Jordan Love: Power of progress

This story originally appeared in the 2024 Packers Yearbook, which is available now and can be ordered online at this Packers Pro Shop link.

With Jordan Love's first year as starting quarterback in the books, Head Coach Matt LaFleur reflected on it this past winter with the following:

"One of the things that has impressed me most about Jordan is his ability to learn from every situation, both good and bad," LaFleur said at the NFL owners' meeting in March. "I know he'll do everything in his power to come back and be even better than he was last season."

So what were Love's most valuable learning experiences, good and bad, in 2023? In an exclusive sit-down interview, the Packers' rising star and franchise quarterback reviews several in painstaking detail. Mostly in his own words, here they are, in chronological order.

No place to hide

In Week 2 at Atlanta, the Packers lead by two points with 6½ minutes left, facing fourth-and-1 in their own territory. The call is to try to draw the Falcons offside, but if Love gets up to the line and senses an opportunity to sneak for the first down, he can holler an alert, and the QB sneak becomes live.

Love sees the opening between the center and right guard and yells, "Easy, easy." Except the alert is actually "Chill, chill," so Love lunges forward for the sneak but the ball isn't snapped. The false start forces the Packers to punt, and the Falcons drive for the game-deciding field goal.

"I said the wrong code word at the line. I just rushed it," Love said. "That was a huge lesson point for me, just how dialed in I have to be with communication, especially on a play where it's fourth down, game's on the line. How locked in I have to be, how precise everything has to be, and how much a game could change with one play.

"It's tough, especially when you know you're the only one that messed it up."

Calm comeback

In his first home game, in Week 3 vs. New Orleans, Love is rallying the Packers from a 17-0 fourth-quarter deficit and needs one more score, down six points with four minutes left. From the Saints' 45-yard line, he's got rookie receiver Jayden Reed lined up in the slot against the nickel corner, a matchup he believes Reed will win off the line of scrimmage for a shot up the seam.

Reed makes a diving catch for a 30-yard gain to set up the game-winning score, but the great throw and better catch don't happen without Love's poise and patience not to look Reed's way too soon.

"When you get man coverage like that, the post safety is playing off your eyes, sitting back there reading, feeling the concepts, going wherever you go," Love said. "You have to do a really good job holding those guys, because if you catch the snap and look right away, they're going to fly over there for a pick.

"You have to remind yourself when you see it, just try and look guys off. You can't get caught up in the heat of the moment."

Frustrating finishes

Road games at Las Vegas, Denver and Pittsburgh from mid-October to mid-November all end in similar fashion, with interceptions on late fourth-quarter drives. Every situation different, they become a set of lessons.

In Vegas, down by four with a minute left, he sees receiver Christian Watson beating his man up the sideline, but a slight delay in his delivery allows cornerback Amik Robertson to close the gap, turn around and make a leaping interception in the end zone.

"I credit the DB, he made a really good play, but I wish I would've been able to get it out a little bit quicker," Love said. "I saw it, and you've got to be able to tell your body, throw it.

"At that point, there is a little bit of overthinking to everything you do. You break the pocket, you're like, 'Why is he so wide open? Somebody must be coming from …,' so there is that little bit of hesitation. You've got to be able to play fast, because those guys on the other side can make plays just as fast. You can get the edge by trusting what you see."

At Denver, down by two just after the two-minute warning, a holding penalty puts the Packers in third-and-20, needing a first down to get into field-goal range. Love sees a favorable coverage and goes for broke, trying to hit Samori Toure deep, but his floater is picked off by the backside safety, P.J. Locke. Most frustrating, he had Romeo Doubs on an easy out route for about 10 yards to set up fourth-and-10.

"Just another play where I learned how quickly these guys can cover ground and how quickly they read the concepts to feel where you're going," Love said. "Sometimes you don't have to force it. Every play you don't have to go win the game. Know the situation."

He tries to force another one a few weeks later in Pittsburgh, down by four with 3½ minutes left in the red zone. On an out-and-up, Watson doesn't quite sell the out well enough against veteran corner Patrick Peterson, who's in position to deflect the pass in the end zone to teammate Keanu Neal for the INT.

"We always say KYP, know your personnel, but also know who you're going against," Love said of Peterson, a future Hall of Fame candidate. "You have to take all that into consideration, know who's out there.

"If it's somebody else out there, who knows what might happen? But could've just hit the checkdown, live to fight another day, another play."

Trust comes along

Two specific plays in season-changing victories over the Lions on Thanksgiving and the eventual Super Bowl champion Chiefs 10 days later illustrate, in different ways, the growing trust in his game Love struggled with earlier in the year.

He starts the Lions game with a bang, hitting Watson deep down the middle for 53 yards on the very first snap. It's an opening play LaFleur had drawn up during the week but then thought about scratching it the night before the game.

"I was like, 'No, let's run it. I'm confident in this play,'" Love said. "That was a good job game planning for them. Coming into the second game (with Detroit, after a rough loss in Week 4), we were like, 'We're ready.' We had a better feel for what they were going to do, how their DBs played.

"I'm glad he was able to stick with it. It just speaks to the trust and the relationship me and Matt have. It's what makes Matt such a good coach – his ability to believe in the players, to listen to what they might want."

