I’m a cautiously optimistic fan of Love if I’m being honest, he doesn’t seem like an MVP or anything near that yet. But I feel we need to pump the breaks on the hate train in all honesty. Love’s stats right now: 4-6 WL 340 ATT 203 COMP 59.7 percent 16 TD 10 INT
Rodgers first year starting: 6-10 WL 536 ATT 341 COMP 63.6 percent 28 TD 13 INT
I’m not saying Jordon is gonna be a 4 time MVP QB, nor am I saying he’s gonna be a franchise QB
But both him and Rodgers sat 3 years on the bench, and had an iffy first season starting.
But before you even dive into stats Rodgers receiving core had Driver AND Jennings. While Love is working with super young receievers. All while the offense is one of the youngest in the league.
AND we’re still paying over 50 million in cap space to people who aren’t even playing.
I just bring this up because it just seems like people want to criticize and hate on this man so badly while imo he’s not too bad.
It’s important to remember that even the coaching staff is still evaluating Love. Commentators mentioned in Sunday’s game that MLF had some specific conversations with Love about being more decisive even if he makes the wrong decision! That decisive factor was one of the things that bothered me about him for the first half of the season. He seemed to either mentally pick a receiver to target before the ball was snapped, and thus telegraph the throw, which leads to interceptions, or wait entirely too long and fail because the pocket collapsed around him. On Sunday I was much happier with his ability to make a decision and go with it, even if it was wrong. So clearly he’s teachable, and that’s important!
It’s especially important because there are still things he needs to learn. Ball placement is still an issue. As well as fundamentals of mechanics. There were a couple times on Sunday where Mark Sanchez pointed out the flaws in Love’s footwork and body posture when making throws. From what I’ve seen, Love doesn’t have a Rodgers/Mahomes arm, where he can sling it side-arm off balance and still make it go where he wants. Hell, sometimes he has good mechanics and it still doesn’t go where he wants.
I was encouraged by Sunday’s results, but partially that has to do with the maturing of the receivers. That group looks like they are finally starting to gel. It’s the gelling of that talent that a lot people were high about before the season started, and with good reason. There is a tremendous upside with this group. Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks have the athletic talent and speed to be upper echelon WRs. If Love can build chemistry with those two young guys and Christian Watson, they will be a tough matchup for any defense.
I think this Thanksgiving game in Detroit is going to be a great test: short week, national audience, a really tough Lions defense, if they can win this game, even if it’s ugly, Love will go a long way to silencing my concerns. I sincerely hope he does! If Love can make consistent and measurable progress every week, he’ll have earned the right to another year to prove he can be “the guy.”