Being drafted to the Green Bay Packers to play quarterback comes with its own hefty implied expectations. Before any field general who’s chosen to don the Green and Gold, are massive shoes to fill and walk an NFL quarterback career in. In order to qualify for the league’s most prestigious on-field position, your prerequisites have to carry a high level of consistency and confidence, but also equal parts humility.
Due to the frozen, remote, and village-like location of the club, you must commit yourself to football and football only. This dedication is fueled by the enthusiasm displayed by the people of Wisconsin for Packer football.
Because of these fundamental aspects—and for some, challenges—playing quarterback in Titletown requires tremendous levels of talent, maturity, and ability. Thus, legendary resumes have filled the position for the Pack throughout history — starting with the two-time Super Bowl MVP, league MVP, and Hall of Famer Bart “the cool” Starr. His multi-championship run with Vince Lombardi cemented the Packers’ long reputation of continued winning.
From Starr’s retirement in 1972 to 20 years later, the struggling Packers and then general manager Ron Wolf rolled the dice on a second-year Falcons’ quarterback with avascular necrosis, limited on-field experience, and a self-proclaimed “train wreck”. The Green Bay G.M. would go on to give Atlanta a first-round pick in February of 1992 for Brett Favre. Three league MVPs, two Super Bowl appearances, and one Lombardi later, you know the story.
However, in the midst of this unprecedented, against-all-odds chapter of what is the epoch of the Packers’ legendary signal callers, another abstract vignette begins to unfold. After getting torched by Randy Moss and the Vikings in the 2005 Wild Card, the Packers decided to spend the 24th pick of the draft on the “cocky” California quarterback, Aaron Rodgers after another offseason of Favre flirting with retirement.
Being drafted by a franchise with a mythological esteem, while also not being fully embraced by the legend that was meant to guide you on being a pro at the position you both share— these pressure points Rodgers dealt with are the same points that current day Packers’ quarterback Jordan Love has had to face, albeit, while being a better role model for Love than Favre was to him. Just like Rodgers, Love has answered the call and responsibility gracefully, showing us why Green Bay holds the reputation they do when it comes to the quarterback position.
Love’s been firing on all cylinders to start this season — especially after painting his Picasso on Prime Time television at Pittsburgh Sunday night against his former guru, Rodgers; a player whose ghost he’s chasing. Love threw 360 passing yards with 3 touchdowns, while becoming the only Packer QB to complete 20 consecutive passes in a game. Ever since the tire fire Divisional matchup last frigid Wisconsin winter, Love has been evolving, literally re-writing his weaknesses. When first taking the league by storm, the main trade-off to his flashy and big-number passing style was every gun-slinger’s imperfection: turnovers.
Through eight weeks last season, which included two games he sat out due to injury, Love had already thrown nine interceptions in six starts. In seven starts this season, he has only two. We are watching a quarterback actively shed his skin before our eyes – a process that took Josh Allen multiple seasons to master.
The development of Love is happening at an extremely rapid pace. His fourth game with multiple touchdowns and a completion percentage over 70% this season shook the ground of the NFL and let out some aftershocks. Extra residual energy that created a peep-hole into the young QB’s future, and one main message reads back to every other NFL team: All is fair in Love and war. Through two and a half years of starting, Love’s on-field play almost perfectly mirrors his mentor and his before him — with both positive takeaways and negative takeaways respectively for us to see.
The 2023 Packers’ postseason run is a prime example. After ending his inaugural starting season as the hottest quarterback in the league, the underdog nine-win Packers snuck their way into the wildcard matchup against their 12-win cross-conference rival in Dallas.
Love disregarded any of the picks against him, the fact that he was playing in an opposing stadium, and Defensive Player of the Year finalist Micah Parsons lined up across from him. Green Bay eviscerated the favored Cowboys in Arlington, moving on to the Bay to take on their other NFC rival and juggernaut, the 49ers. And after exceeding expectations while simultaneously setting new enormous standards for himself going forward, Jordan died by his gun-slinging sword in the Divisional round — one passed down through both predecessors.
After finding out your first-year starting quarterback has unparalleled arm talent and then inking the biggest quarterback contract at the time, which makes him $55 million richer annually — the near-future standard and expectation has now been set. You must mirror or exceed your historic predecessors every step of the way to fill the shoes before you. Shoes that weren’t nearly as imposing for both Favre and Rodgers, but, nevertheless, had to be filled.
A career where you are asked to always be on a higher level than everyone else creates inescapable pressure, though — pressure which burst in the Pack’s wild card loss to the Super Bowl champs, the Eagles, last year. A game where Love had the worst Packers’ quarterback postseason passer rating at 41.5 to go along with his three picks — similar to Favre’s six-interception (and three pick-sixes) performance in the ‘02 NFC Divisional round at St. Louis.
When he had to watch that same Philly team go on a tear for another month, only for them to dominate once again on the biggest stage against the biggest opponent, that fed that innate obsession with the game that has to be in you for Green Bay to stick.
This unique timeline of progression of the high-caliber third-year starting quarterback is now the norm for Green Bay. Cutting down one’s interception rate by 77.8% opens up the next chapter in the Green Bay quarterback epoch. A chapter – not about the arrival at rock bottom and the ascension to the sky like Favre, or a story highlighted by a giant shadow cast over your early career that attempts to prohibit you from becoming the best you can be like Rodgers – this chapter is a story about being faced with immense and intense expectations of the ones who once stood in your place.
It’s being able to meet and even exceed said expectations with every available tool: A former Coach of the Year, a former Defensive Player of the Year finalist, an all-pro running back, and Pro-Bowl receiving weapons – at your disposal to aid your success. It’s a tale of having the heels of your feet held to a flame and you not moving a single inch, and even scooting closer towards the fire.
Regardless of the complete focus on future events and results and where his career will eventually fall in relation to the Hall of Fame careers of his forerunners, Love hasn’t faded. Love has only grown in western Wisconsin. It has grown bigger than shadows of the days of old, and is now filling Lambeau Field and Green Bay homes on Sundays. Frankly, Love is what makes Green Bay go around.
