Packers’ Season Will Hinge on PFF’s Bounce-Back Player

It’s maybe a little simplistic – maybe – but a team is only as good as its quarterback.

For the Green Bay Packers to be as good as they can be, it will be up to quarterback Jordan Love to have a bounce-back season.

Pro Football Focus named one bounce-back candidate for all 32 teams. It chose Love, the team’s third-year starting quarterback.

“Love simply didn’t progress the way the Packers had hoped in 2024,” PFF’s Dalton Wasserman wrote.

There were reasons, of course, starting with a Week 1 knee injury that bothered Love “damn near the whole year,” as running back Josh Jacobs said on The Pivot Podcast. A midseason groin injury didn’t help matters, but Love – no different than in 2023 – forced the ball downfield too often and threw too many interceptions.

Love’s completion percentage dropped from 64.2 percent in 2023 to 63.1 percent in 2024. Even while throwing 154 fewer passes, Love matched his 2023 total with 11 interceptions.

According to Stathead, 32 quarterbacks threw at least 500 passes the last two seasons. Love ranks 13th in passer rating, 24th in completion percentage, 11th in yards per attempt and 19th in interception percentage.

Few quarterbacks like airing it out as much as Love. Even while missing about two-and-a-half games due to injuries, Love threw the sixth-most passes 20-plus yards downfield. Of 33 quarterbacks with at least 30 deep attempts last season, he finished 22nd in completion percentage, according to PFF.

That’s what makes the addition of receiver Matthew Golden in the first round so important. Golden’s got elite speed, which should fit nicely into how Love and coach Matt LaFleur want to attack.

“For the first time in 23 years,” Wasserman wrote, “the team selected a wide receiver in the first round – Matthew Golden – to better support Love in the passing game. Golden’s blazing speed should be a factor on vertical throws, but his ability to run safeties off could prove even more valuable. In 2023, Love earned an 87.8 passing grade on intermediate throws. That number dropped to 65.7 in 2024, ranking 35th out of 43 qualified quarterbacks.”

Organized team activities, which started on Tuesday, will give Love his first live opportunity to throw to Golden.

“The speed speaks for itself,” Love said at his charity softball game last week. “Running a 40-yard dash, any time you get a 4.2, that’s some blazing speed right there, so I’m excited to see how fast he is on the field,” Love said. “I’ve seen all the highlights, all the good stuff, so we’ll see once we get practice rolling and everything how good he is.”

Love not only has a couple new receivers with Golden and Savion Williams, he’s got a new position coach, with former NFL quarterback Sean Mannion replacing venerable Tom Clements, who retired after the season.

Mannion joined the staff last year so has spent a year alongside Love.

“He’s a great talent. He’s a great person,” Mannion said recently. “He’s a great person to work with every day and he has great habits, so I think really when you combine those three things, really, the sky is the limit. For him, what we’re really trying to focus on is the fundamentals and the footwork.

“That’ll help you be your most consistent accuracy-wise, decision-making-wise and timing-wise, so that’s really our main area of focus with him. But it’s a pleasure to work with him and all the quarterbacks we have in the room on a daily basis because of their level of talent but then kind of the way they attack each day as a teammate and then as a quarterback.”

Love won’t have to do it alone. With Jacobs, who can make an argument for being the best running back in the NFL, Love can lean on the running game to keep the offense in advantageous down-and-distance situations and set up big plays in the passing game.

“The throws that this dude can make, I don't think people really understand it, bro,” Jacobs said on the podcast, which was recorded before the draft. “I went up against Pat Mahomes twice (every season), and I've seen him do some sh** I've never seen nobody do. Jordan gives me flashes of that.

“I think for Jordan, when he just really gets comfortable and he settles down, because he was battling a knee injury damn near the whole year, so it's hard when you battle a knee injury and you’re a quarterback and you can’t move as much as you need to and things like that  I think when he gets comfortable and he understands his game and his strengths and weaknesses, that he can take his games to the next level. I think that’s the next step for him. And also, you get him some guys that’s going to protect them and catch the ball when it's time, he gonna be straight, and I think we got that group of guys.”