Jordan Love and The Power Of Waiting

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In today’s day and age it’s becoming less and less common for people willing to wait. We live in a fast paced society that has trained us to believe that we should get what we want right away. If it doesn’t come immediately then it’s on to the next thing. 

I wonder how many things people have missed out on just because they didn’t give it enough time to come to fruition.

Here’s one of my favorite pictures that illustrates this idea. 

This man was moments away from his breakthrough, but he gave up too soon. 

For the past 3 years Jordan Love has been digging away as he hones his craft and prepares for his opportunity. I imagine it wasn’t always easy to keep being patient as he waited for his time to come, but he’s stayed in there and stuck it out.

Love has now spent 3 seasons sitting and waiting his turn. The other QBs drafted in 2020 already have years of starting experience.

It had to be tough to watch guys from his draft class like Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and Jalen Hurts start making a name for themselves while he sat on the bench behind Aaron Rodgers.

Here’s what Love said yesterday about how he felt getting drafted to Green Bay and his honest thoughts about Rodgers signing a 3 year extension last off-season: 

“When I got drafted I knew right away what situation I was being put in, who I was being behind. So I knew it was going to come with time, that I was going to come in and learn and grow. 

“But I’ll admit I think the hardest time was when he resigned the contract last year. It was kind of like, okay, well where do we go from here? What do I do? And I think I sat back and thought to myself and just came back with the approach, let’s just go ball out any opportunity I get. You know I’m going to get the preseason and who knows what happens after that. So just grow and try to become the best version of myself and I can’t really control what happens after that.”

After waiting two full seasons sitting behind Rodgers, Love had to have been hit pretty hard when he heard Rodgers signed for 3 more seasons. Love was honest about it and in the moment had to wonder if his time would ever come in Green Bay. But he seemed to respond well and recognize that he could only control what he could control and that when his opportunity came he wanted to be ready. 

Well, his opportunity has arrived.

With Rodgers getting traded to the New York Jets, Love is now the QB of one of the most historic and decorated franchises in the NFL. 

There’s a very good chance that Jordan Love’s time sitting behind Rodgers for 3 seasons will pay huge dividends in the years to come.

You couldn’t cook up a better situation for a young quarterback in the NFL. I honestly wonder if other young QBs who were rushed into the starting job too soon could have ended up being better quality players if they had the opportunity to learn how things should go before they are thrown into the fire. 

I do think there is benefit to learning from your mistakes, so I also see how starting early could allow a young player to develop at a quicker pace, but overall I think if you had to pick you’d choose a guy who had 3 years learning behind a future hall of famer than a guy who just came out of college. 

Love got to learn from the best of the best. While most players have to iron out their weaknesses on the big stage with everyone watching, Love had the opportunity to correct many of his mistakes when no one was watching. That’s not to say he won’t make mistakes in his first year starting for Green Bay, because any time a player who hasn’t started before finally gets the opportunity, there are going to be things that will have to be corrected as the season goes on. But overall I would guess that the Packers have eliminated many of his bad habits and taught him exactly how to do what he needs to do. 

Yesterday Love also shared how things have changed and the ways in which he’s grown in his first 3 seasons. 

“It’s hard when you first get here. Your mind is so flushed around with so many different things trying to learn a new scheme, trying to read the defense and understand where to go with the ball so you’re kind of thinking a little bit too much out there and you can’t just play freely so the more you keep building keep learning that’s kind of where I get that term let it rip.”

“I mean I think since college and since I’ve been here I’ve improved drastically. Just learning the scheme, learning how to play in the scheme and just improving myself as a quarterback and I think I’ve improved in a lot of ways. I just try and keep building that and keep working at it everyday.”

Jordan has now spent 3 full seasons learning Matt Lafleur’s offense. He’ll be able to go out there and play free. Of course knowing the scheme and being able to play when the pressure is on are two different things. But the reality is that he couldn’t have had a better preparation period than he’s had here in Green Bay. 

As a Packers fan I hope Jordan Love comes in this next season and sets the league on fire. Then everyone will say, “I guess we should’ve known. He was mentored by one of the best quarterbacks of all time.”

That’s why right now it feels to me that many fans around the league are sleeping on the level that Jordan Love may reach in his first year. 

I’m very confident in Love’s potential. He’s got the athleticism and size to be a real problem for opposing defenses. The real question is can he make the right decisions and keep the ball out of harm's way. 

That was the big question for him after his final year of college where he threw 20 touchdowns and 17 interceptions at Utah State. If you look at the year prior that wasn’t an issue as he threw 32 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. One of the main reasons for that regression was the fact that he had a new coach and offensive coordinator. He also lost many of the offensive starters from the year prior. We won’t know if he’s ironed out those ball placement issues until we see him play. 

There’s no doubt that Love has sky high potential. He’s been in the perfect position to learn exactly how an NFL QB should operate in every aspect of the game. Now we’ll soon get to see if it all clicks. 

There’s power in waiting and you learn things about yourself that you wouldn’t have learned otherwise. Love has been patient. He’s waited his turn and done all he can to prepare for the moment he’s likely been dreaming of his entire life, becoming a starting quarterback in the NFL.  Even though he’d likely prefer to have started earlier in his career, his patience could end up paying off in a big way.

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