Not Young Anymore, Jordan Love Has Playoff Experience on His Side

GREEN BAY, Wis. – When Jordan Love led the Green Bay Packers to the 2023 NFL playoffs, he was the young-gun quarterback. He had flashed great potential as the team’s first-year starter, but he was a complete unknown when it came to playoff football.

Fast forward a couple years, Love is a relative graybeard in terms of playoff experience. He’ll be making his fourth career playoff start when the Packers play at the Chicago Bears on Saturday night.

His opponent will be Caleb Williams, who will be making his playoff debut. If the Packers can knock off the Bears, Love would face Seattle’s Sam Darnold, who has more experience overall but has started only one playoff game.

Overall, of the seven NFC quarterbacks, Love has the fourth-most playoff starts.

Love doesn’t believe experience matters, and his own experience shows that he’s right. He destroyed the Cowboys in his playoff debut.

“I think everybody knows it’s playoffs. It’s win or go home,” Love said. “You got to go out there play your best ball and execute at a high level. And if you don’t, you’re going to end up losing the game. It comes down to who executes the best, who takes care of the ball the best and who puts up the most points.

“Just got to go out there, play your best ball, and execute at a high level or else you’re going home.”

NFL Playoff Quarterbacks

Here are the NFL playoff quarterbacks, ranked by number of playoff starts. Combined, they have started 73 games, with 30 percent of those starts by one player and almost half by two.

Note: All statistical rankings are based on 28 quarterbacks who threw at least 284 passes. That’s the number of passes thrown by the 49ers’ Brock Purdy this season.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Aaron Rodgers (22 starts)

Rodgers, 42, is in his 21st NFL season. In NFL history, he’s first in passer rating, fourth in touchdowns and fifth in yards. This season, he finished 13th with a 94.8 passer rating and threw 24 touchdowns vs. seven interceptions. Behind his four touchdown passes, he beat Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in Week 18 to get Pittsburgh to the playoffs for his first postseason appearance since 2021 with Green Bay.

As a playoff starter, Rodgers has a 12-10 record. That includes 7-9 since winning Super Bowl XLV. He’s thrown 45 touchdowns vs. 13 interceptions with a 100.1 passer rating.

Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen (13 starts)

Allen finished fifth in the NFL with a 102.2 passer rating. He threw for 3,668 yards with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. While he was “only” 11th in passing yards and ninth in touchdown passes, he added 579 rushing yards and 14 rushing touchdowns – his third consecutive year with at least a dozen rushing scores.

With Patrick Mahomes out of the way, the door is open for Allen to win a Super Bowl. In 13 career playoff games, he’s got a 7-6 record with 25 touchdowns (plus seven rushing touchdowns), four interceptions and a 101.7 passer rating. He’s won at least one playoff game the past five seasons.

Los Angeles Rams: Matthew Stafford (10 starts)

Stafford, 37, is in his 17th season. He ranks sixth all-time in passing yards and seventh in touchdown passes. This season, he finished second in passer rating, first in yards and first in touchdowns. At FanDuel Sportsbook, he is the betting favorite to win NFL MVP for the first time.

For his career, he is 5-5 as a playoff starter. Four of those wins came in leading the Rams to a Super Bowl victory following the 2021 season. He’s thrown 19 touchdowns and six interceptions in the playoffs, with at least two touchdowns in seven consecutive games.

Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Hurts (nine starts)

Hurts finished 11th with a 98.5 passer rating with 25 touchdowns and six interceptions. He added 421 rushing yards and eight more touchdowns.

Hurts is 6-3 as a playoff starter with a total of 20 touchdowns – 10 passing and 10 rushing –three interceptions and a 95.4 passer rating. He led the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2022 (lost to the Chiefs) and 2024 (win over the Chiefs). He threw for 131 yards and two touchdowns vs. the Packers in the wild-card round last year.

San Francisco 49ers: Brock Purdy (six starts)

In nine games, Purdy ranked seventh with a 100.2 passer rating and third with a 69.4 percent completion rate. He threw 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions; he finished with the third-highest interception percentage.

Purdy has started six playoff games in his career. In 2022, he led the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game but suffered an elbow injury early in a blowout loss at the Eagles. In 2023, he led the team to the Super Bowl, where it lost to the Chiefs in overtime. He’s got a 4-2 record with six touchdowns, one interception and a 96.2 passer rating.

