Shannon Sharpe reveals secret to unlock Jordan Love’s greatness, ‘just sprinkle it in’

Shannon Sharpe, Chad Johnson urge Jordan Love to run more, open up defenses

Speaking on their Nightcap podcast, Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson were in agreement over what Love could do more of in 2025 to give him the edge over defenses.

“You want to keep them honest. My defense, if I know you’re not gonna run, I’ll play certain coverages. I want you to worry about that. You see what happened when Mahomes started taking off? Lot of teams couldn’t defend him any more,” Sharpe said.

“Just have that ability. You don’t need to be Lamar. You don’t need to be Josh Allen. You don’t need to be Jalen Hurts. Just sprinkle it in a little bit so that the defensive coordinator needs to close that off, then they’re not thinking about pinning their ears back and going after the quarterback,” he continued.

Love would need to improve significantly for this to be the case, as he ranked 30th in rushing among quarterbacks last year. He only had 83 yards on the ground, for one touchdown.

One very important factor might help Love improve in 2025

His poor rushing stats last year should be offset by the fact that he was carrying injuries for most of the season. In fact, his 2023 season was much different, as he doubled his rushing attempts, running for 250 yards and four touchdowns as a result.

Does he need to do it to improve? Not necessarily; the likelihood is that, if he can keep his health, the addition of new targets like Matthew Golden, means that he should see improvement anyway.

Having it in his arsenal, though, would be useful. It’s never really been a thing he’s relied on, either in college or the professional ranks, but Sharpe is correct, giving the defense something else to account for can significantly help your returns in the passing game as well.

Let’s see if he does it, but even if he doesn’t, the improvement in his targets should see him take a huge step forward in 2025, something the Packers badly need to meet expectations in what could end up being a vital season for the Packers coach and front office.