History Repeats Itself, And For The Green Bay Packers, It Came In The Form of Jordan Love
On Sunday evening, Jordan Love walked into the press conference room in AT&T Stadium with a cut-off t-shirt, his wrist-coach still on, and a grand smile right across his face. The normally quiet-spoken quarterback of the Green Bay Packers couldn’t help but let out a little smirk after the 48-32 drubbing of the Dallas Cowboys he led. The Packers just waltzed into the Cowboys’ home turf and walked all over them.
“I can’t say enough about how proud I am of everybody in that locker room,” Love said during his post-game presser.
Try explaining that to anyone 10 weeks ago and they’d look at you like they saw a ghost. The Packers barely slipped into the playoffs with a 9-8 record, one that looks worse than it truly was and doesn’t fully paint the picture of the remarkable story of the Packers. Which one could point to was ferried by Jordan Love himself.
The fact of the matter is, Love was never meant to be here by public standards. At one point in the 2023 season, the Packers were 3-7 and were barely hanging on for life. How the Packers were able to storm back and somehow turn into one of the NFL’s most dangerous teams was impressive, but in a city like Green Bay, history repeats itself often. This time, it comes in the form of Love.
Drafted into a awkward position in 2020, Jordan Love was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Long-time starter and bona fide hall-of-famer Aaron Rodgers was coming off a 13-3 season with no signs of showing down, taking Green Bay to the NFC Championship Game prior. On the other hand was Love’s draft position, taken with the 26th overall pick in the first round that the Packers traded up to get, it was clear that Love was the Packers’ choice to succeed Rodgers when he retired.
When asked about the pick, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst stated, “We went through our normal process, where we talked to a lot of teams and areas where we felt we might be able to move up just so we would kind of know what it was going to cost us. As the board fell, it was just the way we kind of had it stacked, to be quite honest.”
“It was all about options left and obviously I had a conversation with Miami. They called and it seemed like the right thing to do. And giving up a fourth-round pick (No. 136) wasn’t all that much to get up and take a guy that again, we felt pretty strongly about and think has a future.”
The issue was Rodgers had no signs of slowing down, it was just a hunch. Rodgers would then go on to put up two back-to-back MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021, both of which Love just had to sit and watch. In 2022, Green Bay traded away number one wide receiver Davante Adams to Las Vegas, which all but spelled the end of Rodgers’ time in Green Bay.
No matter how mysterious or foggy the pick was, one thing was clear. Aaron Rodgers’ time in Green Bay was nearing an end. Disputes with the front office arose between the two, the fact that he was not consulted about the Love selection sat on his mind, and the 2022 season ending in heartbreaking fashion to the Lions was simply the final straw.
When Rodgers announced that he would be playing for the New York Jets in 2023, every single eye in the NFL immediately honed in on the Green Bay quarterback room. For three seasons, Jordan Love had been stuck in the shadows, as did Rodgers his first trio of seasons, cast as an understudy for a no-contest hall-of-famer. Now he would be thrust into the limelight.
Sound familiar?
In fact, it drew uncanny parallels from 2008, when Aaron Rodgers took over the starting role for the Green Bay Packers. When Aaron Rodgers was drafted with the 24th pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, the Packers had a hunch it might be time for then-sixteen year starter Brett Favre to exit the ranks. Favre wasn’t appreciative of the selection, much like Rodgers, and was soon dealt to the New York Jets. Much like Rodgers.
However, the parallels between Love and Rodgers become even more striking the deeper you look into it. Rodgers was put in nearly the same position at Love, right down to the minutiae, and even the statistics prove that. Love had the same amount of yards as Rodgers in 2008 through Week 12, at one point, both Rodgers and Love had the same record at 6-8, and even their stat lines were similar through 14 weeks: Love’s 27 touchdown to 11 interceptions with a 90.8 passer rating to Rodgers’ 27, 12, 91.8.
Love finished the year with 4,158 passing yards to Rodgers’ 4,038. Their completion percentage? Nearly identical at Love’s 64.2 and Rodgers’ 63.8.
A STORY REPEATED IN GREEN BAY: Inside the Crazy Story of Aaron Rodgers, a Hut, and a 2023 Season in Limbo
Rodgers ended up not taking that 2008 team to the Super Bowl, instead ending the season 6-10 due to a plethora of injuries. Love on the other hand did everything right the back half of the season in order to win the Packers a playoff game on the road.
“You don’t know you’re ready until you’re in that position,” Rodgers said of Love after the Packers’ season ended. “I remember the day I was sleeping in San Diego and woke up to 50 text messages that Brett had retired. Then, the emotions hit you. ‘Oh, man, now I’m the guy.’ But you’ve still got to go out there and find your stride with leadership and withstand the first year of different defenses throwing things at you and all the pressure that comes with everything. But I think he’s done a nice job of improving, working on the little things, done a nice job at practice. I think he’s got a chance to have a long future in the league.”