Houston Texans: C.J. Stroud (four starts)

After a slow start, Stroud helped the Texans rally to the playoffs. He finished 16th with a 92.9 passer rating with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 14 games. He had only four 100-rating games.

This will be his third playoff appearance, with the Texans winning in the wild-card round but losing in the divisional round both times. In four games, he has four touchdowns, one interception and a 100.5 passer rating. Three of the touchdowns came in his playoff debut, though.

Green Bay Packers: Jordan Love (three starts)

Love had the best season of his career. He finished sixth with a 101.2 passer rating. Critically, he improved his accuracy and cut back on the turnovers. He completed 66.3 percent of his passes with 23 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Love is 1-2 in the playoffs with five touchdowns, five interceptions and an 83.4 rating. He torched the Cowboys in his playoff debut with a 157.2 passer rating – highest ever for a visiting quarterback – but threw a total of five interceptions in losses to the 49ers in 2023 and the Eagles in 2024.

The Packers are 1.5-point favorites vs. the Bears.

Los Angeles Chargers: Justin Herbert (two starts)

Herbert finished 14th with a 94.1 passer rating. He threw 26 touchdowns and 13 interceptions; only three quarterbacks threw more interceptions. He was sacked 54 times, third-most in the league and most among playoff quarterbacks.

In the playoffs, he’s 0-2 as a starter with an 84.7 rating in the Chargers’ epic collapse against the Jaguars in 2022 and four interceptions and a 40.9 passer rating in getting crushed by the Texans last year.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence (two starts)

Lawrence finished only 19th in passer rating (90.6) and 25th in completion percentage (60.9). While he threw for 4,007 yards and 29 touchdowns, he also threw 12 interceptions. During their seven-game winning streak, however, he threw 19 touchdowns and five interceptions (with three picks in one game).

The first pick of the 2021 draft, Lawrence will be making his third playoff start. In 2022, he led a stunning come-from-behind win against the Chargers. He finished that game with four touchdowns and four interceptions, then had one touchdown and one interception in a loss to the Chiefs.

Seattle Seahawks: Sam Darnold (one start)

Darnold led the Vikings to a 14-3 record and the playoffs last year and the Seahawks to a 14-3 record and the No. 1 seed this year. He finished 10th with a 99.1 passer rating. He threw for 4,048 yards and 25 touchdowns, but only two players threw more than his 14 interceptions. Seattle has won seven in a row but Darnold is on a four-game streak without a 100 rating.

Darnold made his only playoff start last year. The Vikings were crushed by the Rams 27-9 as Darnold was sacked nine times.

Denver Broncos: Bo Nix (one start)

Nix is the wild card of the playoffs. Denver is the No. 1 seed, and he’s been great at times – the second half against Green Bay an obvious case in point. However, he finished 25th with an 87.8 passer rating and 6.4 yards per attempt. He threw 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

The 12th pick of the 2024 draft was 13-of-22 for 144 yards in a blowout loss to Buffalo in last year’s playoffs.

Carolina Panthers: Bryce Young (zero starts)

Young ranked 25th out of 28 with an 87.8 passer rating and 26th with 6.3 yards per attempt. He threw 23 touchdowns but 11 interceptions. In 16 starts, he had four games with a 100-plus rating but five games of less than 65. He had only four games with 200-plus yards, but one was 448 against Atlanta.

This will be his first career playoff start and the team’s first playoff appearance since 2017.

Chicago Bears: Caleb Williams (zero starts)

Williams, the first pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, finished the season ranked 21st in passer rating and last in completion percentage. He threw 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions. With 3,942 yards, he just missed becoming the first 4,000-yard passer in franchise history.

This will be his first career playoff game.

In four career games against Green Bay, he had ratings of 98.9 (win) and 76.6 (loss) this year and 95.2 (win) and 95.0 (loss) last year.

New England Patriots: Drake Maye (zero starts)

Maye had a sensational season, finishing first in the NFL with a 113.5 rating and 72.0 percent completion rate, third with 31 touchdowns and fourth with 4,394 passing yards. He had a 100-plus rating in 13 games.

This will be the playoff debut for Maye, the third pick of the 2024 draft.

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