with a concussion in the second quarter of a Week 16 overtime loss to the Bears at Soldier Field. He then missed the next two games to close out the season.

Despite it being the longest in-season layoff of his three seasons as the starter, it doesn’t feel that long to Love.

“No, it doesn’t really,” Love said Wednesday. “I think still just practicing all week, staying locked in. Obviously suited up last week, was ready to go. But yeah, you know, it’s been a couple weeks, but no it doesn’t feel like that, just staying with it in practice.”

Packers quarterback Jordan Love hasn’t played since exiting with a concussion in the second quarter of a Week 16 loss to the Bears. It is Love’s longest in-season layoff in his three seasons as starter. Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

Love never actually missed any practice time following the concussion, although he was limited for several days and did not clear the protocol until last week, when he was active for the regular-season finale against Minnesota but was held out to help prevent another injury going into the playoffs.

When asked specifically whether he’s worried about rust, Love said he didn’t have any concerns.

“He looked good,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Love’s practices the last couple of weeks. “He had, I would say, a pretty normal workload, so he looked good.”

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Love isn’t the only player to have gotten some time off near the end of the season. Running back Josh Jacobs, who had been trying to play through a knee injury since mid-November, was one of more than a dozen starters who did not play against the Vikings, and he believes it paid off.

“My body coming into this game is the best I’ve felt probably in the last six weeks,” Jacobs said. “So, it’s pretty good. Pretty good situation to be in.”

The seventh-seeded Packers (9-7-1) enter the playoffs on a four-game losing streak, having not won since the first of their two games against the second-seeded Bears (11-6) this season. This will be just the third time these teams have met in the playoffs and the first since the 2010 NFC Championship Game.