Latest sports news: Is Aaron Rodgers on the clock?; D’Andre Swift reacts to first-round snub; six wide receivers come off NFL draft board

It felt like a story we have seen before when the Packers drafted Jordan Love in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday, but this is not the same scenario as Green Bay picking Aaron Rodgers with Brett Favre on the roster.

Sure, there are commonalities. Rodgers is 36, and Favre was 35. Green Bay landed a quarterback that slipped in the first round, and it plans on grooming him. But this is different.

Favre constantly mulled retirement each offseason, which forced the Packers to prepare themselves for his eventual decision. In contrast, Rodgers just signed a four-year, $134 million extension that kicks in this season, and he has said repeatedly that he wants to at least play until he’s 40.

By the time Rodgers is 40, the Packers will have either declined or exercised a fifth-year option on Love’s rookie contract. So why draft him?

While everyone is focused on comparing this situation to Favre-Rodgers, I think Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo are a better example for comparison. In that case, Brady — like Rodgers — made it clear he wanted to keep playing, but the Patriots prepared themselves just in case their Super Bowl quarterback left. Garoppolo turned out to be a pretty good quarterback, but Brady kept performing at an elite level, which resulted in the Patriots trading Garoppolo to San Francisco for draft picks.

Love may be Rodgers’ replacement one day, but this is not a replay of the 2005 draft. The Packers still believe Rodgers is at the top of his game, so I believe there’s a better chance that Love gets groomed and traded for a high pick.

“We’ve got the best quarterback in the National Football League, and we plan to have him for a while, competing for championships," Packers GM Brian Gutekunst said.

I wouldn’t have drafted a quarterback in the first round to do that, but Green Bay prepared themselves for a future with or without Rodgers.

Former Georgia and St. Joe’s Prep running back D’Andre Swift was the first running back on most mock drafts, but it was LSU’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire selected by the Chiefs to close out the first round. Swift made note of not being selected on Day 1.

Not too many things are more fun to watch in football than a motivated running back, and Swift appears determined to prove teams wrong for passing on him in the first round. He already has an aggressive running style, and Thursday’s snub will only add fuel to the fire.

The team that drafts Swift will get a first-round caliber talent. Swift is ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper’s second-best player still available. Kiper had Swift as his 18th-rated overall player.

Six wide receivers were taken in the first round, which is the most since 2009. This 2020 draft often gets compared to the 2014 receiver class that had the likes of Sammy Watkins, Odell Beckham Jr., Davante Adams and Mike Evans.

Just like that 2014 class, the order of these receivers will be critiqued until their careers end. Henry Ruggs was surprisingly taken over college teammate Jerry Jeudy and Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb. Jalen Reagor was selected by the Eagles over Justin Jefferson and Brandon Aiyuk.

Jeudy, Lamb and Ruggs were the consensus top-three picks, so that projected order doesn’t strike as much of a surprise compared to Reagor jumping Aiyuk and Jefferson. Now is not the time to be too upset about these decisions. Looking at the college tape, all of these receivers look like future stars, but that just won’t be the case at the next level. Someone will emerge from the rest and others will be buried on depth charts.

Just go back to 2014 again. Here’s the order in which the receivers were drafted in the first two rounds: Watkins, Evans, Beckham, Brandin Cooks, Kelvin Benjamin, Marqise Lee, Jordan Matthews, Paul Richardson, Adams, Cody Latimer, Allen Robinson, Jarvis Landry.

Fast forward to today, and that’s not the order of the best receivers in today’s game. A case could be made that Adams and Robinson turned out to be two of the best, and they were second-round guys.

So relax. Go watch those nice college highlights, and let time reveal who will emerge as the best of this year’s draft class.

And by the way, Day 2 receivers like Michael Pittman Jr., Denzel Mims, Tee Higgins and Leviska Shenault are still on the board.