Why Jordan Love Doesn’t Get Enough Recognition As An Elite NFL Quarterback

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love doesn’t get the recognition he deserves as a top NFL quarterback. If you look at advanced analytics, Love is a top five quarterback by efficiency. He has been a starter for the Packers for three seasons and led the team to the playoffs all three years. The Utah State alum can make all the throws in an NFL playbook and does a good job of reading defenses. So why doesn’t Jordan Love get enough recognition as an elite NFL quarterback? We’ll examine some reasons for this anomaly.

Why Jordan Love Doesn’t Get Enough Recognition as an Elite NFL Quarterback: First Way to Elite Status

There are different ways for NFL quarterbacks to get to elite status. One simple way is to have overwhelming and elite statistics. Consistently being at or near the league lead in yards gained or touchdown passes while keeping your interception total low certainly earns the respect of fans and experts alike.

Quarterbacks like Dan Fouts and Dan Marino never won a championship, but they led the NFL in passing yards and touchdown passes while making their share of memorable throws. They also consistently led their teams to the playoffs.

Both Fouts and Marino also took the passing game to a different level. Fouts set records as the NFL passing game opened up in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Marino had a rocket arm and made deep throws like few before him. He only reached one Super Bowl, but he was clearly the best or one of the best quarterbacks in the game for the better part of a decade.

Love doesn’t have those elite numbers. In three seasons as a starter, he has never led the NFL in passing yardage. He has one season of 4,000 or more passing yards and one season of more than 30 touchdown passes. Injuries have played a role in this as Love has missed time in each of the last two seasons due to assorted injuries. To date, he has yet to earn Pro Bowl honors. On pure cumulative numbers alone, Love will be considered good but not elite.

Second Way to Elite Status

A second way for NFL quarterbacks to reach elite status is to win Super Bowls. Joe Montana didn’t have the strongest arm, but he was efficient, effective, and won four Super Bowls. Tom Brady wasn’t the biggest quarterback, and he didn’t have a cannon for an arm, and his running ability was something even he joked about at times. But he won more Super Bowl titles than any quarterback in NFL history.

Winning multiple championships gets a quarterback into the elite discussion even if their numbers are not elite. Eli Manning won two Super Bowls and has received consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite the fact that his career statistics are very good but not great. Winning championships elevates your status in the eyes of many fans.

Love has not led the Packers to a championship yet. In fact, he hasn’t come close. His record as a starter in the postseason is 1-3. While statistically, Love has enjoyed some strong performances in the playoffs, his failure to win enough of those games, even when he hasn’t been the reason for these losses, has hurt his reputation with some fans.

Why Jordan Love Doesn’t Get Enough Recognition as an Elite NFL Quarterback: Third Way to Elite Status

There is a third way to gain elite status in the minds of fans. It overlaps with the first two but has to be taken into consideration separately as well. That is to create numerous memorable moments that cause fans to remember fondly.

Brett Favre provides a prime example of this. In his first extensive action as a Packer, he led the team to a dramatic, last-minute comeback win over the Bengals at Lambeau Field. His first playoff game featured another thrilling last-minute win over the Lions on the road as he found Sterling Sharpe in the end zone for the winning score.

Aaron Rodgers also had memorable moments early in his career as a starter. His first playoff game against the Cardinals in Arizona came in a loss, but the team scored 45 points and Rodgers threw for 423 yards and four touchdowns in the game.

Both Rodgers and Favre had other memorable moments during their tenure with the team from improbable Hail Mary passes by Rodgers to Favre’s memorable performance on Monday Night Football shortly after his father passed away.

Love hasn’t had many dramatic comebacks or memorable moments by comparison. He’s had a few spoiled by the failure of the defense to hold leads, but those “oh wow” moments that create emotional attachments to players haven’t been there as frequently.

Conclusion

Quarterbacks don’t become elite in the minds of fans on statistics alone. It’s often an emotional response to what we see or to the outstanding cold numbers a quarterback puts up or the amazing plays that he makes.

Thus far, while Love has proven to be a very good quarterback and an efficient quarterback, he has yet to put up eye-popping base numbers or win a championship or create numerous memorable moments that stand out in the memory of fans.

Until he does more of that, scouts may think of Love as an elite quarterback, but many fans will not be won over just yet.