Five Reasons To Believe in Jordan Love

The Jordan Love era is here for the Green Bay Packers. Here are five reasons to believe it will be long and successful.

Author:
Jacob Westendorf
Publish date:
Jul 12, 2023 8:32 AM EDT

In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy famously said the train had left the station when the team traded Brett Favre to the New York Jets and moved to a young Aaron Rodgers.

That same train is on a similar track. Rodgers was traded to the Jets this offseason, giving way to Brian Gutekunst’s legacy draft choice.

Jordan Love will be the team’s starting quarterback this year.

When he was selected in 2020, the pick was met with relative scorn. Picking a third-string quarterback for a team that was one game away from the Super Bowl seemed preposterous.

Yet that is exactly what Gutekunst did.

In a league that requires instant satisfaction, Love had to wait his turn. He was inactive for every game during his rookie season. In 2021, he became the backup when Tim Boyle signed with the Lions. He had a forgettable start in Kansas City and an extended cameo in Detroit in a meaningless season finale.

With two seasons under his belt, the Packers and Rodgers were at a crossroads. Rodgers had won back-to-back MVPs, and the team was on the cusp of a Super Bowl.

Instead of handing the keys to Love and getting a bevvy of draft capital in exchange for Rodgers, the Packers extended their longtime starting quarterback.

Many, including Love, thought that was the end of his time as the team’s heir apparent to Rodgers.

Love told Packers media in May, “I’ll admit, I think the hardest time was when he re-signed the contract last year. It was like, ‘OK, well, where do we go from here? What do I do?’ And I think I sat back, thought to myself and just came back with the approach like ‘Let’s just go ball out any opportunity I get. I’m going to get preseason and who knows what happens after that, so just grow and try and become the best version of myself, and I can’t really control what happens after that, so let it play out.”

There’s no doubt anymore who their man is. Here are five reasons to believe he can be their quarterback of the future.

Brian Gutekunst’s Gamble

Brian Gutekunst has a track record of gambling.

His first gamble came with his first draft pick. Jaire Alexander didn’t fit the usual height threshold the team has for its cornerbacks. The last time it went outside those thresholds was Terrell Buckley. That didn’t work out.

Gutekunst gambled, anyway.

Alexander paid it forward. He’s become one of the best corners in football. His last two seasons where he’s been healthy, he landed on the All-Pro team.

Gutekunst’s next big gamble was taking Rashan Gary in 2019 with Brian Burns and Montez Sweat, two players who were more likely more ready to contribute as a rookie, available, but Gutekunst swung on Gary’s upside. He’s been rewarded.

Eric Stokes showed flashes as a rookie before an injury ruined an otherwise forgettable sophomore campaign.

For all the criticism Gutekunst has taken, the reality is, when Gutekunst has taken big swings, he’s been right. If he’s right on Love? They’ll start getting his section to the Packers Hall of Fame ready around 2038, when Love’s career begins to wind down.

Gutekunst has earned some benefit of the doubt in this aspect.

Matt LaFleur

Coach Matt LaFleur comes from the prominent coaching tree shaping the NFL in the modern era: The Shanahan Tree. The prominent coaches from that tree are Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay and LaFleur.

LaFleur implemented his offense to a team that had scuffled the last two years under his predecessor, McCarthy.

Similar offenses have been used by Shanahan and McVay, with Jimmy Garoppolo and Jared Goff taking their teams to the Super Bowl. Shanahan’s 49ers reached the NFC Championship Game last year behind Brock Purdy, the final ick of the 2022 draft.

No disrespect to those players, but Love has more talent. Whether he’s able to realize that remains to be seen.

In addition to LaFleur’s offense, he’s done an excellent job at rebuilding on the fly. The 2019 team that LaFleur inherited was coming off a 6-9-1 season. It was up to LaFleur to change the culture, and revitalize his MVP quarterback.

All LaFleur did was win 13 games in each of his first three seasons and play for two conference championships.

No, the Packers didn’t win a Super Bowl, but they were very successful.

LaFleur has navigated situations like the one he will be in with Love and the Packers in 2023. If there’s anyone that’s earned benefit of the doubt in this situation, it’s him.

The Bar Is Low

Sure, Jordan Love is replacing a future Hall of Famer and four-time league MVP. Rodgers is one of the greatest players in the history of his position. Perhaps that big picture is what will be at the forefront of most people’s minds.

The reality is, that’s not the player the Packers got last season.

Rodgers once joked that down years for him were career years for other quarterbacks.

Last year might read that way. Rodgers wasn’t awful, but he certainly wasn’t the player that earned MVP honors in 2020 and 2021.

In fact, at times, he looked like a player that was losing an unwinnable battle to Father Time. He threw his most interceptions since his first season as a starter (12) and his lowest passer rating since 2015 (91.1). He didn’t have a single 300-yard passing game.

With the season on the line, Rodgers threw up a prayer that was not answered. His last pass was intercepted, and it was the last time he would see the field in a Packers uniform.

That’s the player that Love is replacing.

Despite all of those shortcomings at the game’s most important position, the team finished 8-9 and had a chance to make the playoffs on the season’s final day.

Can Love, in a quarterback-friendly system, be just as good as that? Can he be better? There’s a small amount of evidence that he can.

Even with expected growing pains and a new quarterback needing to learn how to win, Love could do that while still outplaying the 2022 version of Rodgers.

Is There Anyone Better?

The Packers went from Favre to Rodgers and transitioned almost seamlessly.

Rodgers sat and waited for three years behind Favre before getting his chance to take the reins. Rodgers not only replaced his predecessor, he surpassed him. Rodgers broke all of Favre’s records. He won more MVPs. He had fewer turnovers.

Sure, the end was bitter, but that doesn’t change how great Rodgers was on the field.

Such a transition is unprecedented in today’s NFL

The only team that can hold a candle to the success Green Bay has had at the quarterback position over the last 30 years is the Indianapolis Colts. They transitioned from Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck.

Manning is one of the greatest players in the history of football.

Luck is one of the greatest “what if?” stories due to an unexpected retirement.

Sure, there is some luck involved here, but the Packers have identified and valued the quarterback position more than any team in those 30 years.

Twice they’ve picked a successor to their legendary quarterback, instead of attempting to win now.

Twice, they’ve identified quarterbacks with traits they liked and felt could succeed in the cold weather.

Ron Wolf identified Brett Favre. Ted Thompson identified Aaron Rodgers.

Maybe they’re just better at picking quarterbacks than the other teams around the league?

The Glimpse

Yes, it was only 10 snaps. Yes, the Eagles were playing defense while leading by two scores both times Love touched the ball.

Still, Love’s most recent cameo with the team harkoned back to Rodgers’ Thursday Night Football brilliance against the Dallas Cowboys in 2007.

Rodgers entered the game for an injured Favre, and it felt like a passing of the torch.

Favre would finish off his last season in Green Bay with an interception at a frigid Lambeau Field in a win-or-go-home scenario.

Rodgers would suffer the same fate as his predecessor.

Love’s cameo was less than Rodgers’ in 2007, but he moved the ball against a Philadelphia defense that finished with the best mark in the league against opposing passers and led the league in sacks.

He threw a dart to Christian Watson in which Watson did most of the work for a long touchdown.

Perhaps Love’s best pass of the night was an incompletion. He threw a Cover-2 hole shot that Aaron Jones dropped. Jones has since called the pass “a dime” and says he should have caught it.

It wasn’t a lot of football, but it was intriguing. Was it similar to Rodgers’ appearance in 2007 or just a flash in the pan?

We don’t know, but the Packers are going to find out. If you’re going to believe in Jordan Love, this is a big reason why.