Love Proved Doubters (Including This One) Wrong

Jordan Love stunningly went from the quarterback the Packers shouldn’t have drafted to the quarterback worthy of getting a $220 million contract extension on Friday.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love has 220 million reasons to celebrate. / Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Now in my 17th year on the Green Bay Packers beat, one practice tends to blend into another. However, there’s one practice I’ll never forget.

It was June 9, 2021, the second day of the Packers’ mandatory minicamp. With Aaron Rodgers holding out, second-year quarterback Jordan Love ran the show. He was brilliant. Love was 20-of-30 passing and delivered the winning 2-minute drill.

It’s not so much the specifics that stick in my mind, though. It’s the memory of Love making several big plays down the field – something he hadn’t done. Even more than that, it was the vibe on the practice field. There was a genuine buzz, and it seemed to get louder and more obvious with every completion. It was almost as if everyone on Clarke Hinkle Field that day was thinking, “Damn, this guy is going to be good.”

It wasn’t just that Love was good by his standards. He was good by anyone’s standards. Had that been Rodgers fileting the No. 1 defense, that would have been the story of the day.

That it was Love was huge, though.

Remember, he was drafted in 2020. COVID eliminated the offseason program and the preseason. On the practice field, Love wasn’t very good that summer. He seemed unwilling – or unable – to push the ball downfield and spent his rookie season as the No. 3 quarterback behind Rodgers and Tim Boyle.

June 9, 2021, was different. It was the first sign of what Love could become, and what the Packers are paying for in the record-tying contract extension that Love and the team agreed to after Friday’s practice.

Going back to 2021, that minicamp practice wasn’t exactly a jumping-off point. Love wasn’t very good on June 8 and he wasn’t very good on June 10, either.

Thus, for all the excuses that were made for Love’s poor performance in a 13-7 loss at the Chiefs on Nov. 7, 2021, it wasn’t a surprise, either.

Fast forward to 2022, and it was more of the same. Love ran the show for most of the three preseason games. He completed 55.4 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and four interceptions. His 63.9 passer rating ranked 28th out of 30 qualifying quarterbacks.

At that point, considering the circumstances, Love looked like one of the worst draft picks in NFL history.

Before the 2020 draft, a bunch of beat reporters met with general manager Brian Gutekunst in a conference room at Lambeau Field. I remember The Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Pete Dougherty asking if Gutekunst would consider drafting a quarterback in the first round. Gutekunst said yes.

“Wouldn’t that be a wasted draft pick?” I asked. Or something like that. Honestly, I wasn’t buying what he was selling. 

Remember, the Packers in 2019 reached the NFC Championship Game. With Rodgers locked in at quarterback and with the team perhaps a player or two away from finally getting back to the Super Bowl, what would be the point of burning a first-round pick on a player who might never see the field?

Rodgers won MVP in 2020 and 2021 but the Packers couldn’t get over the hump. They could have used that first-round pick on a receiver such as Tee Higgins. Instead, they had Love cashing more than $12 million worth of checks to run the scout team.

To say he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn would be hyperbole. However, the Packers have a drill where the quarterback has to go through his progressions or perhaps scramble out of the pocket and throw the ball to a large net that includes a couple smaller nets, which are different colors. With the quarterback on the move, a coach yells “red” or “blue” and the idea is throw the ball into the proper net. More often than not, Rodgers would hit his target. Too often, Love would miss the entire thing.

Everything fell apart for the Packers in 2022. They finished 8-9 and missed the playoffs. Rodgers wanted out, and the Packers granted him his wish and handed the keys of the offense to Love. His lone on-field success story was a late-game cameo at Philadelphia. Love was sharp that night, but the Packers trailed by two scores for both possessions, so the Eagles’ defense was playing soft.

The anointed starter in 2023, Love had a decent training camp and preseason (a strong 109.8 passer rating but a feeble 5.85 yards per attempt). He beat the Bears in Week 1 but flopped with a chance to lead the game-winning drive at the Falcons in Week 2.

Through nine games, the Packers were 3-6. Love had an NFL-high 10 interceptions – from 2011 through 2021, Rodgers never had 10 interceptions in a full season – and ranked 33rd out of 34 qualifying quarterbacks in completion percentage.

With the Packers on track for a top-10 pick and armed with additional draft assets from the Rodgers trade, it was fair to wonder if Love would be nothing more than a bridge between Rodgers and The Next Guy.

Of course, you know the rest of the story.

Love led the Packers to six wins in the final eight games. He had a passer rating of at least 108 in seven of those games. During the second half of the season, he led the NFL in passing yards and touchdown-to-interception ratio, was second in passer rating and passing touchdowns, and was third in completion percentage. Then, he destroyed the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs.

It was a Rodgers-esque stretch of games.

While he fell short with a chance to be the hero in San Francisco, Love showed he could be the franchise’s next great quarterback.

I was wrong about drafting a quarterback in 2020.

I was wrong after 2021.

I was wrong after the first half of last season.

I don’t know that Love will ever be vintage Rodgers or Joe Burrow, let alone Patrick Mahomes. Then again, it took a while for Rodgers to become vintage Rodgers. Love has proven the doubters wrong at every turn, so only a fool would bet against him.

What became clear down the stretch last season is the Packers’ championship window is wide open again because they’ve got a quarterback with the skill, mentality and drive to be great.

Credit to Gutekunst for having the foresight and to Love for doing the right things to make it happen.

More Green Bay Packers Training Camp News

Here's the story on Jordan Love's record-setting contract extension with the #Packers. ⬇️https://t.co/HrUWZzNukJ

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) July 27, 2024

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