At this point of the offseason, you have probably seen Jordan Love’s touchdown throw to Christian Watson a thousand times. The cover-2-hole shot that Aaron Jones didn’t catch against the Philadelphia Eagles, too. Because that’s what Love can do as a quarterback in the NFL. But the Green Bay Packers’ first-year starter still had a lot of developing to do before he could play in the NFL, and his three seasons behind future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers were intended to give him the time to do that.
That’s why it’s also important to watch Love’s mistakes to see where he can improve as a passer.
Coming out of Utah State, Love was seen as a low-floor/high-ceiling type of prospect. Talented but raw. In terms of style, he reminds us more of Brett Favre than Aaron Rodgers, with an aggressive yet sometimes erratic gunslinger profile. And in his extremely small NFL sample size, he’s displayed both the good and the bad.
Love has played five preseason games:
- Two in 2021 against the Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills.
- And three in 2022 against the San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints, and Kansas City Chiefs.
The young quarterback has also had three extensive regular-season appearances:
- Two in 2021, starting against the Chiefs and playing the second half against a meaningless game versus the Detroit Lions
- And one in 2022, playing a quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Love has thrown eight interceptions in these eight extended-action opportunities. Some of them are his fault. Some are communication or connection issues. And some are just bad luck. That’s why I invited three experts to analyze each one of them:
- Peter Bukowski from Locked on Packers and The Leap. (I can’t mention “The Leap” without thinking “A newsletter I would love for you to subscribe to” immediately thereafter.)
- Sam Holman, a Packers writer for Wisconsin Sports Heroics and EWU offensive analyst.
- And Daire Carragher, a Packers writer for Packer Report.
The idea is not to trash Love’s mistakes. Rather, it’s an opportunity to analyze what went wrong, what Love was possibly thinking, and how he can get better now that he has a chance to be a full-time starter after such a long wait.
Jordan Love‘s eight NFL interceptions:
2021 preseason
vs. Buffalo
Former Packers safety Micah Hyde was the first player to pick off Jordan Love. The interception is a result of a recurrent issue from his final season at Utah State. Love is trying to force a play doomed from the get-go and makes a mistake out of it.
Sam Holman:
It is mostly just bad decision-making, in my opinion. Throwing off your back foot into tight single-high coverage and placing the throw well within the range of a good post safety is a no-no. The chaos in the backfield prevents the tight end from getting out on a slide route, otherwise I’d guess that Love would have more of a checkdown option against the pressure. It’s far from an ideal situation, but Love responds poorly by panicking and throwing it up rather than throwing it incomplete and living to fight another down.
2021 regular season
vs. Kansas City
This is the first regular-season pick for Love. In a game where Love had to handle so much pressure and blitz packages, the pick came in a normal four-man rush. He targeted Davante Adams, and L’Jarius Sneed intercepted him.
Peter Bukowski:
This is where separating throw vs. decision is crucial: third-and-10 in a game where the defense has blitzed the daylights out of the QB, throwing a go ball to Davante Adams makes sense. It’s the kind of thing we’d expect Aaron Rodgers to do. This was a concept the Packers tried to throw a handful of times against the Chiefs, a switch release getting the slot receiver vertical to the boundary. Love knew he had one-on-one coverage with Adams and with pressure in his face, he lofts the ball too far upfield. Perhaps if he has time to set his feet and throw, he puts this on Adams’ back shoulder with the cornerback capping him the way he does. There’s a little bit of bad luck because the ball can’t reasonably be out much sooner either and Love falls off the throw a touch, anticipating the pressure getting to him, a telltale problem on throws that sail. I like the decision, but it’s not a great throw, albeit with some extenuating circumstances.
vs. Detroit
Love played the second half in Week 18 against the Lions. The first pick was clearly not Love’s fault. He made a fine throw to Amari Rodgers over the middle, but the slot receiver dropped it and allowed an easy interception for safety C.J. Moore.
Peter Bukowski:
Love deserves no blame for this interception. We could just stop there. Love appears to signal something pre-snap to the formation side of the play with Amari Rodgers, who is running a slant underneath the tight end, who is there solely to take up space and then get a block. Ball may be out a touch in front of Rodgers, but come on. This has to be a completion. Green Bay is down four with 1:20 left to play in a meaningless game, but it was a great chance to give Love reps in a two-minute situation. At worst, this should be third-and-two with a chance to take the lead and instead, Rodgers goofs it and it ricochets into the waiting arms of a defender. This proclivity toward dropping the ball in a slew of contexts ultimately cost the former Day 2 pick his job in Green Bay.
vs. Detroit (again)
With the game on the line in a final-minute hurry, the Lions pressured Love, and he overthrew Equanimeous St. Brown. Tracy Walker picked the ball, sealing the game for Detroit.
