Slouched in an armchair deep inside Lambeau Field, Matt LaFleur is restless. He shifts in his seat. He removes a Green Bay Packers ballcap and rubs his scalp.
The clock is ticking to 24 hours until his team hosts the Chicago Bears in its
pivotal game this season, that window when anything is possible, nothing certain, and LaFleur knows what a win would mean. For his team. For
his quarterback. For the future.
A few months ago, it was unthinkable the Packers could reach the
playoffs in their first season with Jordan Love. Most NFL teams search years, even decades, for a franchise quarterback after
moving on from a Hall of Famer. When the Packers
traveled to Chicago to start their 2023 season in September, they anxiously anticipated their next chapter after 15 seasons with Aaron Rodgers, not knowing what to expect.
“I don’t think anybody did,” Lafleur says.
LaFleur’s confidence in Love grew enough a year ago to believe the former first-round draft pick was ready to play. “We wouldn’t have done it,” LaFleur says of trading Rodgers, “if we weren’t optimistic about that.” In preseason last year, LaFleur noticed key traits that can’t be coached. Love’s poise. His adaptability. How he handled the demands of his position. Love never froze, never panicked, his sense of calm inspiring teammates.
Ultimately, what matters most is how the quarterback throws. Aaron Jones remembers glancing across the practice field last season, seeing maybe the most talented passer of a generation giving his young backup a thump on the shoulder pads. “That’s a ball, kid,” he’d hear Rodgers say. The praise would come after a no-look pass. A cross-body throw on the run. The kind of plays only a great quarterback makes.
“He made a big jump,” Jones says. “He made a stride. Like, he’s throwing some balls. He’s making some throws that aren’t just ordinary throws. And then you’d have 12 patting him on the back. So you start to see it. Then you start to see him gaining his confidence.
“In my mind, I’m like, ‘This guy’s gonna be a baller. It’s just about when he gets his opportunity.’”
A year ago, Jones realized this young quarterback might be
different. It’s hard to impress a legend.
It’s even harder to replace him.
With Love’s future a mystery, PackersNews began studying, tabulating and categorizing all 581 of his passes this season. The intent was to slice through uncertainty, focusing only on the throws he makes, instead of external factors. After a strong start, Love slogged through the first half of this season. Then his trajectory, and the long-term outlook for this franchise, changed almost overnight.
LaFleur noticed his young quarterback’s confidence blossom. How he took command of the offense. Once the game slowed down, Love started making throws that aren’t ordinary throws. “I’ve been getting better every week,” Love says. “Just understanding little scenarios better. Understanding the plays better. Learning where to go with the ball. Just kind of situational awareness, things like that. I think it’s been a lea“I’ve been getting better every week,” Love says. “Just understanding little scenarios better. Understanding the plays better. Learning where to go with the ball.
It’s unclear where Love’s development ends, if he’ll continue ascending to Hall of Fame status like Rodgers and Brett Favre before him, or if he’s merely next in a succession of franchise quarterbacks. As Love walked off Lambeau Field on Sunday, securing a playoff berth in his first season after beating the Bears, his ceiling appears unlimited.
He’s already led the Packers to three more wins than Rodgers when the four-time MVP replaced Favre in 2008. Love completed 64.3% of his passes for 4,163 yards, 32 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, a pair of 2-point conversions and a 96.1 passer rating, higher than Rodgers’ mark in his first season as starter. He finished second in the NFL in touchdown passes. Ten games with a passer rating in triple digits. His final two games earned
back-to-back NFC Offensive Player of the Week awards.
Those are just the numbers. The film from Love’s 581 throws shows a quarterback with “special” potential, LaFleur says. A quarterback who became one of the NFL’s best midway through his first season and, even scarier, keeps getting better.
‘That’s why these guys get paid’
- Third-down passing: 96-161, 1,087 yards, 13 TD, 3 INT, 99.06 rating
- Fourth-down passing: 10-17, 108 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, 117.16 rating
It was fourth-and-10 in Atlanta, and Jordan Love was throwing blind. For one, he was about to get his chest smashed by a defensive end. The Falcons ran an inside stunt, freeing a pass rusher into Love’s face.
