Jordan Love is a good NFL quarterback. He can make plays that very few across the league can, and even in year one as a starter, he proved that he can go on the road and win a big playoff game. That’s no joke, and the Green Bay Packers could have done much worse than Love in the aftermath of Aaron Rodgers’ MVP run with them.
There seems to be a forgone conclusion that the Packers have “hit” on Love, though. Meaning, they’ve somehow lucked their way into back-to-back (to-back) Hall of Fame quarterbacks. From Brett Favre to Rodgers to Love.
Favre is already in and Rodgers is a no-doubter, but Love hasn’t even made a Pro Bowl yet, let alone won an MVP or a Super Bowl. Moreover, and perhaps most distressingly for the Packers through 11 weeks of the 2024 NFL season, Love is playing far below the expectations that were set for him (and the expectations he set for himself) when the Packers gave him a new contract this past offseason.
This all stemmed from his play in 2023, of course, so there is more than enough reason to believe that Love can be a Top 10 NFL quarterback, at the very least. There was a stretch in the 2023 season that saw him throw 18 touchdowns compared to just one interception while leading the Packers to a 6-2 record in that time period.
That hot play was enough to earn a young and inexperienced Green Bay team a shot in the playoffs, and all Love did with that shot was go on the road and hit the Dallas Cowboys with 272 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions in a Wild Card playoff victory.
That was the moment that Love seemed to ascend to the top of the NFL’s young quarterback mountain and the mystical Favre to Rodgers to Love trinity was established. Never mind the fact that he threw two interceptions in the next game against the San Francisco 49ers, including one that sealed the loss for Green Bay. Love was supposed to clean those types of decisions up heading into his second season as a full-time starter. There was a legitimate expectation in NFL circles that Love was en route to being an MVP candidate in 2024.
Now?
Jordan Love has not lived up to Packers’ expectations in 2024
We’re 10 games into the Packers’ 2024 campaign and there are instead legitimate questions about Love that have arisen. Gone is the Top 10 quarterback from the second half of 2023 and back is the young and reckless “gunslinger” who threw 10 interceptions in the first nine games of 2023.
That’s a ton of interceptions, but he’s already surpassed that number despite the fact that he’s only played in eight games in 2024 due to missing two games with injury. Love has thrown 16 touchdowns but that’s compared to 11 interceptions.
And sure, there was a time when Peyton Manning threw 26 touchdowns compared to 28 interceptions and he went on to become…well…Peyton Manning. That was in Manning’s rookie season, though, and it happened in 1998.
Love is still new-ish as a starter but he’s far from a rookie quarterback. NFL offenses have also become so much more sophisticated and the game and its rules have become so much more catered to explosive offensive football in 2024 compared to 1998. There’s no excuse for a quarterback getting paid $55 million per year to be throwing this many interceptions.
Love has thrown an interception in eight straight games in 2024. Another way of looking at it is that he’s thrown a pick in every game he’s played. Take it back to last season’s playoffs he’s thrown an interception in nine straight games.
Now here’s the thing. It’s worth noting that the Packers are 7-3 and they’re absolutely in the hunt for a playoff spot. They may not be the sure-bet Super Bowl contender many thought they’d be heading into 2024, but they’re absolutely one of the contenders to come out of the NFC alongside the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles. It’s also worth noting that for as many head-scratching throws as Love has made, he’s also made throws like this. Or this. You can’t teach that kind of quarterback play.
The Packers were absolutely right to take a chance on Love and offer him thee big four-year, $220 million contract extension. But if they’re paying him like one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL he has to start playing like one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL — consistently.
Making a bad play here or there amongst several breathtaking plays can work against the Chicago Bears, who are snake bitten by the Packers. But the Packers need Love to play elite football moving forward if they want to make the playoffs, let alone upset a team like the Lions or Eagles in the playoffs.
The Packers have all the pieces to make a run, but right now they have a quarterback problem. The sooner they, and Love, can admit that, the sooner they can make the appropriate adjustments.
That doesn’t mean benching Love for backup Malik Willis (despite his 2-0 record as a starter and his incredible performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars) but it does meant that Love has to take a long, hard look in the mirror and start protecting the damn football.