Love now has Green Bay in a position to advance to the NFC Championship Game in an incredible fashion. What this team has gone through over the past season is nothing short of arduous. And most of it lies on the shoulders of Jordan Love.
Around midway through the 2023 season, the Green Bay Packers looked lost. Jordan Love seemed like he wasn’t the third straight dazzling quarterback to graze the city of Titletown. At Week 8, the Packers were 2-5 and coming off a 24-10 loss against Minnesota. Green Bay had two opportunities to score late in the game, and when they floundered them both, Jordan Love’s future came into serious question.
Granted, this was the youngest team in the NFL at an average age of 25 years and eight months. Yet, looking at Love alone drew a murky cloud over Green Bay. He threw one touchdown and one interception, completed 24 out of 41, and finished the game looking like one of the worst teams in the NFL. It was clear that this roster needed a full rebuild, and whether Love would stay in the green and gold was seriously probed.
If a rebuild happened, it was overnight. Since then, the Packers– and Love have been an utterly different team, a turnaround that other teams would vie years for. Since the midpoint of the season, Green Bay has been 8-3 since, winning against teams like the Chiefs, Lions, and punching their ticket in the Wild Card Round with a 48-32 rout of the Cowboys.
“Man, Jordan Love. Wow. That’s about all I can say, is wow,” Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said after the beatdown in Dallas. Since Week 9, Love has completed 69.8% of passes, thrown for 24 touchdowns accompanied with only three interceptions, and has posted a 113.5 passer rating. Nearly impeccable.
Jordan Love in Week 5 posted a passer rating of 32.2 against the Las Vegas Raiders throwing three interceptions without a single touchdown. Less than three months later Love posted nearly a perfect passer rating against the fifth ranked defense at the end of the year if not for a drop late in the game.
If that one statistic alone doesn’t prove a remarkable improvement in Love’s development, not much else will. Seldom do we see a player turn around a career like what Love has done in his first year starting, much less show an entire career development arc in a singular season.
The reason? Look no further than the organization itself. Green Bay’s strategy for building and growing a quarterback tends to differ from the rest of today’s league. The Packers are accustomed to following an old-school philosophy of almost never playing their future quarterbacks right away. We saw this with Rodgers and Favre, and we saw it again at the onset of Love’s career where he stuck behind Rodgers and learned. In the modern day NFL, the hottest thing is to see what a young quarterback has from the get-go. While some teams try to approach the issue with a hybrid structure, having the QB sit for a little bit while also playing them late in the season when things go south, it never seems to work.
Why?
Because unlike a lot of things, quarterback growth is exponential, or follows a bell curve. At least, that’s what Green Bay thinks. If you allow a young quarterback to sit behind a veteran, they tend to pick up on things. It was the same traditional approach the Packers intended to follow when they drafted Rodgers that carried on to Love’s development plan. The more time you allocate for a quarterback to take the backseat, the more ready they’ll be in the NFL, up until a certain point. By following that ideal with Love, Green Bay was able to ensure that the quarterback wouldn’t be shoved out into the deep end and be forced to sink or swim.
Part of that credit goes to veteran Packers’ QB coach Tom Clements, the man who worked with Favre, Rodgers, and now Love. For Clements, he’s seen Love progress behind Rodgers and Love did nothing but quench the organization’s thoughts.
STARTING ANEW IN TITLETOWN: The Packers’ Future Without Aaron Rodgers; The Torch Has Been Passed to Jordan Love
“You always anticipate based on how he’s practiced and done in the preseason and years past, you have an idea of how he might do when he becomes the full-time starter, and he’s confirmed our thoughts. He’s a good player,” Clements said earlier in the year, per Packers.com.
Love has been apt to learn, mirroring even the smallest of details from both Rodgers and Favre. An example, take one look at the way Love throws the football. As one of the only quarterbacks to throw with both feet off the ground, the mechanic is a Green Bay staple. Rodgers and Favre did it to maximize rotational torque when throwing the ball and to prevent injury. Both feet up in the air allows for no energy to be lost when slinging the football as well as avoids any potential scenario where the quarterback can get rolled up on.
The tiny detail proves that allowing quarterback knowledge to fester with Love from some of the game’s greatest isn’t just a time-waster. Instead, it allows for a much more seamless transition of power from quarterback to quarterback. It’s what’s allowed Love to escape the fates of plenty other young quarterbacks like Desmond Ridder, Zach Wilson, and Bryce Young. It’s indicative of a seriously well run pass-thrower room in Green Bay, one that’s been through this wringer before.
