The Green Bay Packers have found their future franchise quarterback.
This franchise has an uncanny ability of finding franchise signal callers that end up playing — and thriving — for the team for a long time.
Jordan Love is playing as well as many of the top quarterbacks in the NFL right now and the Pack will need him and the offense to thrive in a hostile road divisional game with so much on the line.
With two games remaining in the regular season, the Packers first-year starter Has 3,587 passing yards. 27 passing touchdowns, a passer rating of 91.8, three rushing touchdowns and just 11 interceptions.
In terms of stats, Love has already surpassed Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre for performance in his first season starting.
One of the keys to the Packers offensive success has been the strong play of their young offensive weapons.
From rookies like Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft, to second-year WR Christian Watson, the youngest offense in the NFL has struck gold at their skill positions.
Green Bay Packers Coach Praised For Adapting Offense To Jordan Love’s Strengths
It may sound like common sense, but anyone that watched Green Bay early this season could obviously see the head coach didn’t have full faith in Jordan Love, but that has changed drastically as the Packers have made a run toward the playoffs.
Former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky is widely respected for breaking down the intense details that the average fan may not grasp at first glance, and agrees LaFleur and the Packers’ coaching staff has adapted to set Jordan Love and the youngest offense in the NFL up for success.
In a piece written by ESPN Packers’ beat reporter Rob Demovsky, he highlighted these same points based on Orlovsky’s film study of Love.
Demovsky noted Orlovsky noticed two major differences in the Green Bay Packers and Jordan Love over the last month.
Matt LaFleur’s use of play-action as a means to protect Love, and Love’s ability to (despite some mechanical issues that Orlovsky said can be fixed) complete more of the basic throws.
“Do I think he is where he needs to be mechanically with his feet right now?” Orlovsky asked. “No. But I think that they’ve realized that if he’s clean or protected, they can get to the mechanics and his feet in the offseason a little bit with his balance and base. They’re really doing a good job trying to keep him clean in that regard.”
Then Orlovsky explained the second thing he’s noticed that’s made a major difference.
“The second thing, from Week 3 to about Week 8 or 9, the glaring thing for me outside of — I’ve talked about his feet and the hoppy-ness — he would either have a ‘9’ throw or a ‘2’ throw, meaning if you were grading the throw 1-10, he’d have three, four, five a game that were 9s, and then he’d have three, four, five a game that were 2s,” Orlovsky said. “He didn’t have many 6s. On the box score, it might even be a completion. But instead of it being an 11-yard gain, it was a 4-yard gain because it was low or he stopped the receiver or something like that. A lot of great throws, not enough good throws.”
Former Green Bay Packers backup QB Kurt Benkert noticed a similar adjustment from LaFleur to maximize Love’s talent.
My shout out today goes to Matt LaFleur. His willingness to adapt and change his play calling over the last few weeks has been really cool to see and he has the entire team playing at a championship level,” Benkert said.
“The trust that he has put into Jordan on critical 3rd and 4th downs + the red zone is so evident now. I’ve obviously been critical of him when I felt like it was warranted and will be equally as quick to say that he is coaching the best ball of his life right now with the youngest team in the NFL.”
Sports Illustrated Predicts Packers Will Extend Jordan Love This Offseason
Although it’s been a small sample size, it’s clear Love is the answer at QB in Green Bay moving forward, but there hasn’t been many talks about a potential extension for the new franchise signal caller.
But in a piece about five predictions for the Green Bay Packers in 2024, Sports Illustrated lays out the reasoning an extension for Love makes sense this offseason:
Jordan Love and the Packers made a compromise on his contract situation this past offseason.
With the deadline for his fifth-year option on his rookie contract looming, the Packers and Love agreed to a deal that got Love more money upfront and bought the Packers time.
The Packers could just let Love play out his final season on his contract and choose to extend him after another season of play, but that seems unlikely for two reasons.
1.) Teams don’t typically operate with a quarterback that is essentially a lame-duck.
2.) It’s hard to envision GM Brian Gutekunst, who put his career on the line to draft Love, not being convinced that he’s the guy after this strong stretch of play.
