Yes it’s not so much about the “price” but rather the “intent” if that makes sense.
It would be one thing to have approached the draft with the mindset of “let’s plan on reinforcing the team, but if a too-good-to-pass-up deal falls our way, we’ll take it” (like Rodgers falling to us in the first place) but another thing to go out of your way to pursue your replacement. That’s what I mean by “conscious decision” - that the team made an intentional decision to start the replacement process rather than invest in the current window (which of course left us in a weird limbo for a few years, as we all know. But that’s not really the matter here).
Anyways I say all that to illustrate that the point isn’t about how much Love “cost” (at least not in a draft equity sense) but that the club was very much convinced that he was their guy, went out of their way to get him (electing to prioritize the future, arguably at the expense of the present) and now four years later seemingly find ourselves still not entirely sure if he’s the going to be that guy for us or not.
Ultimately I think the bottom line is that if you asked Gute and Co if this is what they thought they’d have four years after drafting Love, if they’re being honest there’s no way they’d say they drafted him with this expectation in mind. And that doesn’t mean that’s all Love’s fault, but point being that I’m 100% Gute and LaFleur had higher expectations for where we’d be under Love right now so I don’t think it’s unreasonable for fans to have higher expectations, too.
