After six games of the Jordan Love experiment, the quarterback for the Packers is reverting to his worst situation.
In 11 games, Jordan Love must maintain his starting position. That fact is what we discovered, if anything, about the NFL on Sunday.
You can’t lose badly, 19-17, to a miserable Denver Broncos team while holding the ball and the game in your hands and not have people look for easy-to-find holes in your defense. Anyone who has followed Love’s journey with the Green Bay Packers closely has seen the cracks: three years of playing behind Aaron Rodgers and no one in the organization really believing that Love is the next big thing; the sporadic game appearances that turned into more of a showcase for talent than substantial growth; this most recent offseason, when head coach Matt LaFleur defied expectations and begged for patience; and now, three straight losses that have taken a promising start and dropped it back toward the lower levels of the league
On Sunday, Love appeared like this: At best, a bottom-third starter who continues to make poor decisions and struggle with deep throw accuracy. His lackluster box score numbers in the Denver match? If you look at the progression of his two touchdown throws, they appear better than they actually are. First, he floated a pop fly to Romeo Doubs, who was temporarily open in the end zone. Pat Surtain II, a cornerback for the Broncos, recovered and successfully intercepted the ball in a jointly possessed grab. Since the attacking player always has dual possession, Doubs was given the catch by regulation. Love scored his second touchdown with even more unlikely luck, side-arming a poor short-area fastball that was just a beat behind Doubs. The ball slid beyond the wideout’s hands on the fourth-and-2 pass, but rookie receiver Jayden Reed , who was crossing right behind the play, snared the ball in an incredible way.
After a while, Love’s good fortune ran out, and the Packers had to keep worrying about the direction things was headed. Green Bay was facing a third-and-20 with less than two minutes remaining when Love snapped, locked onto Samori Toure on a long vertical route, and threw into double coverage for an easy interception. In the same play, he failed to intercept a running back in the left flat who had a chance to run for a first down and a streaking Reed who had gotten behind safety cover. Rather, Love chose the worst course of action, ending the game.
The reason the recap matters is that Love’s three-game losing skid has been a microcosm of himself, and it’s beginning to seem like he could be the average player he’s been portraying. If we’re being really honest, the Packers probably hedged their bets in the summer by giving him a 2024 contract deal that would pay him like a backup the next year. This was the Love they believed they may be investing in, in the worst case situation. The same one they studied for a backup for three years, not exactly knowing what they had. The identical one that they examined during the off-season, not knowing what they possessed. And the same one they are currently examining and maybe beginning to comprehend
Let’s put everything in an economic context. After three years as a backup, if the Packers didn’t know what Love was… They were clueless about his identity following this offseason. If, in 11 games, they still don’t know what he is, they already know exactly what he isn’t.
a steady starter.
I say all of this after making a strong argument for Love a few weeks ago by pointing out that, unlike Rodgers, he doesn’t have the same seasoned components surrounding him when he eventually overcame his first season as a starter. However, Love has started to exhibit an incapacity to make the correct choices when they ought to be simpler than they are over this three-game losing run. Ultimately, he is not a novice. He’s been working on his mental health for years. He has experienced several offseasons in the passing scheme. While Rodgers was a healthy scratch, he played in years of preseason games. However, he continues to make choices that appear to be the result of someone who is still learning the subtleties of at this level, playing quarterback. In addition, his deep accuracy and general ball placement are hurting the younger players in his vicinity.
