Last in Percentage, Packers’ Jordan Love Has New Focus After Bye

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love likes to talk about “finding” completions. The Packers need him to find them a lot more frequently.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – One of Jordan Love’s go-to phrases is “finding those completions.”

He still hasn’t found them with consistency.

With Love and the Green Bay Packers getting ready to play at the Denver Broncos on Sunday, the first-year starting quarterback is last in the NFL in completion percentage by a significant margin.

Love has completed 55.6 percent of his passes. If Love opened Sunday with 15 consecutive completions, he’d still be behind two rookie passers, Indianapolis’ Anthony Richardson (59.5 percent) and Houston’s C.J. Stroud (59.6 percent). That incredibly low number, a byproduct of his inexperience along with youth and injuries throughout the offense, has played a large role in Green Bay’s offensive problems through five games.

“I think once we get the ball moving, once we get that rhythm going, I think we’ve been pretty good,” Love said after practice on Wednesday. “It’s just that consistency of finding those completions and getting the chains moving.”

Through two games, Love was No. 1 in the NFL in passer rating. Entering Week 7, he’s 29th at 77.3. That’s ahead of only New England’s Mac Jones, the Jets’ Zach Wilson, the Titans’ Ryan Tannehill and the Giants’ bottom-of-the-barrel Daniel Jones, who’s at 71.7.

“I think a lot of times the quarterback gets too much blame when you’re not scoring points,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “That’s just the way it goes, especially when you’re turning over the ball. It comes down to us getting into a rhythm offensively. We have not done that.”

There are extenuating circumstances, to be sure.

Packers QB Jordan Love is last in the NFL in completion percentage :: Photo by Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports Images

Running back Aaron Jones and receiver Christian Watson were supposed to be the big-play playmakers. Instead, Jones hasn’t even played 50 snaps and Watson missed the first three games and hasn’t found his form.

Left tackle David Bakhtiari is out for the season, left guard Elgton Jenkins missed two games and right tackle Zach Tom has been slowed by a knee injury. Those injuries have played a role in shoddy pass protection the last two games.

If that’s not enough, three of the top four in passing-game targets are rookies.

“I don’t think he’s worried about it,” LaFleur said of all the surrounding issues. “I think he’s got the right mind-set and the right approach to it. He’s worried about the things that he can control because all that is out of his control.

“I think he’s been resilient, even when we’ve struggled on offense. I see him being a leader, trying to encourage the guys. It gets frustrating at times, we all know that, when you’re not scoring points and moving the ball up and down the field. But I think he’s been very steady in terms of his approach, his mind-set, really trying to truly embody that one-play mind-set.”

That’s a lot of praise by LaFleur. Unfortunately for the Packers, there was nary a word about completing passes, hitting receivers in stride and moving the chains.

Love has beaten his season-long completion rate of 55.6 percent in just one game – the Week 4 loss to Detroit that was filled with a lot of second-half fluff. He is 24th in passing attempts but seventh in incompletions and fourth in interceptions.

According to league data, Love’s average pass length is 9.88 yards and his average completion includes 6.70 air yards. That 3.18-yard differential is second-worst in the league.

Among 30 quarterbacks with at least 10 passing attempts of 20-plus yards, Love is 28th with a 14.8 percent completion rate, according to Pro Football Focus. Of 31 quarterbacks with at least 20 passing attempts between 10 and 19 yards, Love ranks 27th with a completion rate of 48.7 percent.

“I think more of it is just consistency and finding those completions,” Love said, “and getting the playmakers the ball in space so they can operate and make guys miss. And not always trying to find that big play and force the ball downfield, but just getting the ball in guys’ hands quickly, I think that’s the biggest thing.”

During training camp, Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning visited Green Bay and talked to Love. As a rookie in 1998, Manning led the NFL with 28 interceptions as the Colts went 3-13.

Nobody expected Love to play like in-his-prime Manning this year. With the team getting healthier, Love needs to find those completions that eluded him to open the season.

“He talked about his first year and he led the league in interceptions,” Love said. “Talking about how there’s highs and lows. It’s never perfect. Obviously, he wasn’t trying to do that, but it’s growing pains, part of it. Obviously, it worked out for him, he kept working, kept his head down, bounced back.”

Love is putting in the work. Now, the Packers need the bounce-back.

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