No other NFL franchise has a more successful history of finding and developing quarterbacks than the Green Bay Packers. It started with Bart Starr in the 1960s. Then, Brett Favre arrived in the 1990s and led the team through the late 2000s. Aaron Rodgers then took over from 2008 through the early 2020s, and now Jordan Love has stepped in as his heir, guiding the Packers to back-to-back playoff appearances since becoming the starter.
Each of these quarterbacks brought a unique skill set shaped in part by the era in which they entered professional football. Love resembled Favre in his aggressive approach and fearless decision-making. He’s the type of quarterback who will challenge defenses downfield, threading the ball into tight windows against double or triple coverage — a far more risk-taking style than Rodgers’ precise, methodical game.
Packers fans have grown accustomed to Rodgers’ careful, deliberate style and now struggle to evaluate Love objectively. Too often, emotion prevails over data, leaving Love judged by comparisons rather than his own performance.
Love enters Week 4 as the league leader in big-time throw rate, despite ranking just 25th in passing attempts. Still, after Sunday’s 13-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns, all fans can talk about is his late fourth-quarter interception that set up Cleveland’s game-tying score.
However, Love put the Packers in position to win on the following drive, and his interception was more a result of a great read by Grant Delpit than Love’s throw.
Green Bay ran a triple-slant concept on this play, which quarterbacks typically read inside out. Love saw Delpit slide toward Tucker Kraft and anticipated the window to the No. 2 receiver to be open, and it was. But Delpit executed perfectly, dropping off his coverage at just the right moment to make the play.
People have flooded my mentions over the past few days, claiming Love can’t be trusted, that he is a bad quarterback, and careless with the football. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Through three games, he ranks seventh in adjusted EPA plus PFF blend. He has thrown only one interception and has a 3.1% turnover-worthy play rate, which ranks 16th among passers with at least 25 dropbacks.
In his first 36 starts, Love already has four fourth-quarter comebacks and five game-winning drives. For comparison, Rodgers had just three comebacks and five game-winning drives in his first 62 starts. It took Rodgers two extra years to match Love’s total, and Love should already be at six if not for a blocked field goal on Sunday.
There’s a common misconception, often driven by emotional takes, that Love isn’t clutch. However, we’ve already seen plenty of clutch moments. He led a 17-0 comeback in his first start at Lambeau against the New Orleans Saints, threw three touchdowns to beat the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, and upset the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Thanksgiving with a 29-22 win.
Last year, Love’s 3.5% turnover-worthy play rate under pressure was the second-lowest by a Packers quarterback in the past 10 seasons. That stretch includes Aaron Rodgers’ back-to-back MVP years in 2020 and 2021, when he had an 85:9 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Packers fans have set Love up with an impossible standard. Rodgers is the most talented thrower the NFL has ever seen, and there will never be another quarterback like him. You may disagree with me, but here is what Tom Brady had to say on the matter.
“Aaron, in his prime, to me, is the greatest passer of the football the league has ever seen,” he told Chris Collinsworth in a recent interview. “He could get the ball from point A to B faster and more accurate than any player in the history of the NFL.”
Even if Love played more like Rodgers, matching Rodgers’ 15-year numbers would be nearly impossible. Still, after the same number of games, their stats are almost identical. Keep in mind that Love reached the postseason in 2023 with the youngest supporting cast since the 1970s and played through a knee injury in 2024.
For every five incredible throws Love makes, he’ll have one that’s turnover-worthy. It’s like he’s not allowed to make a bad throw once in a while, even though every single quarterback in NFL history has thrown their share of ducks. Some fans use that as “proof” that he isn’t a franchise quarterback. The truth is, he is. The real issue is that fans got too used to Rodgers seldom throwing interceptions, so now they don’t know how to handle it when Love does, just more often.
After three weeks, Love ranks eighth in PFF grade, sixth in success rate, sixth in completion percentage over expected, second in EPA per play from a clean pocket, and fourth in average depth of target. That level of performance doesn’t happen by chance. Sure, he could be occasionally more careful with the football, but you cannot say he is not a trustworthy quarterback. That’s just grading him on Rodgers’ terms.
Think about it: How would Jordan Love be perceived if he had taken over for Brett Favre instead of Aaron Rodgers? The entire narrative around him would be different because he wouldn’t constantly be measured against a once-in-a-generation talent, and people would see his growth for what it actually is – a franchise quarterback.