Packers QB Jordan Love: J. Geils Band Got It Wrong About No. 1 Player in 2026

Packers On SI is counting down the Green Bay Packers’ top 25 players for the 2026 season. The top-25 portion of this series concludes, obviously, with quarterback Jordan Love.

Two years ago, the nonsensical offseason question was whether the Green Bay Packers had a No. 1 receiver – or if it even mattered.

This year, it’s whether Jordan Love is a top-10 quarterback. Maybe he is; maybe he isn’t. However you rank him, Love is good enough to win games – maybe even the biggest games.

Because of his talent and production, the importance of the position and his supersized contract, Love unquestionably is the Packers’ most important player entering the season.

Why Jordan Love Is So Important

The quarterback is the player who stirs the drink. That’s why general managers move heaven and earth to find one who is capable of winning. Or maybe winning.

Of the 32 projected starting quarterbacks, 23 were selected in the first round. Half of the starters are earning at least $33 million per season. Malik Willis parlayed three starts with the Packers into a three-year, $67 million contract with Miami. The Steelers are running it back with Aaron Rodgers.

The Packers don’t have anyone in their front office who was around for the pre-Brett Favre days and knows what it’s like to be doomed to irrelevancy because the quarterback stinks.

Contrary to what the J. Geils Band sang, Love does not stink.

It can be debated until eternity whether general manager Brian Gutekunst did the right thing by drafting Love in 2020 instead of giving the Packers an instant-impact player after reaching the NFC Championship Game in 2019. What is not a matter of debate is whether Gutekunst found the right quarterback to keep the championship window open for another decade.

Luke Getsy was quarterbacks coach for Love’s first two years in the league in 2020 and 2021 and is back in that chair again.

“It was just a lot of fun when I step back in it and got to see him really running the show and him in complete control and the comfortability,” Getsy said at the start of the offseason program. “I think one of his best traits is his cool, calm, collected mentality, and then just seeing that match with all the high-level functionality of the mental part of the game, it was really cool to see that when I got back – just a natural growth for his game.”

Love is coming off the best season of his career. He completed a career-high 66.3 percent of his passes. He tossed a career-low six interceptions (with a career-best 1.4 interception percentage).

Passer rating is a great stat, but it can be skewed by quarterbacks whose touchdown numbers are either inflated by the head coach’s play-calling or deflated by a high-scoring running back. That makes yards per attempt perhaps a better metric for efficiency. The top 10 quarterbacks averaged at least 7.6 yards per attempt. When Love hit that mark last season, the Packers were 6-0-1.

If you’re more into the analytics stats, Love was No. 2 in EPA per dropback, tied with MVP Matthew Stafford, according to Next Gen Stats.

Jordan Love’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love throws a pass against Detroit Lions. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Love’s 101.2 passer rating ranked sixth in the league among the 32 quarterbacks who threw at least 250 passes. To hit triple-digits, he figured out the secret sauce to making big plays (eighth with 7.7 yards per attempt) while avoiding big mistakes (sixth in interception percentage). He was one of only four quarterbacks who finished in the top 10 in yards per attempt and interception percentage.

That is winning football.

What isn’t good enough is Love’s play while under pressure. Statistically, he’s regressed in his three seasons as the starter.

Last season, 35 quarterbacks faced pressure on at least 95 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. Love was 11th in under-pressure passing attempts but the only one without a touchdown. Of the 35, he was 31st in completion percentage, 32nd in yards per attempt and 33rd in passer rating.

His fourth-quarter numbers weren’t nearly good enough, either, though he did finish among the league leaders in fourth-quarter comebacks.

What Happens If Jordan Love Gets Hurt

Love started 30 games the last two seasons, which is tied for 13th among quarterbacks. One of the missed games was last year’s meaningless finale, when he cleared the concussion protocol but watched from the sideline alongside most of the starters. The last two seasons, he missed time with knee, groin, shoulder and head injuries.

The Packers had one of the best backup plans in the league the last two seasons with Willis. Of the 61 quarterbacks who threw 89 passes the last two seasons (Willis’ number), his 134.6 passer rating was 21.1 points better than Lamar Jackson’s second-ranked 113.5 and his 10.9 yards per attempt was 2.2 yards better than Jackson’s second-ranked 8.7.

In his place will step veteran Tyrod Taylor, who was 42nd with an 81.6 passer rating and 56th with 5.8 yards per attempt. His experience should be an asset for Love behind the scenes, but his performance if forced into action will be a reminder of the giant gulf that typically separates most starters and backups.

“I got a lot of respect for Jordan,” Taylor said. “He’s played at a high level for many years. Has full command of the offense, throws a great ball and leads the right way. Looking forward to working alongside him and being able to help the quarterback room and push everyone within this locker room to be better.”

Why We Ranked Jordan Love Here

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) passes the ball while under pressure against the Bengals. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The quarterback is the most important player on the field. And in the case of Love, he’s the most expensive player on the field.

Love is tied for third in the league with his $55 million average, a number that trails only Patrick Mahomes ($64 million) and Dak Prescott ($60 million).

Love’s cap number for the upcoming season is $36.1 million, which consumes 11.5 percent of the cap, according to OverTheCap.com. That swells to $44.0 million (13.5 percent of the projected cap) for 2027 before ballooning to $75.8 million (21.5 percent) for 2028. To make the accounting work, Love will count more than $31.5 million in 2029, when he’s no longer under contract.

So, Love is unfathomably expensive. It’s almost impossible to see a pathway for the Packers winning games without Love being healthy and effective.

Fortunately for the Packers, he’s been quite effective. Their new defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, was the Cardinals’ head coach the previous three seasons. Love threw five touchdown passes with one interception in winning matchups in 2024 and 2025.

“Top-tier guy,” Gannon said at the start of the offseason program. “He can make all the throws. He doesn’t give you chances to take the ball away. He protects the football. He’s mobile. Smart, obviously. Just competing against him, accuracy, decision making, his legs, he’s hard to defend.”

With Love, the Packers the last three seasons are third with 29 wins. But they’ve only won one playoff game. Ultimately, a quarterback is judged by the playoffs, not EPA and passer rating.

Everyone, from the coach to the kicker, needs to play bigger in those big moments. That’s true of the quarterback, as well, who was 3-of-10 passing in the first four possessions of the second half against the Bears, when the tide of the playoff game flipped.

“It’s always tough, especially when you get to the playoffs, we always talk about it, you win or go home, and everybody knows that,” Love said during OTAs. “That’s when you’ve got to play your best ball, find ways to win. That game [against the Bears] in particular, obviously being up and letting the game slip away and losing it the way we did is very tough, something you think about throughout the offseason.

“But we’ve moved on and it’s all about improving and finding ways to not let that happen again. Since I’ve been the starter here, we’ve had some tough playoff losses, and it’s all about trying to find ways to keep growing and getting better. Now we get a new opportunity this season.”

The Packers will take full advantage of that opportunity only if Love continues his rise.

Every year, I rank every player on the Packers roster based on talent, importance, salary etc. I will again this year, too.

For now, let's cut right to the chase. Here is a quick-hitting look at the 2⃣5⃣ most important players for the 2026 season.⬇️https://t.co/ezDAkl7vmd
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) June 17, 2026

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