Good teams don’t recreate history off the backs of a singular player. Including a quarterback. And the Packers are no different. Jordan Love’s remarkable growth is due to the team around him. While Green Bay doesn’t have the conventional star-studded cast of nearly every other playoff team, they have a team that’s willing to fight tooth and nail for their quarterback. Sure, the Packers have been able to establish the running game and the outspoken cries against Joe Barry have shushed down, but at the end of the day, Love is able to work seamlessly with this team to keep a smooth operation.
“I just come in here every week,” said rookie WR Jayden Reed, “I come in here to work. Every week, I talk to [Love] on things I can do better. I’ll ask him questions on certain things. Just building that relationship on and off the field helps out a lot. Definitely just come in with a work mentality every week.”
His chemistry with a young team has allowed the Packers to not be at loggerheads with a young and old split of the team. This team doesn’t know any better, and are being led by a player who simply has nothing to lose. His aptness to bond with the team speaks volume about the inroads that Love has made regarding team chemistry, something that a lot of young quarterbacks struggle with.
Rookie wide receiver Bo Melton stated that Love hosts dinner at his house every week for the offense, going over film and nurturing a solid bond between him and the rest of the offense. For a fresh quarterback in the league, this is leaps above his grade level.
“Just the bond of staying connected with him, that’s big as a wide receiver… J-Love’s the best … we all love him on the team,” said Melton.
The Packers’ young roster has bought into this team, begging the question– have we seen this before? In 2010 and 2011, the Green Bay Packers had one of the best offense constructions the league had ever seen, leading to the iconic Sports Illustrated cover that Packers fans reminisce about nearly every day. The image featured the likes of Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Donald Driver, Greg Jennings, and sitting in the center… none other than ringleader Aaron Rodgers.
Ring a bell? Today’s Packers have no remaining pieces from that team, instead with a skill position lineup that is mainly consisted of first and second year players. Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, and Dontayvion Wicks would probably graze the cover of today’s issue, all with Jordan Love sitting front and center.
If time is a flat circle, history has made its way completely around for the Green Bay Packers. Jordan Love is looking more and more like the long-term answer in Green Bay. The city, the team, and the organization has gathered around him for what seems like the third coming of quarterback spoils in the city.
Hitting on back to back great quarterbacks is tough. Hitting on three straight is nearly impossible, but Jordan Love’s talents and intangibles fall right in line with the rest. For a supposed rebuild year gone upside down in the right way, Green Bay and a Matt LaFleur offense have set this team up for success.
Love was a handpicked LaFleur selection. He was the quarterback Green Bay understood could run the scheme well after Rodgers was gone. After all, when you have a four-time MVP under center, the offense– like it or not, tends to be centered and gravitates towards their thoughts and preferences. That was the case with Rodgers, not being able to utilize too much of LaFleur’s unique and modern day play-calling. Instead, the team was relegated to a spread west coast system that Rodgers was used to.
The team couldn’t utilize motion and seldom went under center, mainly focusing on plays out of the shotgun. With Love taking over, LaFleur is able to bring this offense into the modern era, filled with pre-snap motions and under center play actions. Love, was the perfect fit for all the pizzazz LaFleur wanted to draw up.
Even early in the season, when Love’s future looked grim, LaFleur showed no signs of distrust in his young quarterback, “Our confidence in him is not wavering one bit. Certainly, as the play-caller, you put a lot of onus on yourself when things aren’t going well, and we’ll continue to do that, but we’ve got to find a way to generate more points because when you’re generating points, it’s just a totally different narrative.”
Usually it’s feast or famine for a quarterback. That goes for anything, but especially media. Love has been tarnished in the media in his off days and up until recently, Green Bay had flown under the radar for much of their run throughout the regular season. It all flipped Thanksgiving Day though with Love’s 29-22 win over the Lions when personalities began figuring out how special Love could be.
“I have never seen in my life an in-season improvement ever like Jordan Love,” The Herd host Colin Cowherd said.
“This is what great offensive coaches often do with their young quarterbacks. Big leaps. Matt LaFleur has done an unbelievable job. Green Bay’s a problem. They are a matchup problem. That’s incredible. This is incredible. Player development. He surprised everyone. This is what Green Bay does. It’s what hard-working kids do. It’s what great offensive coaches who have a sensibility and feel for it have proven time and time again.”
Love is not the first exceptional Packers quarterback to grace the halls of Lambeau Field. He didn’t go to a massive Division I program and win the national championship. He was not the immediate day one starter, nor was he even the year two starter. He was patient, waiting his turn, understanding the situation he was put in. He kept stacking his days no matter how monotone it seemed. And when he was given the opportunity, he performed.
No, Jordan Love is not yet the third in line of one of the greatest quarterback lineages in team history. Only time will tell that tale. He’s not Aaron Rodgers’ replacement or a unanimous hall of famer (just yet). Instead, he’s Jordan Love, writing his own story in Green Bay. And he’s penning a damn good one Packers fans may just have seen before.
