Who is Jordan Love? Get to know Packers quarterback who will start against Chiefs
Defensive coordinator Steve Spanguolo and the Chiefs will have some tape of quarterback Jordan Love to watch before Sunday’s game, but it is not much.
Love was unexpectedly thrust into the starting role for the Packers, who will face the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 and won’t face the Chiefs and his fellow State Farm pitchman, quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Love, was the Packers’ first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, was inactive all of last season but played in Green Bay’s 38-3 loss to New Orleans in this year’s season opener. Love’s first NFL completion was to Amari Rodgers.
Mahomes comparison?
In an interview earlier this year with the NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, Love was asked about comparisons with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“I just look at a guy like Patrick Mahomes, and the deep passes, just being able to make plays, I think that’s where you can compare us,” Love said. “I feel like I’m comparable to him in that aspect.”
However, former Chiefs running back Darwin Thompson said comparing Love, 23, and Mahomes wasn’t fair.
“I would say Pat has a lot stronger arm, but Jordan’s arm is strong. The advantage is experience, he’s the MVP of the NFL. We’re comparing Jordan Love to the MVP of the NFL,” Thompson told the Deseret News in 2020.
“I believe that if Jordan Love gets in the NFL and learns fast, gets with the right system, he’ll take off. He’ll be a rose that grew from the concrete,” Thompson added.
A surprise draft pick
Green Bay made waves when it traded up and selected Love with the 26th overall pick in the 2020 draft.
In three seasons at Utah State, Love was second in school history in passing yards (8,600), completions (689) and attempts (1,125), as the Packers noted.
Love, who is 6 foot 4 and 219 pounds, also tied for second in touchdown passes (60) and was No. 3 in completion percentage (61.2).
“I do not believe there is a throw that Jordan cannot make,” Gary Andersen, who was Utah State’s coach at the time, told the NFL Network after the 2020 Draft. “In the pocket, he’s very good, he gets his feet set. ... When he gets out of the pocket, he’s good under duress. ...
“He’ll wow you once a day at practice. Now, he’s on the field with Aaron Rodgers so that guy probably wows you three or four times a day. But I guarantee you, Jordan Love will wow you with his throws.”
Scouting reports
Pro Football Focus noted Love finished his final year at Utah State in the top five in big-time throws but also turnover-worthy throws. PFF noted Love threw the most interceptions (17) in FBS in 2019.
The Draft Network said these were some of the best things about Love: “Good mobility and athleticism; capable of extending plays with his feet, hitting throws on the move and taking off with the ball in his hands. Sound mechanically and can hit throws from a variety of arm slots.”
But some of the negatives included Love’s field vision and awareness, which the Draft Network said wasn’t great in college.
The Ringer’s Robert Mays echoes that when he wrote in 2020: “Most troubling was his tendency to miss — or ignore — underneath defenders. A staggering number of Love’s turnovers came on throws that went directly to a linebacker parked in the middle of the field.“
But that was in college. On Sunday, Love will get his first chance to show what he can do in a full game against the Chiefs.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 11:40 AM.