In a desperate moment, Love noticed a window most quarterbacks wouldn’t. He didn’t have time to wait. With receiver Samori Toure’s back still turned, not yet cutting his route to the middle of the field, Love beat the blitz. He threaded the ball between four defenders to where Toure was expected to be, trusting his receiver to get there.
Toure left his feet stretching out for the ball, but couldn’t secure it after hitting the ground. The incompletion sealed Love’s first loss this season. A 1-point defeat in Atlanta.
LaFleur still calls it “one of the best clips” from 2023.
“A hell of a freaking throw,” LaFleur says, “in a big-time moment.”
The most impressive part of Love’s first season as starter might be what he’s done on the most important downs. It started Week 1 in Chicago when Love completed 8 of 10 passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns on third and fourth down, a perfect passer rating. His efficiency wasn't an aberration. Love reached triple digits on third and fourth down in nine games this season, including six of his final seven.
Love’s 102.6 passer rating on third and fourth down, his 16 touchdowns and three interceptions, yielded some of his signature moments this season.
When Love led a 17-point comeback in the fourth quarter against New Orleans, his game-winning touchdown to Romeo Doubs came on third-and-3. Nursing a 2-point lead against Kansas City, Love extended a touchdown drive, dropping a fourth-and-1 pass to Doubs between two defenders for 33 yards. At the end of a miserable night in New York, it was third-and-goal when Love dotted what should have been a game-winning touchdown to Malik Heath on a tightly covered out route.
“That’s why,” LaFleur says, “these guys get paid.”
It takes poise to excel on the money downs, those unteachable traits LaFleur noticed before the 2022 season, but also trust. That the protection will hold up. That the playbook will provide good options. That receivers will be in the right position. Even when their back is turned.
Trust wasn’t easy to build in a season so much strayed from the plan. In the NFL's youngest offense, Love had no pass catchers with more than two years in the league. Left tackle David Bakhtiari lasted one game. Top receiver Christian Watson didn’t play until Week 4, and hasn’t played since Week 13. Jones missed six games with injuries. The Packers opened with a 2-5 record. Then 3-6. Five losses came by a combined 13 points. Three ended on a Love interception.
In five straight games, the Packers didn’t score a first-half touchdown. Even when there was revival after halftime, they routinely found themselves in position to mount a game-winning drive, only to stall. Love often was the least of their concerns.
“Those close games that we lost,” left guard Elgton Jenkins says, “some of the interceptions he made, it was like do-or-die situations. As the weeks go on, you just can tell, ‘All right, if we do this right, right here. If we block right, or if the receivers run the right routes, we’ll be more successful as an offense.’ Not only for him, just the receivers. Them doing their job helped him out a lot. Him doing his job helped them out a lot.
“So just getting certain reads, the details and the communication and the certain keys that you’re going to get throughout the game, that’s going to make a difference on the outside world seeing what he’s able to do.”
For weeks, LaFleur sought solutions to help his quarterback. No coach faced a steeper uphill climb.
LaFleur wasn’t just integrating a new starter behind center. He had three rookies at tight end. The Packers’ decision to let veteran Marcedes Lewis leave in free agency drove a necessary youth movement at the position, but also left LaFleur without a traditional Y who’d played NFL snaps. That, LaFleur says, required him to overhaul the play-action passing foundational to his system. Three more rookie receivers, including starting slot Jayden Reed, meant being patient with mistakes.
On the season, Love’s young receivers dropped 65 passes for a potential 808 yards and 12 touchdowns. Many of the drops were contested, but each hit a receiver’s hands without being ripped out. The drops were debilitating when the Packers hosted the Minnesota Vikings in October. In that game, there were eight drops for 117 potential yards and a pair of touchdowns. On Love’s lone interception, safety Josh Metellus took the football out of Reed’s hands in the middle of the field.
Love contributed to the drops. He’s thrown 71 off-target incompletions this season, including the pick to Metellus. On the play, Love targeted the wrong shoulder, forcing Reed to change direction toward the middle of the field as he was running open on a post route toward the sideline.
“At the end of the day,” Reed says, “I’ve got to make him right. Wherever the ball is, I’m paid to catch the ball.”
