Jordan Love Must Channel His Inner Superman For the Packers To Survive In the Playoffs

The playoffs are here, and the Green Bay Packers are part of the field again. For the third consecutive season, they enter as the seventh seed. However, the circumstances are markedly different this time, both psychologically and in terms of roster health.

Green Bay enters the postseason in a far different position than expected in September. The Packers began the year with the fifth-best odds to win the Super Bowl. However, by Week 18, they had fallen to 11th-best championship odds, according to ESPN. Much of that drop can be traced to injuries to key starters, including Micah Parsons, Tucker Kraft, Elgton Jenkins, and Devonte Wyatt, which have reshaped both the roster and the team’s margin for error heading into the playoffs.

Since Parsons tore his ACL against the Denver Broncos, Green Bay’s defense has taken a noticeable step back. At the same time, special teams under Rich Bisaccia have once again fallen short of expectations, which should surprise no one who has been paying attention. With instability on both sides of the ball, the reality is simple: If the Packers are going to win a game in January, it will have to come on the back of the offense carrying the load.

And that puts the burden squarely on Jordan Love to channel his inner Superman.

Packers fans eventually grew frustrated with how often Aaron Rodgers had to play at an unreal level every postseason just for Green Bay to have a chance. It is easy to forget that he once led the team to an NFC Championship game while a defensive tackle started at right guard, and Ladarius Gunter was left to cover prime Julio Jones.

Jordan Love is now stepping into that same reality for the first time. Unlike his predecessor, he will learn what that burden feels like with no safety net in the most unforgiving part of the season.

Green Bay’s defense has struggled to stop the run, while the cornerback group has been a liability, much like the special teams unit. The issues do not end there. The Packers have cycled through more than 20 different combinations on the offensive line this season, and Josh Jacobs has battled injuries throughout the second half, leaving him unlikely to be fully healthy for this playoff run. Adding to the instability, Green Bay made 23 roster moves heading into Week 18, a level of late-season turnover that borders on unprecedented.

With nearly every facet of the roster breaking down, this postseason is going to come down to Love and an offense that may need to score 40 points a game. The defense will give up points, and there is little reason to expect meaningful help from special teams. Love will have to transcend to another level. The encouraging part is that he has already shown he can do that by January.

Who could forget Love’s playoff debut against the Dallas Cowboys in 2023? That afternoon, he completed 16 of 21 passes for 272 yards and three touchdowns, finishing just one meaningless incompletion away from a perfect passer rating in a game that was effectively decided well before garbage time.

That win at Jerry World is arguably the signature victory of Love’s career to this point, and it is the standard he will need to meet for four straight games if Green Bay is going to have any chance of winning the Super Bowl. Yes, the discussion often drifts toward the Cowboys’ long postseason failures, but that defense entered the game ranked top five in both EPA per play and total EPA allowed. Love still made them look overmatched on their own field.

This postseason run has the potential to be legacy-defining for Jordan Love. That said, the Packers have no business winning a playoff game given how injured they are and how many unresolved issues exist across all three phases. The bar is simply different for this team. Any positive outcome that comes from this run should be viewed as a bonus and something Green Bay can build on heading into 2026.