Five Reasons Not To Believe in Jordan Love

The Jordan Love era is here for the Green Bay Packers. Here are five reasons why the Packers will be wandering in quarterback Siberia.

Author:
Jacob Westendorf
Updated:
Jul 12, 2023 9:11 AM EDT
Original:
Jul 12, 2023

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Jordan Love will take his place as the Green Bay Packers’ next starting quarterback in less than two weeks when he reports for training camp.

The Packers have been vocally supportive of him throughout the offseason. Coach Matt LaFleur has tried to temper expectations, but the reality is the expectations are high for the quarterback position in Green Bay.

It’s like being an outfielder for the New York Yankees, or a guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. Expectations just come with the territory.

Nonetheless, Love has been a controversial player since the day he was drafted. None of it by his own doing, but when you’re drafted to replace a Hall of Famer, scorn will follow.

While Love has his believers, chief among them general manager Brian Gutekunst, here are five reasons to worry the Packers could be wandering in quarterback Siberia this time next year.

Lack of Security

When Aaron Rodgers took over as a starting quarterback in 2008, he inherited a group of weapons that would eventually combine to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Donald Driver was an established veteran. Greg Jennings was coming off a season in which he supplanted Driver as the team’s best receiver. James Jones had some promising moments as a rookie. Donald Lee was a veteran presence at tight end who was steady if unspectacular.

If nothing else, those players provided experience to an inexperienced starter.

No such security exists for Love. While Christian Watson tore through the NFL during the second half of his rookie season, it was only eight games. He struggled with health and drops through his rookie campaign.

What if the injury bug bites again?

The other “veteran” on the receiving corps is Romeo Doubs, who got off to a good start to his rookie season but missed time with an ankle injury and appeared to hit the rookie wall by the end of the year. It appeared Doubs was establishing a connection with Love during the offseason program.

Samori Toure caught five passes as a rookie.

That’s it. That accounts for all the receivers who caught passes in 2022. A far cry from the Jennings/Driver/Jones trio that Rodgers inherited.

Maybe youth will be a positive. Maybe Watson continues his rise to stardom. Maybe Doubs takes that next step. Who knows?

What we do know is those questions didn’t exist 15 years ago. There is no veteran for Love to lean on.

It Can’t Happen Again … Can It?

It’s the simple law of averages here. The Packers have had 30 years of uninterrupted Hall of Fame quarterback play. No other team has enjoyed that level of success since the days of Joe Montana and Steve Young under center for the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers have been looking for the next guy since Young retired more than 20 years ago.

They’ve had a few blips on the radar with guys like Jeff Garcia and Jimmy Garoppolo but haven’t found a long-term solution.

The Packers are at the end of a 30-year run, and it would seem as if they’re “due” for some uncertainty at the position.

When Love walks off the field following his first start at Soldier Field in two months, there won’t be a shortage of takes.

If the Packers win and Love plays well against Chicago, the sound you’ll hear is a collective groan from the cities of Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit.

If they lose and Love struggles, the Packers will be seen as a team in trouble as it jettisoned its franchise’s greatest player for a guy that couldn’t beat a team his predecessor famously, and accurately, said he owned.

Finding Brett Favre was a stroke of luck. No other general manager in football would have made that deal at the time, but Ron Wolf did.

Aaron Rodgers fell into the lap of Ted Thompson.

They deserve credit for picking those players, but the law of averages would state the clock has to strike midnight soon.

Turnovers

One of the big question marks about Love entering the NFL was a propensity to turn the ball over. After throwing six interceptions as a sophomore at Utah State, Love threw 17 in his final year as a starter.

In his first NFL start at Kansas City in 2021, Love threw one interception and had three turnover-worthy throws, according to Pro Football Focus. He threw two more interceptions in his extended cameo against the Lions to finish the season.

His other extended action has come in the preseason. He’s started five preseason games. He’s thrown five interceptions.

Love is going to turn the ball over more than Rodgers. That’s true of every quarterback in NFL history. Love, however, cannot turn the ball over at the rate he has in his brief NFL career.

Those are the plays he has to clean up.

Turnovers are the quickest path to losing in the NFL.

The Packers are 44-8 when they break even in turnover differential under coach Matt LaFLeur. They’re an eye-popping 33-3 when they win the turnover battle outright.

If he’s unsuccessful as a starter, that’ll be one of the easiest things to point to.

Following a Legend

Bubby Brister. Jay Fiedler. Cam Newton. Mitchell Trubisky. Trevor Siemian.

One of those players had a career of any substance (Newton). One is listed as a punchline for being drafted instead of Patrick Mahomes (Trubisky). The other three are afterthoughts.

What do they all have in common? They replaced legendary quarterbacks.

Sure, there are examples like Rodgers replacing Favre or Andrew Luck replacing Peyton Manning or even Newton replacing Tom Brady. There are far more examples of guys like Brister replacing John Elway, Fiedler replacing Dan Marino, Trubisky stepping in for Ben Roesthlisberger and Siemian taking the place of Manning.

That’s what Love is looking at. In fact, he’s almost looking at it two times because of who preceded Rodgers.

What Love is being asked to do is unprecedented.

Love doesn’t seem like someone that struggles with outside pressure, but it’s a reality. Those are the players he’s going to be compared to. Fair or not.

How Much Was Rodgers?

The positive spin on Rodgers being gone is that he won’t have influence over LaFleur’s game plans and play-calling.

Sure, that is true. Love likely won’t have the autonomy at the line of scrimmage that Rodgers had for the last four years.

Is that a positive? That remains to be seen.

Rodgers has seen every defense the NFL could ever imagine. He knows everything. Sometimes, that led to overthinking.

How many times did Rodgers get the Packers out of a bad play and into a better one over the last four years? How much of his influence was a net positive for the offense?

Whatever it was, Love won’t have that effect on the offense.

Maybe that’ll lead to better things. It is, however, fair to wonder how many warts Rodgers helped cover up over the last four years.

We’ll all find out soon enough.