How Did Jordan Love Get Here?

Yet again, the Green Bay Packers have unearthed another franchise quarterback. In other words, the sky is blue, the sun shines brightly, and lava is hot.

Jordan Love, who is now the highest-paid player in professional football, has emerged as, essentially, just the third starting field general for the NFL's most storied franchise since 1992.

To put things into perspective, 1992 was President George H.W. Bush's final full year in office. The first-ever text message was delivered, Quentin Tarantino made his directorial feature-length debut with his first film, "Reservoir Dogs", and it was the most recent losing season for the New York Yankees. That is how long the Packers have had just a trio of starting quarterbacks.

Jordan Love Almost Quit Football, And His Background Is A Hollywood Script

When Jordan Love's father tragically committed suicide when his son was just 14 years old, Love had pondered whether he should hang up the cleats, pads and helmet for good - and for very justifiable reasons. Love has always spoken ebulliently about his father, and the two were inseparable.

Love's mother, Anna, convinced her son to play football for at least one more year, as she did not want her son to make a hasty decision in the immediate aftermath of an unspeakable tragedy. Jordan Love entrenched himself as the starting quarterback for his junior varsity team at Liberty High School in Bakersfield, California during tenth grade - and that was after being entering high school at just five feet, six inches tall and a lanky 130 pounds.

From there, Jordan Alexander Love began to craft his own hero's journey. Halfway through his junior year, Love earned the job as the starting quarterback for the varsity football team, a position he never relinquished. When he became a senior, Love passed for over 2,100 yards, slinged 24 touchdown passes, and ran for over 800 yards as he orchestrated Liberty all the way to the state semifinal.

Despite A Stellar High School Performance, Love Was Not A Highly Touted Prospect

Upon the completion of his final year of high school football, Jordan Love was labeled a two-star recruit. Even after overcoming a lachrymose tragedy and facilitating a remarkable performance as Liberty High School's conductor under center, Love was deemed as not good enough for all but one Division I FBS football program.

While he was offered admission to Division I FCS schools like Eastern Washington, Northern Arizona, and Northern Colorado, Love's lone FBS inquiry came from Utah State, a program that had posted just four winning seasons from 2005 to 2016. Love accepted coach Matt Wells's offer, and he embarked on a 793-mile trek from Liberty High School to Maverik Stadium in Logan, Utah in the fall of 2017.

As a freshman, Love did not have to wait very long to begin his college career. After incumbent quarterback Kent Myers threw five interceptions during the first trifecta of games for the Aggies in 2017, Jordan Love alternated snaps with his teammate until the twelfth and final regular season game against Air Force.

Jordan Love's College Career Skyrocketed Against Air Force In 2017

Utah State suffered a tantalizing 38-35 defeat, but Jordan Love played an excellent game - during which he got the Aggies 521 total yards of offense, and himself produced 284 yards and a tandem of touchdowns with his right arm. Utah State finished with a 6-6 record in 2017, and they accepted an invitation to play against New Mexico State in the Arizona Bowl.

Love did not play particularly well in the bowl game, but the stage was already set, and head coach Matt Wells had seen enough. It was time for The Jordan Love Show.

Utah State Put Together Its Finest Season Ever In 2018 With Love

For just the second time in the 106-year history of Utah State football, the team won 11 games and had ranked as high as 14th in the Associated Press Top 25. It was the first time the program had been given such a distinction since 2012, and just the second time since 1961.

With Jordan Love under center, Utah State scored 618 points and averaged 47.5 points per game, which trailed only Oklahoma and Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray, who would go on to be drafted first overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the following year's NFL Draft. Utah State also finished 11th in the country in yards per game and finished 31st in offensive efficiency out of the 130 FBS teams that year.

Love, for his part, finished 2018 with more passing yards than all but 13 other quarterbacks in the FBS, and tossed 32 touchdown passes while he completed 64 percent of his passes.

Utah State accepted an offer to participate in The New Mexico Bowl, a game in which their adversary would be North Texas. Jordan Love concocted his finest performance of what was an already splendid campaign, as he had the Aggies up 38-7 by halftime. Love registered 359 yards and four touchdown passes.

Love's draft stock began to skyrocket, and a lot of pundits and analysts were prognosticating his future and a potential first-round pick. 2019, however, would put a damper on a lot of that discourse.

Everything That Went Right For Love In 2018 Did Not Go Well In 2019

Jordan Love was, objectively, one of the best pigskin hurlers in the country in 2018. In 2019. that narrative underwent some major vacillations, as Love struggled to come close to emulating his production from the year prior.

While much of Love's 2019 struggles can be attributed to the fact that head coach Matt Wells departed the program to accept a job offer as the new sideline boss for Texas Tech, in addition to a bevy of personnel turnover as a result of losing teammates to the transfer portal and graduation or the NFL Draft, Love still regressed significantly.

Love's completion percentage decreased, he threw 12 fewer touchdown passes, he found difficulty in connecting on deep balls, and he led the entire country in interceptions, with 17 - which was more than his freshman and sophomore seasons combined.

Utah State finished 2019 at 7-6, with a 51-41 loss to Kent State in the Frisco Bowl. Despite the somber conclusion to the season, Love finished with his best game of the season, as he found his targets 30 out of 39 times for 317 yards and three touchdown passes.

With His Eyes Set On The Future, Love's Most Surreal Moment Arrived

Before the Frisco Bowl, Jordan Love had already declared for the 2020 NFL Draft, one of the most anticipated drafts in recent memory. This draft class already included Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, and Justin Herbert.

Most draft enthusiasts still had Love pegged as a late first-round or early second-round pick, but the Green Bay Packers subverted all of those expectations when they traded up for Love, despite having been just 60 minutes away from Super Bowl LIV and having positional deficiencies that were in need of fettling.

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst was vilified for the maneuver, especially by incumbent Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers.

After Sitting Behind Rodgers For Three Years, Love's Time Came, And He Put On A Show

At the risk of being trite, the rest is history. After two more MVPs coupled with playoff clunkers, Aaron Rodgers was traded to the Jets, and the Love era began.

After a mediocre first nine games, Jordan Love topped off an exhilarating NFL debut campaign with 18 touchdowns, just one interception, a 70.25 percent completion percentage, and a 112.7 passer rating in his final eight games, a scorching marathon that catapulted the Packers to their first playoff win since 2020 against a familiar punching bag in the Dallas Cowboys.

The 2023 Packers became the youngest team to make the playoffs since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, they had one of the most productive rookie classes in NFL history, and Jordan Love is now the new face of the franchise, with Super Bowl expectations being the norm once again.

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