Love built chemistry with his young receivers off the field. In their struggles, he sent group texts to the veteran leaders in each position group, organizing meetings. He invited the offense to his home twice for Monday night dinners. Love shared what he was seeing on plays that weren’t working, then listened to their perspectives. They found common ground, arriving at solutions together, and the drops faded after that loss to Minnesota.
In the first seven games this season, the Packers dropped 32 passes for 447 potential yards and six touchdowns. In the 10 games since, they’ve dropped 33 for 361 potential yards and six scores
. One came on third down Sunday against the Bears, a bullet to Bo Melton in the end zone for what should have been a 7-yard touchdown. It was the lone incompletion among his eight third-down passes for 76 yards, including both touchdowns.
“I think he’s more confident that guys are going to do what they’re supposed to do,” quarterbacks coach Tom Clements says. “Because he has a certain pass play, he has a certain progression. I’m looking here, here, here. You look here, that guy’s not open. Here, that guy’s not open. That guy’s not there. It makes it hard. So you have to rely on other people doing their jobs.”
As Love learned how each receiver ran their route tree, his off-target incompletions declined. Love threw 35 incompletions off target in his first seven games. He had 36 in his final 10. After Minnesota, Love finished his season completing 59 of 95 passes (62.1%) for 719 yards, 11 touchdowns, no interceptions and a 123.97 rating on third down. The Packers ranked fifth in the NFL converting 47.1% of their third downs, a testament to their quarterback.
The quarterbacks guiding offenses ranked above the Packers in third-down efficiency: Josh Allen, Dak Prescott, Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy. The next four behind the Packers: Patrick Mahomes, Tua Tagovailoa, Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson.
Love was not supposed to see his rookie receiver streaking down the left side. If LaFleur had his choice, the football wouldn’t have been snapped. The Bears defense gave the wrong look in Sunday’s fourth quarter, sending a red flag to LaFleur on the sideline, but Love saw a weakness he could exploit.
After going in motion before the snap, Jayden Reed sprinted past Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. Love, locking eyes with Reed, left the pocket to buy more time. Three seasons developing as backup sharpened Love’s understanding of LaFleur’s playbook, allowing him to click through reads much more rapidly than a rookie. It’s taken time for him to master the art of going off schedule, especially deep.
As Love lofted the football to Reed for a 59-yard catch and run, the back-breaking completion in Sunday’s win, he took another step in his evolution as a passer.
“Really, we were supposed to get out of that play versus that look,” LaFleur says, “and I’m glad he didn’t. Sometimes it’s not always how you design it, but basically you’ve got two clear-out routes, and Jordan saw a hole in there. There was a hole, and he made a hell of a throw.”
Targeting downfield has been the weakness in Love’s passing tree, the last element needed to ascend to an elite quarterback. Rodgers became an expert in depth perception. His ability to drop footballs in a bucket to receivers on vertical routes down the sideline and seam became foundational to the Packers big-play offense. Love spent much of his first season leaving deep passes short, occasionally overshooting his receiver, rarely on target.
Love compensated with a wickedly efficient short-passing game and production on intermediate routes that steeply increased midseason. On 506 passes targeted less than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage, Love completed 68.1% for 3,214 yards, 26 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 96.73 passer rating. His rating on 378 passes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage was 100.88.
“He can layer a ball,” LaFleur says. “He can throw over the top of people. Not every quarterback is comfortable doing that, but he does a really good job with that, and he’s done it repeatedly where he can throw those level-two balls and get over top the second-level defense before the third level. So we’ve kind of gone to more of that stuff.”
As LaFleur adjusted his offense to a new quarterback, he had to let go of long-developing plays downfield that are a staple not only in his playbook, but any coach who runs his system. Two of Love’s four interceptions thrown inside Lambeau Field came on the same play, where a perimeter receiver runs an out and up, and the slot runs a skinny post. In San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan calls the play “drift.” LaFleur calls it “strike,” the same term Sean McVay uses in Los Angeles.
Love’s first interception this season came against the New Orleans Saints on the stop and go to Doubs up the right sideline. Rookie tight end Luke Musgrave stood alone in the left flat, an easy completion, but Love sailed the football over Doubs’ head in tight coverage. When Love threw the interception to Reed on the skinny post against the Vikings, leaving his pass behind the receiver, LaFleur took it out of his playbook.
