If Love has hit his ceiling in year 2 as a starter then we probably made the wrong choice. But why would you think that he has?

If anything this year is confused by the injury in Brazil and probably coming back too early. Certainly he was not himself afterwards for a while.

Love has a very high ceiling. You see that in some of the things he can do and has done. The question is whether he can hit consistently.

Without going into whether he’s being helped or hindered, I point out that few hit their peak in their first years of starting and, for most that do, it’s not a high peak in the scheme of things. At this point we have just seen that his floor isn’t as low as many claimed. We don’t know much more than that.

Jordan Love is basically in his second season despite being a five year veteran. I would be premature to arrive at any final conclusions about the guy.

One point in Love's favor is he seems to be able to read defenses fairly well. Aside from a penchant to throw the long ball too often ( gee, I wonder where he got that idea from.....) he pretty consistently diagnoses where to throw the ball. That is a skill set that all too often is missing in young QBs. I agree that his footwork can be a mess and that leads to his accuracy problems, but footwork is coachable. I think Lafleur and Stenovich need to do some hard coaching this off season on Love's footwork and we might see him take that next jump up.

I'm not sure that's the correct question to be asking, Ken. It seems what gets Jordan into trouble is his shifting foundation; those rascally poor fundamentals that contribute to errant throws and interceptions. Remember when the NFL pundits were fitting Michael Vick for a gold jacket? As mentioned in the article, a players' fortunes can turn around quickly in the right situation. Jordan is in the right situation. It's always interesting to me that Tom Clements is lauded as the QB Whisperer when Love plays well, and Love is an overpaid bust of a QB after a bad game.

I expect Jordan's best football is ahead of him. Whether he has a low ceiling, a high floor, or an extra-medium semi-solid foundation will always be fodder for knuckleheads like us to kick around.

Even tho Nagler's never right, he's right on this one: there IS a lotta ballgame(s) left.
But let an OLD Packer fan put this in some perspective.
The Packers do not have a god-given right to have a 3rd franchise quarterback in a row.
I think Love is a B+ now, and an A- when he's hot, which he sometimes is, and not just when the game is a lost cause. Reminds me of Lynn Dickey, and we won many games with him under center.
Besides, we can run the ball this season, which means Love doesn't have to play Hero (Rodgers) ball all the time.
So, to quote the late lamented Aaron ------- R-E-L-A-X!
The Szotman

even lafleur does not trust love anymore. that is why jacobs workload is so high.
55 million for that qb is a waste of money. willis costs us 1 million and is way much better.
but the front office panicked last year and they gave love all that money

Love's biggest barrier seems to be how he begins games. He starts cold, and in particular the last couple weeks he looks very uncomfortable in the pocket. I think LaFleur probably thought he could take care of this by running Jacobs early and often in games while Love calms down, but that only seems to prolong these " jitters" I think there needs to be a happy medium where there are enough throws in the game plan to get Love into the flow of the game. I would prefer it if he just came out of the tunnel hot but that just hasn't been the case so far. Also, when he does deliver the ball accurately receivers need to make the catch. A lot of drives have been killed by drops and penalties this year as well.

No, I don't think Love has a low ceiling. And the offensive line has done a good job of protecting him.

What I would like to see is more of a sense of urgency in the passing game; maybe a few more quick release throws, slants and crossing routes, and getting the ball to the backs more often in space. More up-tempo to get the offense in faster rhythm. The occasional bombs are okay when they present themselves, but less longer-developing plays would be beneficial IMHO.

I also think it may be beneficial to start sorting through the hodgepodge of receiving options and kind of identify your top go-to options and build on that chemistry for the future. Kraft is one of them. But as for the rest of them, it seems predetermined on a game-by-game basis...or whoever is doing the best job of hanging on to the ball in that particular game.

While I can sometimes see the benefits of leaning on Jacobs to establish a physical tone, it might help to let Love to get in sync early with a more balanced approach.

We could have John Madden coaching.
And Gute would still draft his Love.

Here are Bart Starr's stats:

Packers Bart Starr | Green Bay Packers – packers.com
In 196 regular-season games, Starr passed for 24,718 yards and finished with a passer rating of 80.5. Starr served as quarterback coach of the Packers in 1972. He was their head coach and general manager from 1975 to 1980, and head coach only from 1981 to 1983. His record over those nine seasons was 52-76-3.

What Starr excelled at was coming up big in big games, in particular. When it was third and very short, Starr was a master at play action, faking a hand-off to Taylor and then lofting the ball to one of his WR's for long gains. Let's also remember that this is only his second year as a starter. Sometimes, players don't live up to the hype. Look at Stroud in Houston. An exceptional rookie year, and this year, he came back to Earth with a thud.
And as far as the other QB's you mentioned, Darnold and Goff were both castoffs. As was Baker Mayfield. But when they had more experience and a better team to work with, they were excelling. Mahones, Jackson and Allen? Only one of that group has been in a SB. And both Jackson and Allen took several years to develop.
So, where is Love at this point? As you said, good but not great. Will he achieve greatness? Stay tuned. Because of the three other Packers QB legends you cited, only one of them won more than one SB.

