Jordan Love has been through a wild first couple years in the NFL.
Lots of fans were in complete and total shock when the Packers selected Jordan Love #26 overall in the 2020 NFL draft. Aaron Rodgers is entering the later part of his career and you select a guy who isn’t going to benefit the team until Aaron Rodgers leaves? I understand the frustration but at the same time you have to give the Packers front office props for planning for the future even though they knew it probably wouldn’t be received well. Now entering his 3rd season in Green Bay he has a lot to prove.
Call me crazy but what I saw from Jordan Love in last night’s preseason game vs the Saints has me very excited for his future in Green Bay. It was the best I have ever seen from Jordan Love.
Don’t let the box score fool you. He went 12-24 but there were at least four or five drops by his wide receivers. Turn on the game film and you will see a player who is in complete control of the offense. It’s a complete 180 from what we saw last year. With pressure in his face he’s not fazed. When he has to escape the pocket and extend the play he keeps his eyes down field and delivers accurate passes.
There was one play in particular that was so close to breaking the internet. The Packers were in the red zone and Jordan Love had to escape the pocket.
Love was running back and forth as he tried his best to see if anyone was open. After scrambling and keeping the play alive he flung the ball sidearm to the left corner of the endzone and put it in a spot only his guy could get it. Unfortunately Patrick Taylor was unable to hold onto the ball. If that ball was caught, and it was a tough catch to make, the play would have gone viral and people around the NFL would be saying, “Oh wow… Maybe Jordan Love has some potential.”
Here’s what Matt Lafleur had to say after the game when asked about Jordan Love’s performance:
“I thought there was a lot of good. I know the numbers don’t necessarily reflect probably how I feel. I saw a guy that was not only making some off schedule plays, running around, there were a couple times that we weren’t great in protection. He stood in the pocket, was throwing in rhythm… I don’t know how you guys see it, but the way I see it – and see it on a daily basis – I think he’s light years ahead of where he was a year ago.”
Looking back to last year Jordan Love struggled when he got his opportunity to start vs the Kansas City Chiefs with Aaron Rodgers out. He was playing scared. He didn’t look confident. That’s something that you would expect from a young quarterback who has barely had an opportunity to get live game reps. Every fan base wants their young quarterback to come out looking perfect but that is something that rarely happens.
Look at Trevor Lawrence who was selected #1 overall last year. He threw 12 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. Look at Peyton Manning’s first year. 26 touchdowns and 28 interceptions. In Josh Allen’s first year he threw 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Jordan Love hasn’t even had an opportunity to start a full season. He’s played in a couple regular season games and a handful of preseason games. We also have to remember that his rookie year the preseason was canceled.
My opinion all along is that I want to see Jordan Love start a full season before I’m ready to give up on him. We live in a world where people want to see results right away. No one wants to give a player time to develop, especially when it comes to young quarterbacks. You clearly can’t wait forever. There will come a point where you may have to say “Okay. Maybe he’s not as good as we thought he was.” But we are nowhere near that time for Jordan Love. We’re lucky that the Packers didn’t send Jordan Love away this off season. It would have been like selling a stock at the worst possible time only to see it end up paying off in the future.
Now onto a very important question.
Will Jordan Love ever get the opportunity to start in Green Bay?
With Aaron Rodgers deciding to come back in the off-season it meant at least one more year for Jordan Love to sit on the bench. It has to be tough for Jordan knowing that he will only be Green Bay’s starter when Aaron Rodgers decides to hang it up. Aaron has been clear that he doesn’t know how much longer he is going to play. This could be his last year. He could play 2 or 3 more years.
This next off-season the Packers will have to decide if they want to exercise Jordan Love’s 5th year option. If they do this means in year 5 he will get paid the average of the 3rd to 25th QB’s salary in his 5th year. This comes out to around 20 million at this time. That is much more than the 3million dollars he is making each year on his rookie contract. If they choose to not exercise his 5th year option, 2023 will be the final year of his rookie contract, and if they want him to stay after that they will have to give him a new contract. Everything comes down to Aaron Rodgers.
The Packers are in a tough spot because you don’t want your future hall of fame QB to leave, while at the same time you don’t want to lose a young QB that you traded up for in the first round who has now had years to learn under Aaron Rodgers. If Rodgers plays for 3 more years and in a year or two the Packers trade Jordan Love you are basically gifting another team a potential star that you built from the ground up. Sure the Packers could get some draft capital in return but I have to imagine Packer’s GM Brian Gutekunst does not want to see Jordan Love start somewhere else after waiting years for his first round pick to pan out.
Jordan Love has one more week to demonstrate the strides he’s taken this off-season in the Packers final preseason game next week. He will continue to be under the microscope as fans wonder if he has what it takes to one day be the starter in Green Bay.