“Early on this year,” LaFleur says, “I think he wanted to push the ball down the field quite a bit. I think he’s understood you’ve got to earn the right to push the ball down the field. If teams are taking that away, you’ve got to earn the right to do it by taking the checkdowns or the intermediate throws, whatever it may be. And then everything else starts to open up downfield.”
When the Packers struggled early this season, defenses routinely played zone coverage, daring Love to piece together drives with short throws. LaFleur says it was a process getting his quarterback to understand the value of a checkdown. It also put more emphasis on receivers to make plays with the football. The Packers have 2,008 yards after the catch this season, a 5.36-yard average that’s lower than last year in part, LaFleur says, because of an increase of passes toward the sideline, rather than the middle of the field.
Their rhythm has built through the year. Love had 16 inaccurate completions significantly reduce yardage after the catch in his first nine games, including eight combined against the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers. He had only four in his final eight.
“The timing of just plays,” Love says, “and understanding where guys are going to be at, and where you should be putting the ball, and then obviously who’s out there plays a factor into it. Of their speed, if they’re getting jammed up, if the DB gets hands on them. There’s so many different factors, but just having a feel of the play and where a guy should be at, where you want him to be at and knowing where to put the ball.”
It’s fitting Reed caught Love’s longest completion this season against the Bears. His most-important pass might have been a 35-yard touchdown to Reed on a corner route in Pittsburgh.
Reed ran past a pair of defensive backs on his way to the end zone. Too often in the first eight games, Love couldn’t connect with an open receiver downfield. A week earlier against the Rams, Love missed Watson open down the left sideline for what should have been a 38-yard touchdown. This time, Love’s pass met Reed in stride.
The throw radically changed Love’s deep efficiency. His passer rating on targets at least 20 yards past the line of scrimmage increased more than 65 points to 120 following that touchdown. His passer rating on targets at least 30 yards downfield increased 90 points to 127.7.
“I think that was huge,” Love says. “Obviously, that was a really cool play, but I think more than anything, throughout the weeks it’s something we’ve been working on in practice, get some more chemistry at. It’s one of those things it’s got to be a well-executed play. I’ve got to put a good ball out there, and the receiver’s got to go finish it. So there’s a lot of little moving parts to it, but obviously the one to J-Reed was a huge play that kind of just got us going.”
After Pittsburgh, LaFleur started calling more plays targeting the intermediate level of defenses. Love completed 46.7% of his 62 passes for 474 yards, two touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 44.1 passer rating when targeting 10 to 19 yards past the line of scrimmage in his first nine games. In his last eight, Love completed 55.7% of his 61 passes for 627 yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions and a 118.7 rating at the same depth.
Eventually, LaFleur believes, Love’s efficiency past 20 yards will similarly increase. He’s already planning to reintroduce “strike” to his playbook this offseason.
“It’s just going to be in time,” LaFleur says, “that those plays, when they’re there, I think they’re going to be automatic. Because he’s made everything else. He’s improved in so many areas that I think he’s still not a finished product, which is exciting. It’s really exciting. I think he’ll continue to grow and improve, and he’s just got the right mindset. He’s got the mindset that, I don’t think we have to worry about him ever getting comfortable.”
‘You never want to take the player out of the person’
- Numbers on clean pocket: 302-444, 3,305 yards, 28 TD, 9 INT, 102.36 rating
- Numbers when hurried/hit: 72-137, 858 yards, 4 TD, 2 INT, 75.6 rating
- With 2:24 left Sunday, the Packers were one third-down conversion from the playoffs. It’s Love’s comfort zone, but third-and-8 was a challenge. He had to beat pressure.
Off the snap, Montez Sweat cruised past left tackle Rasheed Walker around the edge. Love stepped up in the pocket, flushing right, but now defensive tackle Justin Jones was closing. On the run, Love looked for his checkdown. He found rookie tight end Tucker Kraft for 15 yards, sealing his first postseason trip.
Any young quarterback must learn how to handle pressure in the NFL. It’s one of Love’s biggest improvements, and his final throw in the regular season showed how far he’s come.
“That’s something I’ve worked at,” Love says, “and just gotten a better feel of where I need to go with the ball. I think that, more than anything, that’s what it is. It’s just having answers versus pressure, knowing where to go, and just getting the ball to the playmakers.