Daire Carragher:
Good coverage by the Lions takes away Love’s initial read on the left side. He still manages to find his second read, and his wide receiver (Equanimeous St. Brown) does have a step of separation. However, a well-executed stunt puts the QB under major pressure and affects the flight of the ball, airmailing it over his intended target. If the Packers pick up this stunt, it’s probably a completion.
2022 preseason
vs. San Francisco
Last year, Love did good things against the 49ers, but he also threw three picks. The first one was mostly not his fault. The ball was a little bit too high, but tight end Tyler Davis should have caught it. He dropped it, though, and it became an easy interception for Marcelino McCrary-Ball.
Daire Carragher:
This is an unfortunate interception for Love on a simple half-field read where he makes the correct decision and gets the ball out sharply. Love’s ball placement here is slightly off — ideally, this ball should be flatter, not leading his receiver into coverage. Still, most starting NFL receivers come down with this throw.
vs. San Francisco (again)
The second one was an unusual play. Love makes a decent throw, and the referee calls a completed pass to Romeo Doubs initially. However, Samuel Womack took the ball out of Doubs’ hands before the end of the play, so it was reversed.
Sam Holman:
Throwing a short out versus an inside leverage man defender is a good decision, in my opinion. On the surface, it’s the ball placement that causes the issue here. It may be as simple as that. I’m no QB coach, but Love’s footwork mechanics on the throw look kind of wonky. However, I also wonder if Doubs ran his route too short.
Seems unlikely that a two- or three-yard out route is what he’s supposed to execute here. Based on the trajectory of the ball, I suspect Love thought that Doubs was going to break out closer to the sticks. I would guess that the route is supposed to break out closer to that five- to six-yard mark, especially since that’s the depth for a first down. I wonder if Doubs hadn’t repped this route from an off-ball stack alignment and so got confused about what the route depth should be.
vs. San Francisco (a third time)
Another interception when targeting Amari Rodgers over the middle of the field, but once again it was a clear pick by Samuel Womack. After the game, Matt LaFleur said two players ran the wrong routes, but he didn’t mention who did.
Daire Carragher:
There looks to be some kind of miscommunication here between Love and Amari Rodgers. After the game, Matt LaFleur said two WRs ran the wrong route on this play. An educated guess assumes Rodgers was supposed to break his route horizontally across the field here on more of a dig route than a crosser.
Regardless, the ball is thrown behind Amari in either case, allowing the defensive back to make a pretty impressive play on the ball. For me, this is the most egregious of the above three interceptions (comparing those Daire analyzed).
vs. Kansas City
The last one, in Love’s final preseason game last year, was against the Chiefs. Love tries a big play but throws in the middle of three Kansas City defenders. Bryan Cook picks him off.
Peter Bukowski:
We can talk about what Love sees on the coverage here (I think he got fooled), but it’s also third-and-5 with 19 seconds left in the half. Amari Rodgers comes open on the stop route and Juwann Winfree may have a chance down at the bottom, but it’s hard to blame Love for taking a shot. Even if they pick up eight or 10 yards in this situation, the field goal is worse than a coin flip. Give your guy a chance and if you throw a pick, you throw a pick. In a way, I admire the willingness to take the risk. That said, I think Steve Spagnuolo caught him.
Pre-snap, Love sees two red jerseys to cover three white ones (the good guys in this case) and likely thinks he has a numbers advantage to that side. Last-second safety rotation covers the tight end running down the seam. Love is looking right at that middle-of-the-field player, so maybe he sees the defender and throws it anyway, an instinct in this case, I can forgive. It’s not a great ball, as his tight end never has much of a chance at it, but it makes me a little less concerned about the read that this came on third down when merely picking up the first doesn’t help. They were either one play away from a heave, or try it in that moment. I’m fine with the aggressiveness here, but would be less fine if the pre-snap look fooled him and he never saw the trouble he was in.
Jordan Love has thrown interceptions for different reasons, but the main concern is ball placement. The Packers’ quarterback has improved at reading coverages and seems to be more comfortable within the system. However, many throws don’t appear to go exactly where Love intended.
Now Love will finally have the opportunity to be the centerpiece of the offense. The Packers will design game plans for him, annd opponents will scheme against him. It’s a season of development and evolution, and the bad plays are also a big part of Green Bay’s calculation moving forward.
