People are asking if Jordan Love is, at the present time, the best quarterback in the world. Everyone’s busy making excuses for Patrick Mahomes as his offense struggles in Kansas City with a dearth of pass-catching help. Um, he has a GOAT receiving tight end in Travis Kelce and a rookie second-round pick in Rashee Rice who’s come on strong of late.
What does Love have to work with in Green Bay? Try the youngest roster in the league. Try a defense that gave up 300 yards passing to Bryce Young on Christmas Eve. Young’s Panthers failed to score a single point in the final two games of the season as of today. Christian Watson, easily Love’s most dangerous weapon, has been out injured since catching two TDs and beating Mahomes’ Chiefs on December 3.
In seven of his last eight starts — during which the Packers posted a 6-2 record to sneak into the playoffs at 9-8 — Jordan Love has posted a passer rating north of 108. You read that correctly. We’re talking almost half a season in a row of quarterbacking that Mahomes and a few select others are intimately familiar with.
The Chicago Bears were playing like approximately the best defense in the NFL coming into their Week 18 road trip to Lambeau Field. Ever since they traded for Montez Sweat, lights out. Jordan Love eviscerated them.
I’m not trying to discredit the Packers’ front office. They had the foresight to move on from Aaron Rodgers at the right time. They hung in there amid relentless criticism for drafting Love in the first round in the first place! For years, as Rodgers won multiple MVPs and yet Green Bay fell short in the playoffs, the detractors grew in numbers and amplification.
What sweet vindication this is for GM Brian Gutekunst and CEO/president Mark Murphy. They went all-in on Love. Sat him for three years in an era where rookie first-rounders are expected to play right away. Trusted him to learn on the fly, acclimate to a bevvy of inexperienced wideouts and tight ends and figure it out. Head coach Matt LaFleur deserves a ton of credit as an offensive play-caller for scheming with the best of them. But it’s on the players to execute, and Love has been doing it at a higher level than damn near anyone.
Again, I refuse to downplay the work the players put in to achieve what they have. Just think about this, though: Jayden Reed is a rookie second-round pick. Bo Melton was a 2022 seventh-round practice squadder in Seattle who never recorded a catch for the Seahawks. Dontayvion Wicks is in his first season out of West Virginia and was a fifth-round pick. Tucker Kraft was the 78th overall selection (Round 3) in this year’s draft.
I just named the Packers’ five leading receivers from Sunday’s 17-9 win playoff berth-clinching win over the Bears. And the fifth, with five receptions for 30 yards? Star running back Aaron Jones, who missed six games this season.
It’s not as if this is a dink-and-dunk fest with a bunch of high-probability completions, either. Love is slinging it.
How about this TD-INT ratio in the eight-start span I referenced earlier?
Indeed. Put some respect on Jordan Love’s name.
Lamar Jackson is the MVP. I know. The Ravens are the No. 1 seed. He led the team in rushing. Beat some quality opponents in big spots. I get it. He’ll win. But my goodness, did Jordan Love ever make a hell of a case for himself over the last half of his first season as a starter.
How about the Packers facing Mike McCarthy of all opposing coaches on Wild Card Weekend?
Given McCarthy’s history of blowing it in big moments, his teams’ general lack of discipline penalty-wise, the fact that all the pressure will be on the Cowboys and this Green Bay team is so young and naïve as to not know what it doesn’t know…I mean…look out.
Sure, the inexperience could catch up to the Packers real fast, they could trail early, and that Micah Parsons-fueled Dallas pass rush could overwhelm Love in his playoff debut. Based on what we’ve seen since November or so, however, I wouldn’t count Love out against anyone right now.
That’s the mark of an MVP. Love won’t win it. Maybe he should. Oh well. Someday it could very well happen given his current trajectory.