Then against the Chiefs, Love's belief in himself is on full display on a fourth-and-1 in KC territory midway through the third quarter. Leading by just two points, the Packers play it aggressively, sending Doubs deep down the middle. At the top of his drop, Love has All-Pro Chris Jones right in his face as he lets it rip.

"My time clock got sped up," Love said. "But I was able to fall back on just trusting myself, trusting what I see, playing fast, making a decisive decision, not worrying about the negative outcomes that might come from it."

The pass descends perfectly between multiple Chiefs defenders as Doubs falls to the ground and makes the 33-yard grab, leading to a Watson TD two plays later.

"It was kind of a prayer, you know?" Love said. "I felt the hole (in the coverage), but it was still a prayer, just throwing it up like that. I was on the ground, I got hit, and Rome's looking back at me, but the ball is in the air. I'm like, 'Rome, look up! Look up!' And he looks up at the last second, and the ball kind of falls in his lap.

"It's almost lucky, but at the same time, it's trusting your guys, trusting they're going to make a play, and the mindset I learned from earlier in the season where you can't hesitate in those situations. If I would've waited any longer, it's a sack. If I try and look anywhere else, I won't get the ball off."

Late-game success arrives, too

All those crunch-time setbacks on the road in the middle of the season come back around on Christmas Eve in Carolina. The Packers have played an abysmal fourth quarter on both sides of the ball, as the Panthers rally from 14 down to tie the game.

With 2½ minutes left after back-to-back punts, Love must right the ship, and the Packers' playoff fate hangs in the balance. He's one play from a third straight three-and-out, facing third-and-4 from the Green Bay 31.

"Two-minute drives, those are the most critical. That's when you've got to be at your best," Love said. "We'd failed so many times. You're facing another one with a lot on the line here to go win the game."

Focused for the pivotal moment, he calmly hits Doubs on a slot fade down the sideline for 36 yards, with the reception standing after a Carolina challenge. Interestingly, rookie Dontayvion Wicks had run the crucial play in practice that week, not Doubs, but Love was confident when he got the defensive look he was expecting.

"I knew where I was going with the ball," Love said. "When you've been having so much struggle moving the ball, to be able to hit a big play, it just feels like a sigh of relief."

Two plays later, a 20-yard completion to rookie tight end Tucker Kraft sets up a short game-winning field goal with 19 seconds left, and Green Bay's playoff hopes remain alive.

Speaking of locked in …

There's perhaps no better contrast to the communication mishap back in Week 2 in Atlanta than Love's stunning TD to Wicks at Dallas that put the Packers in control of the NFC Wild Card playoff.

Already up 14-0 late in the first half, the Packers face third-and-7 from the Cowboys' 20, and Dallas goes for broke by bringing extra pressure. But Love is in complete command.

"I did the hard count, was able to see they were going to all-out (blitz), bringing both 'backers in the A gaps, and was able to change the protection," Love said. "I've had some all-out situations, like Kansas City (in his first NFL start in 2021), where I wasn't able to pick up the answers. Now I saw it and was able to get us in the right protection to give myself more time, because I knew we had a good play on the outside with Wicks."

The rookie receiver wins off the line on a post route, and with the blitz emptying out the deep middle, Love leans back from the rush and hits him off his back foot for a 20-yard TD that practically silences AT&T Stadium, where the rout is on.

"It's a testament to everybody being dialed in, being on the same page," Love said. "Being able to execute that play at a high level was huge. It felt like everything was going right. We were just rolling."

A final motivating setback

Then suddenly, with one fateful decision, the Packers' late-season run is over.

Down by three at San Francisco in the divisional round, Love has a first down at the Green Bay 36 with 52 seconds left when he scrambles to his right and commits one of QB coach Tom Clements' mortal sins – throwing late across the middle. Intended for Watson well to the left, the pass is intercepted by linebacker Dre Greenlaw, sending the 49ers to the NFC title game and, eventually, the Super Bowl.

"(Nick) Bosa was running at me and getting close, so the timer is going off," Love said. "Tried to make a superhero play.

"You never want it to end like that. You don't have to force the ball right there. It's not fourth down, the game's not on the line on this final play. I'm rolling out, no one's there, just throw it out of bounds, live to fight another day, draw up another play. But I was reverting back to that mode of trying to make every play, trying to be Superman, and something I didn't have to do."

If there's one silver lining to the miscue, it's that Love committed it in his first crunch-time playoff situation. Perhaps he got it out of his system. He's likely to be in that spot again, many times, and both he and the Packers should be better off after having dealt with it.

As a whole body of work, his first year as QB1 is evidence of that.

"If you don't learn from plays, they're going to keep happening," Love said. "So if I don't learn from that mistake right there, the play is going to come back, keep reliving itself.

"You try to make every play, but you can't make every play. Definitely the situation's going to come up again, and hopefully I'll be able to make the right play next time."

Jordan Love, 2023 Att Com % Yds TD INT Rating
First 9 games 300 176 58.7 2,009 14 10 80.5
Last 10 games* 334 233 69.8 2,616 23 3 112.1
*incl. playoffs

Games with …
250-plus passing yards: 9
3 TD passes: 6
Zero INTs: 11
70-plus comp. %: 5
100-plus passer rating: 11