The meteoric rise of others in the 2020 draft did him zero favors. When Joe Burrow is leading the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl and Justin Herbert is throwing for 5,014 yards in Year 2 — and when there’s even all sorts of newfound hype around Tua Tagovailoa in Miami — it’s easy to forget about that fourth quarterback taken: Jordan Love.
Quarterbacks do not wait three years these days. This does not neatly fit into the timeline of talk radio. Thus, Love has made quite a few folks weep and scream.
Shockingly enough, however, there’s more than one way to develop a quarterback.
Burrow (first overall) and Herbert (sixth) were ready to star instantly. Tagovailoa (fifth) now has every chance to excel with weapons galore around him. Love? The Packers selected him 26th overall for a reason. He possesses high-end athleticism and arm strength. Simply, he was raw. Extremely raw. In our age of instant gratification, it’s difficult to take a deep breath and realize Love could be special… in time. Aaron Rodgers waited three full seasons before taking over for Brett Favre and he often looked dreadful through those training camps.
For Love, this summer has been an undeniable turning point. It’s obvious the game has slowed down for him and all of those physical traits can finally rise to the surface.
Forget the box score. The numbers do Love no justice. Drops and wrong routes led to picks at San Francisco and, the next week, his best plays were actually four incompletions. I don’t care if it’s a preseason game against the New Orleans Saints. Those throws are clear evidence that Love is figuring out the position. The best of the bunch? Off play-action, Love rolled left, set his feet at his own 12-yard line and rainbowed a deep shot along the sideline to rookie Samori Toure. That window shuts fast, too. Love’s ball arrives a split-second before the safety arrives.
This isn’t the QB people remember from that loss at Kansas City last season.
So to figure out what exactly changed in his game, I thought it was worth checking in with the man who has coached Love since eighth grade: Steve Calhoun of “Armed & Dangerous.” You may remember Calhoun from our piece on Love that wild summer of 2021. Back when the Packers had no clue if Rodgers wanted to play football for them. Only time will tell if the organization should’ve unloaded the unhappy Rodgers for an unlimited bounty of picks and prospects, but at the very least? At this rate? Love is giving Green Bay no choice but to pick up his fifth-year option after this season.
And if Rodgers retires after this season, Love should be ready.
Tonight’s preseason finale against the Chiefs may be the last time people see Love for a while.
You’ll love Calhoun’s exceptional insight. He details precisely how Love has evolved as a quarterback. Calhoun helped Love learn how to use his two eyes in two very different ways to read the whole field. The footwork needed an overhaul, too. If you like the Packers, Love or — most of all — simply enjoy nerding out on the quarterback position, this Q&A with one of the best private coaches in the game is for you.
To you, what pops with his game now? When you’re watching Jordan deliver on the field everything you’ve been working on behind the scenes, where has he had his breakthrough?
Calhoun: I think the familiarity with the offense. The confidence that coaches give him that, “Hey, it’s OK. If you make a decision and you see it, we’re going to stand behind you. As long as you can explain why you did it and what you saw, if you’re good with it then we’re good with it.” That confidence right there is giving Jordan what you see on the field. That’s a big part of it.
The incompletions were even more impressive than the completions.
Calhoun: Those were some incredible footballs he threw. Playing quarterback, they either love you or hate you. He had a couple rough throws against San Francisco and that’s stuff that we worked on: “If you’re going to throw the ball outside of the numbers, make sure you miss outside and put your body in the correct position to throw guys open. So, if it’s not on the money, it’s going out of bounds. It’s out of harm’s way of that defender.” I shot him a text after that game and said, “Hey, we have to go back to the fundamentals.” Whether it’s Jordan or any other quarterback I train — during the offseason, during our workouts — we build ourselves a mental checklist of things you need to think about right before you throw. In our sessions, it’s not a high-pressure (situation) with pass rushers running at you and defenses rotating so you can think about those things on your checklist that I want you to execute while you’re dropping, while you’re making that throw. Things that are not muscle memory, you have to think about it in order for your body to do it. That’s the time to do it. That’s when you actually have time to think about it and go, “OK, man. Coach Calhoun wants me to make sure I get my shoulders out in front of this receiver to the sideline to make sure I can throw him open.” So you create that muscle memory during the offseason. And that’s when you see it translate into games. Sometimes, you need a reminder of that. It was good to see him come back that next week and make some really nice throws.
A mental checklist as you step up to the line of scrimmage? That type of thing?
Calhoun: When you’re in the game, your checklist is different: “OK, where are the safeties at? Where are the outside linebackers? Is it an ‘over’ front? Is it an ‘under’ front? Is it a 3-4?” It’s a different checklist in the game vs. when we’re in our sessions. But when we’re in our sessions, we can really focus on our little details. Like, “OK, make sure our shoulders are outside the numbers and really in front,” and I’ve talked to Jordan about, “If you look at the receiver and you throw the ball, by the time the ball gets there, it’s going to be behind him. So, I talked to him about using full-field vision. And one point was if I’m throwing the ball to the sideline — I want to give you this visual — if I’m throwing to my left sideline, I talked to him about, “With my left eye I’m looking to where I want to throw the ball and with my right eye I’m just tracking that receiver into that window.” Because if I turn my head to look at that receiver, by the time I throw the ball and the ball gets there? It’s behind him. So if I just throw the ball to where my left eye’s looking, by the time the ball gets there the whole mesh point with the ball and where the receiver’s going to be, it all matches up. So, we really worked a lot of that. Because if you look at the receiver, your shoulder is turned back to the receiver and it ends up being behind him.
And the other thing — I talked to Coach LaFleur about it at the Combine a year ago — was Jordan’s balance as he’s delivering the football. One of the things we both noticed was when he plants his left foot, his left heel doesn’t come down on the ground. So he’s throwing the ball on the ball of his foot. It’s hard to have balance on your delivery when you’re transferring weight to your front foot if your left foot’s not flat on the ground. That causes balance issues. And if there’s no balance, there’s no accuracy. So my whole thing was always — through this offseason and last year — “Hey, flat left foot. Flat left foot. Flat left foot.”
Those are two massive upgrades.
Calhoun: Those are huge.