"That’s something I’ve improved in my game and got to keep trying to improve on to always have those answers, and trying to take advantage of what defenses want to do.”
Love scans through progressions with ruthless precision, always sticking with the play. He’s indiscriminate of who he targets. If a receiver is open, he gets the football. Their mistakes are quickly forgotten.
It's why Love has been almost automatic with a clean pocket. Just look at the night he upset Patrick Mahomes inside Lambeau Field. Given time to set his feet and throw without being hit or hurried, Love completed 21-of-23 passes for 194 yards, three touchdowns and a 141.39 passer rating.
Both his incompletions were dropped.
On clean-pocket throws, Love’s passer rating exceeded 100 in seven of his final eight games. His lone exception was New York. On that night, Love’s clean-pocket passer rating was 98.1.
“That’s what we always look for,” LaFleur says. “That’s what we expect out of that position, and the really good ones, when it is a clean pocket and the look is there, they make the play. I think he’s doing that, so it gives us a lot of confidence.”
What separates quarterbacks who make it in the NFL is how they operate with good protection. Not everyone can make the basic read and deliver a good throw. Elite quarterbacks keep their wits when protection fails. No offense can expect a clean pocket down after down. When Love found Doubs for 33 yards on fourth-and-1 against the Chiefs, Pro Bowl defensive tackle Chris Jones was in his face, knocking him to the ground.
Once Love found his checkdown quicker, he realized each play has an escape hatch. LaFleur coaches his quarterbacks to be in tune with their body while inside the pocket. Any sudden movements, it’s time to hit the checkdown.
“There’s a lot of feel involved in this,” LaFleur says. “You never want to take the player out of the person.”
Love minimized mistakes on broken plays, throwing only two interceptions when hurried or hit this season. Each of his four touchdown passes when hurried or hit came in his final eight games. Love has become increasingly comfortable leaving the pocket to escape pressure, keeping his eyes in the secondary rather than looking at the rush, finding safe places to throw. He connected on touchdowns to Reed against Tampa Bay and Dontayvion Wicks in Carolina stepping up and flushing right, giving himself more time.
In his first nine games, Love completed fewer than half his 61 throws when hurried or hit with no touchdowns and a 62.53 passer rating. His completion percentage on 73 passes with a dirty pocket increased to 54.4, with four touchdowns, one interception and an 86.7 rating in his last eight.
“He anticipates well," offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich says. "He’s doing a good job with that, and just handling pressure. There’s going to be some dirty pockets and all that stuff. You’ve still got to make those throws. You’ve got to stay in there and make some plays. I think that’s the big thing is just having that poise to go play.
“Anytime you can get out, escape the rush and make a play, that’s hopefully what you can do.”
Love arrived in Green Bay with a first-round price tag. From the moment he was drafted, high expectations were attached to his talented right arm. There are endless nuances that make or break an NFL quarterback, how they lead in the locker room, their vision on the field, whether they can process 21 other pieces on the chess board faster than anyone else.
Ultimately, it’s how they throw. Third down. Deep. Short. Whether the protection allows time or not. On some level, Love has passed every test.
“It’s so fun for me,” Jones says, “because I get to be the guy that says, ‘I told you so.’ I should’ve kept receipts. I had people on my Twitter talking (expletive) about me for defending him. Well, I told you so.”
As the final seconds ticked off Sunday, Love clapped his hands as he gazed up at the giant scoreboard inside Lambeau Field. Cool, calm, he handed the football to an official. On the sideline, LaFleur couldn’t stay still. He turned to the crowd, lifting his arms for more noise. “Man,” LaFleur says, “he’s earned it. He’s flat-out worked his ass off.” LaFleur sprinted to Love on the field after his final kneeldown, greeting him with an embrace, a picture of the symbiotic relationship between head coach and franchise quarterback.
Two arms around Love, LaFleur welcomed his first-year starter to the postseason. It’s a place he’s coached before. A place Love expects to visit many times in the future.
about their teammates and had their little inner circle they hung out with and that was it. Love is showing signs of being the leader Driver and Woodson were on the team.
Let's stick to the 23/24 Packers please