I think it took Aaron Rodgers 3 full years to develop. After the 2010 team started 8-6, Rodgers achieved greatness in that NFC championship game in Atlanta, led the team to a SB victory and then he finally showed consistency in his 4th year when the team won 15 games.

It's frustrating watching Love sometimes but I remember it was just as frustrating with a young AR12!

Nobody knows Love's ceiling, not even Love. He's good enough to QB one of the better offenses in the league. We won 9 games his first year and we're going to win 12 his second year.

Love's injury situations were not mentioned. Bad throws and a lot of the interceptions were
caused by poor footwork and inability to step into the throws. As he has improved so has his health and there has top be significant correlation.

So lets diss the Packers starting quarterback. (Heavy sigh).

1) So what if he isn't Favre or Rodgers? If he can be a winner, that's all it takes. Bart Starr didn't have a cannon for an arm but he did all right, yes?
2)The 'instant change' social media types are quick to criticize but what options do you have? Malik Willis? We know he can run the offense but never forget he was let go by a Tennessee team that in a nutshell was awful. Going out into the free agent market is a sure loser. Just ask Cleveland. It's a roll of the dice at best. I'm old enough to remember when Randy Wright was the Packers starting QB. He did great at Wisconsin. The most memorable play I remember with Randy and the Packers was watching Howie Long pick him up and throw him around like a rag doll.
3)Brett Favre threw interceptions like good 'ol boys spit watermelon seeds. He also threw lots of touchdowns.
4) You can't have everything. You want the Packers in the playoffs so they're going to draft low in the first round. All the top shelf QB talent is long gone. If the Packers are in the playoffs why not stop pooping in our collective pants about Jordan Love and enjoy the run.

If his footwork doesn't improve in clean pockets he will always be below average in accuracy and I think the clock is ticking in that aspect. I think if he doesn't work on it this off-season it's something Packer fans will have to learn to live with. A few weeks ago Love threw a short TD while his plant foot was completely off the ground for no reason. He completed the pass but watching the replay I just wondered why fo that? It lowers the chances of success.

One of the most impressive things about Rodgers is he completely changed his mechanics after getting into the league and then didn't revert to the old habits under pressure. That's an extremely hard thing to do and the longer Love goes without adapting better habits the less likely changes will occur.

If he doesn't improve his accuracy I think they need to look at the Giants under Manning as a model. Build a very good and deep front four on D, stay balanced on offense and hope he QB gets hot at the right time. In one aspect Love has done something Manning never did, win a playoff game in a year he didn't win the SB.

I believe improved mechanics will allow Love to become as good as anyone. I also think he should run more and throw more check downs—move the chains.
His decision making is good—could be better; 97 rating reflects this.
A receiver like Jefferson or Chase would put that qb rating much higher.
Someone posted he runs like a giraffe—cracked me up, but it’s true…and effective.
Go Packers!!!

Good article, Ken. I think it's a legitimate question. However, growth is almost never linear. Like most, I'll reserve my opinion until there is a larger sample size. As you mentioned, we have seen wild short-term success with some QBs, while others have taken years to figure it out. Time will tell.

Give Willis some plays each game. He is reliable and accurate and seems to have a good calm cool collected football grasp and mind!

I will refer back to what I said after the first several games last year. Love needs to get the ball out quick if the play is open. Stop passing up on the open receiver looking for the home run and putting yourself in a bad situation.

Move the chains and the big plays will come. Lafleur isn't helping him with his play calling. He needs to go back to what worked when they turned it around last year. Get the ball out, get a rhythm, and it will open up everything else.

Love will be fine when he understands that he is being paid to win games whether it's a 6 yd pass on 3rd and 5 or a 40 yd pass. Whether he's being paid 10M or 55M, just hit the open receiver.

It's way too early to be evaluating Love's ceiling. The problem is the overwhelming off season hype over Love's contract - and its size - has set unrealistically high expectations of Love. He's really only been an operating QB for 2 seasons.

As well, his performance has been influenced by MLF's play calling. And that play calling seems to get influenced by (1) good teams, and (2) Josh jabobs. It's hard to know if MLF will be creative, or maddeningly predictable from game to game.

The only way to evaluate Love is further game experience. Let's be a little more patient...

I'm more worried if ML has hit his ceiling, because if that ones wrong.....everything is wrong.

