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Don't be dumb about Jordan Love

It's like people were waiting for any excuse to throw verbal tomatoes at Jordan Love. He played terrific football in the first two weeks of the season against two of the best teams in the NFC as the Packers waltzed to a 2-0 start, looking invincible in the process. Of course, though, no team is invincible or immune to upset losses - the same way that no quarterback is invulnerable to the occasional stinker of a performance.

Jordan Love and the Packers' offense had a sub-par game against the Browns. He went 18-of-25 for 183 yards, a touchdown, and a very poor interception that led to the Browns being able to score a touchdown. Yet in spite of that, if not for a blocked field goal, the Packers would be 3-0.

Ifs and whats are good for nothing, though. That said, with this quarterback in particular, too many people are waiting to dump on him like he's a member of Imagine Dragons. The bad faith arguments surrounding Love are already tiring, intellectually ignorant, and factually inaccurate. He's one of the best players in football, and you're lying to yourself if you think otherwise.

Jordan Love's Early Dominance

Through three weeks, Love has been one of the best deep ball throwers in the game, while also remaining efficient. Per Next Gen Stats, he ranks seventh in the NFL in EPA per dropback while also ranking sixth in average yards per attempt and fourth in deep pass percentage. He's chucking the ball downfield as much as any quarterback in the game, but is far more efficient than the majority of his counterparts.

There are only two quarterbacks in the league that rank top 10 in deep pass percentage, CPOE, and EPA per dropback - Lamar Jackson and Jordan Love. Next to no one is capable of doing what he's doing while playing how he plays.

If you try to blitz Love, good luck because he tears that apart, too. He is fourth in the league in yards against the blitz and has three touchdowns to zero interceptions when pressure is sent his way. He's also third in passer rating against the blitz, fourth in yards per attempt, fifth in EPA per dropback - you get the point. Love has been, and continues to be awesome.

Did he have a poor performance against the Browns? Yes. You know who else did? Joe Burrow. Was everyone bringing out the gallows for him, too? The Browns have the best defense in football, and the Week 3 game was more of a testament to that unit being great than the Packers all of a sudden being bad.

Does losing that game sting if you're a Packers fan? Of course. Losses always suck, but especially when it comes against a lesser opponent. However, just about every good team in the league loses a game like that every year. In 2022, the Chiefs lost to the Matt Ryan Colts. In 2021, the Bengals lost to a Jets team who had gone through several quarterbacks - both of those teams went to the Super Bowl. Things just happen in the NFL sometimes. Good teams have bad weeks, bad teams have great weeks. Blind squirrels find nuts, and sometimes squirrels with 20/20 vision don't see the acorn.

Love is a throwback quarterback. He throws the ball with an arrogance of knowing he can put passes where very few people can. It can be a double-edged sword at times, but the ceiling on Green Bay is far higher with Love than if they had guys like Brock Purdy, Tua Tagovailoa, Jared Goff, or Bo Nix. He's a special talent, a top 10 quarterback in the NFL, and one of the biggest reasons why the Packers are one of the favorites to make it to the Super Bowl.

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