Acme Packing Company
First, I should probably establish that Jordan Love actually is good. After all, you may not think he’s good, because he doesn’t seem as good as he is, which is the point of the article. So, let’s prove that out. For all quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts so far this season, Love is:
Love may not be the best quarterback in football, but on a per play basis, he’s very much up there, and that’s been true since at least 2023. But, while I think Packer fans and national pundits alike are generally fine with Love, any discussion of him almost always comes with a caveat that “of course he’s not Aaron Rodgers or Brett Favre,” or that “he’s good, not great.” But…
He’s pretty close! Really!
So, what gives? Why don’t we think Jordan Love could be one of the NFL’s best? Maybe even a Hall of Famer? I think it comes down to one main factor. Counting stats.
In Aaron Rodgers’ first three seasons as a starter, he averaged 4131 yards per season, while Love, in his first two full seasons, averaged 3774 yards. There are some injuries in there, so let’s give Love a boost by considering his 17-game average while a starter, which is 4010 yards. That doesn’t seem so bad except during Aaron’s first three seasons, teams only played 16 games. Aaron’s 17-game average at that time was 4483 yards per season. That’s a hefty difference. Even under Matt LaFleur in his final three seasons, Rodgers averaged over 4200 yards per 17 games. Importantly, it’s not really Love’s per play production that’s down versus Rodgers. It’s his attempts! Rodgers averaged 555 attempts per 17 games in his final three Packer seasons. Love has averaged 533.
The Packers moved slowly under Rodgers in terms of pace of play, but they are glacial under Love, and while Rodgers was happy to check out of a run to a pass, Love is happy, for better or worse, to stick with run calls, leading to more running plays and shorter overall games.
Last year due to injuries and pace of play, Jordan Love finished 19th in raw passing yards with 3389, two spots below Caleb Williams. While Love did finish seventh in yards in 2023 as a rookie with 4159, he finished behind Brock Purdy and Patrick Mahomes (who each played one fewer game than him), while being barely ahead of CJ Stroud and Matthew Stafford (who played two fewer games) and Trevor Lawrence (who also played one fewer game). Division rival Jared Goff passed for 416 more yards than Love that year. That’s a big counting stat difference!
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