An article about Love's ceiling should include some discussion of the very best plays that he's made as the Packers' QB. He's made some fantastic throws. He also had a stretch of sustained excellence in the second half of last season, and a shorter stretch this season, not so long ago, when I think he had five games in a row with a passer rating over 100, for an average of about 118. He cooled off in the second half of the Saints game, when it was a blowout, and had a rough outing in Minnesota, although it was not terrible. I think Love's ceiling still looks quite high. It would be good to see him run a little more, and I wonder if his recent injuries are still causing him to be slightly inhibited.

It’s important to note this entire team caves when they play a smash mouth opponent. Even going back to last year. It’s not just Love.
We need to build a suffocating defense. Joe Flacco and Trent Dilfer have Super Bowl rings for that reason.
Free agency and a strong draft can make the Packers a top 4 team in 2025.

The elephant in the room is Malik Willis. He has more upside than anyone on the team. All he does is win! It is shocking that a player with his ability and 4.37 speed sits on the bench the entire game! There is no law that prevents two QB's on the field simultaneously. Other teams have done it successfully. My point is when you have talent you need to find ways of using it. The guy runs like Gibbs of Detroit! I am not saying he is the starter but he needs some time on the field in certain situations, maybe even as a RB. Coach needs to be a little more creative in my view. What have we got to lose?

I suspect that Love’s ceiling is tied to the ceiling of the team; around the top of tier 2. He’s not going to be Mahomes or Allen or Jackson or Burrow, QBs who can drag their teams to the playoffs on their backs. He’s more of a Goff, Darnold, Dak, Mayfield or Purdy. If the team is good, they are good. If the team is dysfunctional, they are pedestrian. My major problem with Love is that he misses too many easy throws, many times because he throws off-platform when he doesn’t have to. If Clements is the QB whisperer leveryone says, he should be able to coach him out of that

I'm not on the Love train until he cleans up that footwork and gets some accuracy to his passes. Also, he could use his legs more. Don't know why he doesn't. Look at what Willis did in the 2 games he started. It gives the defense a whole lot more to game plan for. I would even go so far as to give Willis some series. He has been acurate with his passes and done a lot of damage with his legs. Give the opposing defense some different looks.

I still believe Love has a very high ceiling. Year 2, they call it the sophomore slump, but in reality, there's more film of both him and MLF's offense with him as QB. The injuries certainly hurt his accuracy at times this year. For those complaining about mechanics, I recall MANY times when the broadcasts would show both Rodgers and Favre throw either off the back foot or with both feet off the ground. Love has the physical ability to make every throw. I'm not putting him in Mahomes territory, but he can be very Mahomes like, changing the arm angle etc.

The Packers are a good young team still learning how to win tight games. Talent wise there are very few rosters that they can't match up with, injuries aside. Sometimes it just takes that one win to get everyone to relax. The QB is just one player on the field and yes, they are a big determining factor, but it's a total team effort. Love has the same number of picks as Mahomes (yes he played two less games) and a higher QB rating, but KC only has a single loss. GB just so happened to play 3 of the top five teams in the league, and played two of them twice with only one of those losses more than one score.

Narratives can be based on facts or on feelings & small sample size of data.

Here are the stats of Favre and Rodgers in their second year starting in an established offense:

Favre: 9-7. 61%. 3,300 yds. 19 TDs/24 INTs. 72.2 rating. 216 yds rushing. 30 sacks.

Favre had a high ceiling, yet early in his Packer career all the Offensive coaches wanted to bench him due to INTs for Brunell, except one coach: Holmgren...who still believed Favre's career was arrow up.

Rodgers: 11-5. 65%. 4,400 yds. 30 TDs/7 INTs. 103 rating. 316 yards rushing. 50 sacks.

Rodgers had his detractors after his first year starting but showed by his second (and first in the playoffs), his ceiling was high.

Love (so far): 9-5. 63%. 3300 yds. 25 TDS/11 INTs. 97 rating. 83 yards rushing. 14 sacks.

I guess on could say his rushing potential is maybe a low ceiling...but otherwise his ceiling is as high as Favre's and Rodgers' after their 2nd year leading the team.

I see nothing yet that would make me believe Love has a "Low Ceiling". Can always nitpick...though nothing stands out.

Thanks Ken - a very honest and fair assessment. Before the 2023 season, people were thinking that 2025 would be the first year of serious contention for the Packers. The end of year results by Love and the team probably set them up unfairly regarding 2024 expectations. Love has the tools, hopefully he can keep improving.

I'll go with your comment "Perhaps it is too early to make such a judgement. "

And you don't know that "hype" led him to wait for GB to complete a contract. Or that it was at all his fault GB didn't have the deal ready by training camp. It was his play the 2nd half of last season that led him to "hold-in" for a new deal. Not hype. Not hat he didn't earn the hype. But he also earned the extension, by his play to close out the season and in the playoffs.

Yes, it's too early. He's got plenty of growing to do. And he wasn't healthy early in the season and that skewed his numbers for sure.

Don’t forget how many QBs were hurt last year