Getty Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers works out during training camp at Ray Nitschke Field on June 08, 2021.
Those writing Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love off had better put their pens down. While it’s far too early to predict whether the second-year quarterback will be a success or a failure in the NFL, those who know him best have some pretty flattering things to say about Love.
NFL analyst and insider Tyler Dunne of Go Long recently spoke with former Utah State quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator David Yost about what the Packers quarterback brings to the table. Yost coached Love for two years at Utah State, and he also coached current Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert at Oregon before that. According to Yost, Love and Herbert have more in common than many realize.
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Yost: Love’s Work Ethic is Excellent
Yost thinks Love will do just fine in the NFL. “I know at Utah State, he took full advantage of when he wasn’t the guy. As far as not just sitting there and losing attention in the meeting room. When I showed up in January that first year, he knew the offense as well as anybody in the quarterback room,” Yost said about Love, adding:
“He’s going to get more and more comfortable with their offense and he’s a smart kid. He’s going to add to his database of information on what they do and how they do it. And he had a great guy to learn from. Whenever Jordan gets his opportunity, he’ll impress a lot of people.”
Can Jordan Love Be the Next Justin Herbert?
Yost spent significant time with both Love and Herbert, and he thinks the Packers quarterback has a ton of similarities to last year’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
“He’s extremely talented. And he has all the stuff you need to be successful,” Yost said. “The big question I got last year because I worked with both of them was ‘Herbert or Love?’ They’d say, ‘Who would you pick?’ And I said, ‘Either one. They’re both high-, high-level guys. They’re great people. They’re students of the game. Their work ethics are right. And their physical talents are what you need to be able to work with. They can both throw the football. They’re both athletic and can move. So, I didn’t think Jordan was far off of what Herbert was — if at all.”
Herbert was thrown into the fire early in the season during his rookie campaign last year after starter Tyrod Taylor got injured, and he never looked back. Herbert started 15 games last year, completing 66.6 percent of his passes for 4,336 yards, 31 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and winning Rookie of the Year by a landslide. Yost thinks that had Love been in Herbert’s situation, he could have had similar results.
“I think if Jordan had to go into a game last year or he had to play this year — understanding their coaching staff is going to put him in a position to be successful and they’ve got a lot of other players — he could have.”
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Yost Breaks Down Love-Herbert Comparison Further
Yost also articulated why he thinks Love’s game will be similar to Herbert’s:
They’re both really, really athletic. They’re more athletic than they get credit for. They’re not Lamar Jackson-type of guys but they both can move and get themselves out of trouble. They’re big, athletic guys who have great arm talent. Everything about Jordan was how well he could throw the football. The different ways he could throw the ball. That’s what Herbert was able to show last year, even more so than when I was with him at Oregon. Everything was how strong his arm was and then you could see how accurate he was with it down the field. That’s what Jordan did for us when I was at Utah State. He was able to throw the ball and knew exactly where that ball was going to go. And it wasn’t just all the under 10-yard passes. It was a lot of vertical throws and him getting a rapport with his wideouts…When Jordan took over, it was his team. As a redshirt sophomore, he was definitely the leader of the offense. Justin was the same way. Neither are big talkers. But when they did say something, everybody listened.
Time will be the determining factor where Love is concerned, of course, but hearing things like this from coaches who know him best has to make Packer Nation feel a tad bit better about the team’s current situation at quarterback.
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