Packers' Matt LaFleur maintains trust in Jordan Love amidst turbulent sequence

The Green Bay Packers are in a tough situation. They built a young offense planning for the players to grow together, but that would always include making mistakes together. That's what's happening right now, and after a solid start to his era as the Packers starter over the first month of the season, quarterback Jordan […]

Wendell Ferreira — NFL News Writer

Oct 24, 2023 7:16 AM EDT

Jordan Love — Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

It's not all on the quarterback, of course, and that's why head coach and playcaller Matt LaFleur said he's still trust on Love and shared the blame.

"He's done enough for me to show me, it's all right there. And it's not just him. It's getting the other 10 on the same page," LaFleur said on Monday. "It all works in unison. So the better everyone is around him, the better he's gonna look."

According to PFF, the last two games — losses to the Las Vegas Raiders and Denver Broncos — were the two worst of Jordan Love this season. He had 53.0 and 60.1 PFF grades. The best one was against the Detroit Lions, even though the team lost. The worst aspect of Love's game is the relation between big-time throws and turnover-worthy plays. So far this season, he's had seven of each. Over the last two games, Love had just one big-time throw and three turnover-worthy plays. The quarterback threw two touchdowns and four interceptions in these games.

The gameplan against the Broncos was surprising. The Packers decided to condense the field, and it was Love's shortest average depth of target (7.4) of the season. His total ADoT in 2023 is 9.8, and in the Packers two wins this season, it was 10.6 against the Chicago Bears and 12.6 against the New Orleans Saints. This is particularly frustrating when considering that Christian Watson, universally seen as the Packers best deep threat, didn't play the games against Chicago and New Orleans.

At this moment, Jordan Love is 18th in EPA+CPOE composite, a combination of metrics that evaluates offensive efficiency and ability to complete passes. Over the last four weeks, which included the Packers bye, Love is 29th among 31 quarterbacks with at least 80 plays, just ahead of Mac Jones and Josh Dobbs.

"Our confidence in him is not wavering one bit," LaFleur added. "Certainly as the playcaller you put a lot of onus on yourself when things aren't going well, and we'll continue to do that. But we've got to find a way to generate more points because when you're generating points, it's just a totally different narrative."

The Green Bay Packers offense is 22nd in EPA/play, a big drop compared to last year, when they finished the season at 11th. And that is, in fact, not just on Jordan Love. He's 14th in EPA/play so far, while Aaron Rodgers was 20th in 2022.

It's hard to find an explanation for everything that has gone wrong and how it could be better, but it's probably related to how the offense plays after halftime. Combining all the games, the Packers have a -52 point differential in the first half, and a +50 in the second.

"Everyone's kind of frustrated," Jordan Love said after the game. "But I think in the second half, I think me and Matt talked about it: We've got to take some more shots in the second half, push the ball downfield, and I think that's what we did."

Matt LaFleur has consistently said he trusts Jordan Love. It's time to show it on the field, with volume and depth of target, because the offense isn't solid enough and the offensive line hasn't delivered enough to justify so many runs, especially on early downs. It's still early, and it's natural that such a young offense would have issues to start the process. But LaFleur has to adjust to the personnel he has, and the schedule won't get easier than it was over the last couple of weeks.