How much difference a year makes for narratives. If last offseason there were questions about what Jordan Love was and what the Green Bay Packers would do after the Aaron Rodgers era, the confidence after Love's first year as a starter is extremely high.

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The Packers reached the playoffs, beat the Dallas Cowboys in the postseason and could certainly have defeated the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round.

Jordan Love finished his first season with 32 touchdowns, second in the NFL, plus a really good 83.6 PFF grade. He was ninth in EPA+CPOE composite, and led the youngest and cheapest offense in football to a surprising sixth place in offensive DVOA.

Going into his second year as a starter, Love knows that the expectations are different. Everybody knows what the Packers can do with him under center, and competing in the NFC is not a pipe dream anymore.

In an interview to The Pivot Podcast, the quarterback showed how he understands the new moment of the franchise.

"It's a great feeling, man. We are all very hungry for the upcoming year," Love said. "The confidence from top to bottom is there. The organization that it's the perfect time to have a chance to win the Super Bowl this year."

The Packers had a good run in the playoffs, getting in as the seventh seed and beating the second seed Cowboys in Texas. Against the San Francisco 49ers, the team looked better for most of the game, but failed to finish it off. The feeling after the game, though, was not negative. It was about 2024.

"Those conversations we had after that 49ers game were 'Work harder, try to find ways to get better, because next year we're gonna do it,'" Love mentioned. "There's no more 'we're a young team,' there's no more those what ifs. People know what we're about now. Obviously, we'll have that target on our back now, people are gonna want to beat us. We're hungry."

Personal adversity

During the interview, Jordan Love talked about the loss of his father when he was 14. At that time, the young quarterback considered quitting football altogether, but his family supported him.

"That whole year was tough, because we've gotta adjust your life," Love recalled. "It taught me at a young age that adversity happens in life. You want life to be perfect, you want to think it's this dream in fairy tail that everything is gonna be happy, everybody is gonna be healthy, but life goes on and things happen."

That sequence of events molded Jordan Love into who he is now, and football doubts would never be as impactful for a person with this kind of perspective.

Turning point

Jordan Love has had a unique path in the NFL. At first, he sat for three years behind Aaron Rodgers – something no other quarterback had done since… Aaron Rodgers. His confidence, though, was always there.

"Just wanted to prove people wrong. I see everything they are saying. 'Who's this guy, this guy is trash'. Just knowing once I got my opportunity, I'mma prove people wrong and show who I am," Love said.

When the 2023 season started, the Packers went through ups and downs. Initially, Love and the offense had a couple of good games before experiencing a sequence of poor performances. The win over the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving was the moment when things really started to click.

"We were just playing free, not worrying about mistakes. That was a big turning point for me in the season, was just loosen up, not trying to be perfect out there on the field," the quarterback pointed out. "That was huge for me and my confidence."

There are still several checkpoints for Jordan Love to reach in his career. But he's come a long way, and his trajectory transformed him into the person and player he is.

What was Jordan Love’s most unforgettable play of the 2023 season?

Quarterback finished his first season as an NFL starter