Getty Jordan Love, Packers
Kurt Warner knows a good bit about playing the quarterback position in the NFL. He did it for 12 seasons and topped 4,000 yards three times, earning four Pro Bowl selections, two MVP awards, a Super Bowl MVP and a Hall of Fame induction. If his opinion matters more than most, then Packers fans have due cause for excitement when it comes to new starter Jordan Love.
“The thing I’m enjoying the most from Jordan Love, not that every throw has been perfect, footwork has some things that I’d like to see him clean up, but it’s the recognition of what he’s seeing,” Warner said in dissecting Love’s play on his show, QB Confidential. “That becomes the big question, when it is a young quarterback, what is he seeing?”
Love’s command of the offense and ability to read the field left Warner with this prognosis: “There’s a lot to like.”
Warner Impressed by What Jordan Love ‘Is Seeing’
One of the problems with looking at Love is that there just is not a whole lot of game tape analyze. While there has been concerning chatter at times this summer about how he has looked in practice, there’s no substitute for game performance.
“I’m going to go off the preseason games this year,” Warner said. “What are we seeing? Led his team to two touchdowns in each of the games, even though he played limited time in each of the games. But more importantly, where are his eyes at, what is he looking at? What is he seeing, is he seeing the key things on the different concepts that he needs to see?”
As Warner showed on the tape, the answer was routinely, yes. In the Packers’ preseason showings, Love was under center for a total of eight possessions. He completed 21 of his 33 pass attempts and drove for three touchdowns with no interceptions. His passer rating was excellent (109.8).
Love Has Only 10 NFL Appearances to Date
Love, of course, is taking over for future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers, after three seasons waiting behind Rodgers on the Packers’ bench. In that time, he has been working to reconfigure his footwork, tighten up his throwing motion and learn to read NFL defenses.
He has had precious little opportunity to test his learning on the field, though, making only 10 appearances and attempting 50 passes in those games. Things will be much different when Love takes the field in Week 1 in a very hostile Soldier Field in Chicago.
But Warner sees an impressive level of confidence and knowledge in the limited amount of tape available:
How definitive he was, getting back, seeing it, eyes in the right spot, ball out, pretty accurate for the most part when his feet were set. Good on the naked boot legs. Just like what I’ve seen up to this point. Doesn’t guarantee us anything. But very seldom do you see guys that do certain things like this week after week after week that don’t know what they are doing, that are just falling into this kind of success. Probably going to be some growing pains, there’s growing pains for every quarterback. …
All I’m telling you is that when you watch the tape, there’s been some really good things that leave me optimistic that he’s going to play some really good football this year, even if he has some bumps in the road.
We’ll gladly take the bumps, as long as there is some good football, too.