The Green Bay Packers were, once again, shutout of any awards at the annual NFL Honors ceremony. Head coach Matt LaFleur finished ninth in Coach of the Year voting, an award that Kevin Stefanski of the Cleveland Browns won by a single vote over DeMeco Ryans of the Houston Texans. Wide receiver Jayden Reed got a single third place vote for Offensive Rookie of the Year, an award that went to Texans quarterback CJ Stroud.
Packers super fan Tom Grossi took home the NFL Fan of the Year Award, beating out over 60,000 fans that were initially nominated. His 30-in-30 campaign last summer that took him to every NFL stadium in 30 days helped raise over $500,000 for St. Jude.
Former Packers players Julius Peppers and Steve McMichael were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and will be enshrined in Canton later this summer.
The NFL’s top award, Most Valuable Player, went to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who won the award for the second time in his career. While Jackson was most certainly deserving, his win indicates that there is an incredibly bright future for another quarterback who did not get the recognition he deserved this season: Packers quarterback Jordan Love.
Green Bay Packers Quarterback Jordan Love Had a Better Season than Most NFC Pro Bowl Quarterbacks
The Packers did not have a single Pro Bowl player this season until Kenny Clark was a late addition to the NFC roster due to San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Javon Hargrave, who dropped out due to Super Bowl preparations.
That does not mean, though, that they should not have had any Pro Bowlers to begin with. In fact, a look at the stats of the six NFC quarterbacks that were named to the Pro Bowl while comparing them to Love’s 2023 season show that the Packers’ quarterback was one of the biggest snubs of the year:
| Quarterback | Completion % | Yards | Touchdowns | Interceptions | Passer Rating |
| Jordan Love | 64.2% | 4,159 | 32 | 11 | 96.1 |
| Brock Purdy | 69.4% | 4,280 | 31 | 11 | 113.0 |
| Dak Prescott | 69.5% | 4,516 | 36 | 9 | 105.9 |
| Matthew Stafford | 62.6% | 3,965 | 24 | 11 | 92.5 |
| Jalen Hurts | 65.4% | 3,858 | 23 | 15 | 89.1 |
| Geno Smith | 64.7% | 3,624 | 20 | 9 | 92.1 |
| Baker Mayfield | 64.3% | 4,044 | 28 | 10 | 94.6 |
As the table shows, Brock Purdy and Dak Prescott were the only NFC quarterbacks that clearly had a better season that Love. Furthermore, Love accomplished his numbers while throwing to first and second year pass catchers while his primary running back spent most of the season injured and his preferred left tackle missed all but one game.
How Jordan Love’s 2023 Season Compared to Lamar Jackson’s
Lamar Jackson’s second MVP season saw him put up the following numbers:
- 67.2% completion percentage
- 3,678 passing yards
- 24 passing touchdowns
- Seven interceptions
- 102.7 passer rating
- 821 rushing yards
- Five rushing touchdowns
Obviously, Jackson’s great abilities as a mobile quarterback played a huge part in his winning the MVP Award this season. However, it is noteworthy that Love had almost 500 more passing yards and eight more passing touchdowns than he did. While he only had 247 rushing yards, he had just one less rushing touchdown than Jackson.
Love also had two fourth quarter comebacks in 2023 to go with three game-winning drives. Jackson had just one fourth quarter comeback and no game-winning drives.
The award was certainly Jackson’s to win this year, but Love put up excellent numbers himself and will only be better next year with a year of experience and a more battle-tested receiving core.
Things are looking up in Green Bay.
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