Love’s Under Pressure To Perform Under Pressure

There is no evidence one way or the other on Jordan Love's ability to make plays under pressure. If he can, that would be an upgrade over Aaron Rodgers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – New Green Bay Packers starting quarterback Jordan Love is under a lot of pressure entering the 2023 NFL season.

There’s the universal pressure of being a starting quarterback.

There’s the pressure of replacing a legend, Aaron Rodgers.

There’s the pressure of having a short window of opportunity to prove he’s worthy of being the team’s long-term starter – and the riches that come with that stature.

There’s also pressure to perform under pressure. It’s perhaps this area where there’s the most to gain this season as the Packers look to rebound from an 8-9 season.

Two types of quarterbacks struggle under pressure: Bad quarterbacks and old quarterbacks.

According to Pro Football Focus, 40 quarterbacks were under pressure on more than 55 dropbacks last season. In that group, Rodgers ranked:

- 20th with a 47.0 percent completion rate.

- 18th with a 64.4 percent adjusted completion rate (throwaways aren’t counted, drops are counted as completions).

- 19th with 5.8 yards per attempt.

- 21st in touchdown-to-interception ratio (four touchdowns, four interceptions).

- 23rd with a 69.4 passer rating.

Rodgers turned 39 last season. While there are exceptions to every rule, generally speaking, old quarterbacks just don’t want to get hit. It happened to Brett Favre. It happened to Tom Brady (37th with an under-pressure passer rating of 41.6 last season). It happened to Rodgers (an under-pressure passer rating of 67.9 compared to his top-ranked 123.7 in a clean pocket in 2021).

Essentially, and oftentimes subconsciously, older quarterbacks start making business decisions. The older you get, the more it hurts to get hit – and the longer the pain lingers. So, that nerve to hang in the pocket and throw a strike tends to diminish with age. It’s a matter of season and career preservation to get through the physical and mental grind of a 17-plus-game season.

Bad quarterbacks, as you’d expect, also struggle under pressure. The Jets wouldn’t have needed Rodgers had Zach Wilson not been such a colossal bust. Last season, his 18.6 passer rating and 30.1 completion percentage vs. pressure were the worst in the NFL.

At 24, Love, obviously, is not old. One of his big edges over Rodgers at this point in their careers is his mobility, ability to extend plays and make something happen out of the structure of the offense.

With 83 career passing attempts, Love’s sample size in all facets of his game is vanishingly small.

Most of his playing time came in 2021, when he started at Kansas City when Rodgers was out with COVID and was joined by a bunch of backups for the second half of the meaningless finale against Detroit.

Love was horrendous under pressure in those games. According to PFF, he completed 6-of-19 passes, a woeful completion rate of 31.6 percent. Of 50 quarterbacks with 25 under-pressure dropbacks, Love was 49th in completion percentage (Wilson was 50th), 44th in passer rating and 40th in yards per attempt.

Love’s improvement in 2022 was one of the driving forces behind making the change at quarterback. He didn’t play much and was just 2-of-4 passing when pressured, so there’s no evidence one way or the other on whether Love has what it takes to make a big play before taking a big hit.

In that regard, an enormously important preseason awaits. On the practice field, Joe Barry’s pass rushers can get after Love but it’s just not the same knowing that Preston Smith, Lukas Van Ness and Kenny Clark are going to run past the quarterback rather than drive him to the turf. Joint practices against the Bengals and Patriots will be helpful, too, but they won’t be hitting the quarterback, either.

There’s only one way for a quarterback to truly get ready to play under pressure. Those are game experiences.

Can Love not only handle the pressure of replacing Rodgers but handle the pressure of making throws with defenders out for blood? The answer to that question will determine his fate as the Packers’ starting quarterback.

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