When the Green Bay Packers traded up in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft to select Jordan Love, it was not a very popular decision among their fans. After all, the team already had Aaron Rodgers under contract, and many believed that he would spend his entire career in Green Bay.
Rodgers, of course, was not very happy with the decision himself. And while he never took out his frustration on Love (instead mentoring him the way he wished Brett Favre had mentored him), he used the Packers’ selection of his successor as motivation to elevate his play.
He went on to win the next two NFL MVP Awards before a down season in 2022 triggered Green Bay’s decision to hand the offense over to Love. And while Rodgers had the tall task of taking over for a former MVP when he became the starter in 2008, Love faced the taller task of becoming the starting quarterback following two MVP winners.
NFL Analyst Explains Why Green Bay Packers QB Jordan Love Could Win the MVP Award in 2025
Needless to say, Love had a levy of expectations, reasonable or not, placed on him from the moment Green Bay drafted him. That certainly did not change when he was named the Packers starter.
That being said, it is worth pointing that, through his first two seasons, his numbers are better than Favre’s and close behind Rodgers’ through their first two seasons starting in Green Bay:
Not only are Love’s numbers similar to or better than his two MVP predecessors, one NFL analyst believes that he could join them as an MVP winner this year.
Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report recently wrote an article about five under-the-radar candidates to win the NFL MVP Award this year. Love was the second player on his list.
“Jordan Love has a high ceiling, which we saw when he went on a five-game run in which he posted a 119.9 passer rating for the Green Bay Packers in the second half of the 2024 campaign.
“Imagine the possibilities if the 26-year-old could sustain a stretch like that over the course of a much larger portion of a season? That’s the sort of thing that could move him into the MVP conversation.
“Is it doable? The long-awaited addition of a first-round pick at receiver should help as Matthew Golden joins the fray in 2025. After all, only Daniel Jones saw his receivers drop passes more frequently than Love last year. And it’s important to remember this guy has just two full seasons as a starter under his belt.
“There’s plenty of room for Love to grow, and the support could be there now for a quarterback who posted a 105.7 passer rating on deep attempts last year.”
Indeed, Love’s numbers in 2024 would have looked much better if his wide receivers had not dropped so many passes. One must also remember that he played virtually the entire year hurt.
Now that he is healthy and the Packers [hopefully] have a better wide receiver room, there is a pretty decent chance that he could make a run at an MVP Award of his own this upcoming season.
