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Fact or Fiction: Packers’ Jordan Love Is Elite Quarterback

After three seasons as the Packers’ starting quarterback, is Jordan Love an elite quarterback? A top-10 player at the position?
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) reacts after getting a first down against Cincinnati Bengals.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) reacts after getting a first down against Cincinnati Bengals. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

By most statistics, Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love is one of the best in the business.

That’s evident by some of the traditional numbers.

  • His 101.2 passer rating ranked fifth in the NFL in 2025.
  • With 23 touchdowns vs. six interceptions, his 3.83-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio ranked sixth.
  • His 7.70 yards per attempt ranked seventh.

It’s also evident by some of the analytical numbers.

  • Of 36 quarterbacks with at least 250 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus, Love was 15th in completion percentage but seventh in adjusted completion percentage, which turns drops into completions and ignored throwaways.

It’s also evident by some of the clutch-play numbers, including ranking fourth in fourth-quarter comebacks and game-winning drives in 2025. On third down or late in games, Love delivered strong numbers.

“I thought Jordan played really, really good football – some of his best football – especially down the stretch,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the Scouting Combine. “I thought he was one of our guys who played very, very well down the stretch. He continues to be an unbelievable leader for our football team.”

OK, But Is Jordan Love Great?

As Mark Twain famously said, there are lies, damned lies and statistics. The statistics say Love is an excellent quarterback. Maybe an elite quarterback.

Are those stats lying?

Great quarterbacks have to make plays when the pressure is on. When under pressure by defenses, Love did not make enough plays.

Of 33 quarterbacks who faced at least 100 under-pressure dropbacks last season, Love was 29th in completion percentage, 31st in yards per attempt and 31st in passer rating, according to PFF. He was the only one of those quarterbacks without an under-pressure touchdown pass. Love threw 154 passes when under pressure. No other quarterback with zero under-pressure touchdowns threw fewer than 40.

Love also did not make enough plays when under the pressure of the moment.

While Love led four fourth-quarter comebacks, he was powerless to turn the tide as the playoff game against the Bears slipped away. His nonchalant approach almost cost the Packers a tie at Dallas. He led the team to a mere 20 points in back-to-back losses at home to the Panthers and Eagles.

As remote as it was, any chance the Packers had of a last-second win at Chicago in the playoffs died when he failed to do the most rudimentary of tasks and dropped the snap. Of course, the Packers’ fate in that game-ending drive might have been different had Jayden Reed not had a bad drop or had the offensive line given Love even decent protection on what was almost an all-world pass to Christian Watson.

A great quarterback is that rising tide that lifts all boats. When has Love lifted the Packers on his back and carried the team to victory? He has done it, to be sure, but not often enough, which is a reason – not the reason – why the Packers have been buried as the seventh seed in each of his three seasons as the starter.

On the bright side, Love went from a 96.1 passer rating with 11 interceptions in 2023 and a 96.7 passer rating with 11 interceptions in 2024 to a 101.2 passer rating with six interceptions in 2025. That’s real growth. He did it without a go-to receiver, an efficient running game or reliable pass protection.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love waves at fans as he exits the field after 31-24 win over the Lions on Thanksgiving.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love waves at fans as he exits the field after 31-24 win over the Lions on Thanksgiving. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

That year-over-year growth leads to a solid projection going into 2026.

“Couldn’t speak more highly of what I think about Jordan and where he’s headed,” Gutekunst said. “As good as he’s been for us, I do think he’ll continue to get better because it’s important to him and he works at his craft. He’s always looking for another edge. So, yeah, I feel really good about that.”

However, it would be incorrect to call Love a “young” quarterback. He’ll be entering his seventh season in the league and his fourth year as a starter. He’s 27 years old and started more than 50 games between the regular season and playoffs. That doesn’t mean he can’t and won’t get better. Sam Darnold, after all, just went from journeyman to 28-year-old Super Bowl champion.

It does mean Love perhaps is not New England’s Maye, who led the Patriots to the Super Bowl in his second season in the NFL. He perhaps is not Denver’s Bo Nix, who might have led the Broncos to the Super Bowl in his second season had he not been injured in the divisional round. He perhaps is not Chicago’s Caleb Williams, who did lift the Bears on his back in Week 16 and in the playoffs as a second-year starter.

The Verdict: Is Jordan Love Elite Quarterback?

Elite is defined as someone who is “superior in terms of abilities.” To me, that’s an incredibly small group of the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, the Bill’s Josh Allen and perhaps the Bengals’ Joe Burrow and the Rams’ Matthew Stafford.

For what it’s worth, Love has the ninth-shortest NFL MVP odds at FanDuel Sportsbook. In order, the eight quarterbacks ahead of him are Allen, Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, Maye, Burrow, the Chargers’ Justin Herbert, Mahomes, the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott and Stafford. It’s hard to call Love elite with no division championship and one playoff win.

So, how about a top-10 quarterback? From that group of MVP candidates, if you absolutely, positively needed to win a game today, I might pick all but Maye over Love.

From the group of quarterbacks listed after Love in the MVP odds, I’d also take Williams and Darnold over Love. I would take Love over the likes of the Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence, the 49ers’ Brock Purdy, the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, the Lions’ Jared Goff and the Texans’ C.J. Stroud.

That puts Love at No. 10 – making him a fringe top-10 quarterback, with reasonable minds moving him up or down the list a bit. So, no, he is not elite.

Regardless of whether you put Love at No. 8, No. 10 or No. 12, he’s clearly a quality starting quarterback, though. Can he ever become an elite quarterback? A Super Bowl-winning quarterback? The jury is out after three seasons as a starter. It’s time for him to take the next step in terms of becoming consistently clutch. He has shown the ability to take a big step. Can he do it again?

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.