Former NFL QBs rally behind Jordan Love amid Packers' offensive struggles
The last couple of Green Bay Packers games have been tough for the offense, and first-year starting quarterback Jordan Love has suffered. After a solid start of the season, Love has regressed. Since week 4, he is 32nd among 36 quarterbacks with at least 50 plays in EPA+CPOE composite, a metric that unites productivity and […]
The last couple of Green Bay Packers games have been tough for the offense, and first-year starting quarterback Jordan Love has suffered. After a solid start of the season, Love has regressed. Since week 4, he is 32nd among 36 quarterbacks with at least 50 plays in EPA+CPOE composite, a metric that unites productivity and accuracy. Even analyzing just EPA/play, in which he was at the top of the league in the first weeks of the season, Love is 30th since week 4.
"It's not what we've expected so far," Love said. "Not what we had a plan for, but it is what it is. We're here now. What are we going to do from it going forward?"
But, going deeper, it's obviously not everything on Jordan Love's shoulders. The team has handled multiple injuries, including another season-ender for left tackle David Bakhtiari, and running back Aaron Jones hasn't been fully healthy all year. Moreover, the team is extremely young — the youngest in the NFL, and the offensive passing weapons are the youngest since 2017 in the league.
That's how former NFL quarterbacks are evaluating the situation. At least three former players who are now football analysts defended Love's performance to a point.
JT O'Sullivan
He was a long-time NFL backup, including for the Packers in 2004 behind Brett Favre. Now, he runs the QB School, a great source of analysis and learning for the public. During his week 7 analysis of Love's performance, the tone was not as negative as one might suppose. For the most part, wide receivers running wrong routes and the lack of cohesiveness for the offense was a stress point. It's not that Love was perfect, but the situation around him has highlighted his failures.
"There were some really nice moments," O'Sullivan said. "Jordan Love shows flashes of really special quality as far as off-platform throws, as far as being able to create just a little bit. The overall underwhelming thing that jumps off the film for me is he has a tendency to make things a little bit harder than they have to be."
Kurt Warner
The Hall of Fame quarterback isn't exactly known for his time in Green Bay, but he spent his first NFL training camp as a backup with the Packers before playing in the NFL Europe as establishing himself as a franchise quarterback for the St. Louis Rams. Now, he's an analyst for NFL Network.
On Twitter, Warner mentioned that, beyond the last two plays of the game, which included the game-deciding interception, Jordan Love had a solid performance.
Kurt Benkert
Benkert was a third-string quarterback for the Packers and shared the QB room with Jordan Love between 2021 and 2022. That's an interesting perspective because he knows Love, and he knows Matt LaFleur's offensive system. So he has inside knowledge of what the offense is trying to do on each play, and what the quarterback and receivers are supposed to do.
According to Benkert, in a series of posts on X, there are a lot of offensive mistakes that go beyond things Jordan Love can control.
And it's not necessarily offensive scheme issues, but wide receivers running the same route or occupying the same area of the field. Benkert also mentioned difficult third-down situations after the Packers failures running the ball on first and second downs.
"Watch the film and ask – what could he have done differently here?" Benkert asked. "Oftentimes, the answer is not a whole lot."
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