Jordan Love and Green Bay Packers fans surely don’t need to hear even more berating from the media after their disappointing 22-10 loss against the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Wild Card over the weekend. But one former NFL legend was sure to get his voice in on the conversation.
If there’s anyone qualified to talk about quarterback play, perhaps the word of a five-time Pro Bowl cornerback will hold some weight in the discourse surrounding Love and the Packers.
Jordan Love’s Roller-Coaster Season May Be Cause for Concern
Talking on his podcast on Monday, Richard Sherman lambasted Green Bay for their handling of the 26-year-old franchise quarterback:
"The tape will speak louder than I can ever speak"
Looks like @RSherman_25 might have been right about Jordan Love after the Packers loss to the Eagles pic.twitter.com/24dGXkA9f7
— Richard Sherman Podcast (@RShermanPodcast) January 13, 2025
As Sherman notes, Love is locked into a four-year, $220 million contract that he signed last summer (and begins next season). The Packers are a young team, especially on offense, but taking a step back after advancing to the Divisional Round last year is sure to create some worries among the front office braintrust heading into a long offseason.
Love regressed this year after a breakout campaign in his first year as a starter in 2023.
In 17 games last season, he threw for 4,159 yards on a 64.2% completion rate, posting a 32:11 touchdown-to-interception ratio. In 15 games this year, he passed for just 3,389 yards while completing passes at a 63.1% clip, all while racking up a 25:11 TD-to-INT ratio. Notable, his interception rate (+0.7%) and bad throw rate (+0.7%) both increased in his second year as a starter.
According to PFN’s QB+ metric — a metric designed to assign a letter grade to every quarterback performance that factors in a number of stats such as success rate when pressured, third-down conversion rate, pocket production, and clutch performance — Love was the 13th-best QB in football this year, finishing with a 79.2 score (C+).
As Ben Rolfe examined: “Love has been a tough quarterback to figure out this season. When healthy, he’s largely been good without being exceptional. He doesn’t have any games graded above a B and only one inside the top 50 of the year. However, he also only has one game graded below a C- despite playing through injury on a couple of occasions.
Love has some contrasting efficiency numbers this season. He ranks fourth in nYPA [net yards per attempt] at 7.8 but is converting just 32.8% of his third-down opportunities (31st). He’s been good when pressured, ranking eighth at -0.17 EPA/DB [expected points added per dropback], which has helped take him to 13th in overall EPA/DB (0.13). Love’s numbers from a clean pocket and in clutch situations this year will raise some alarm bells entering the playoffs.”
Love earned a scant 70.5 grade (C-) for his work in the Packers’ lone playoff game, which was emblematic of a congested offense that still managed to rank in the top 10 in PFN’s Offense+ scale.
Moving forward, head coach Matt Lafleur and the rest of Green Bay’s coaching staff need to figure out how to get the most out of their $55 million quarterback. There’s obvious potential in Love’s right arm. But as Sherman said, until the training wheels come off, the Packers are going to be nothing more than early postseason fodder for the NFC’s elite.