Disguised by pedestrian volume stats, Jordan Love took a major leap last season in Year 3 as the Green Bay Packers' starting quarterback. His passing yards (3,381) and touchdowns (23) won't wow the casual fan, but more precise metrics reveal Love to be downright elite.
For some reason, however, he remains underappreciated among his peers. That much was crystal clear in Mina Kimes' annual quarterback draft on The Mina Kimes Show with guest Ben Solak.
The premise: draft the best quarterbacks based on a three-year timeline. Contract and team environment don't matter. Love somehow came in ninth, behind Justin Herbert (sixth), Dak Prescott (seventh), and, of course, Caleb Williams (eighth). Looks like 2026 will present yet another opportunity for Love to make skeptics look silly.
Jordan Love still surrounded by analyst ambivalence
Ahead of the ninth pick, Kimes introduced Love as a mystery quarterback who, in 2025:
- Ranked third in QBR
- Second in EPA per dropback
- Third in DVOA
- Second by QBR when kept clean in the pocket
- Second in third-down QBR
- First in on third and long
Sure sounds like a guy you'd want to lead your team over the next three seasons.Â
Kimes isn't a skeptic, per se. "I find the discourse around Jordan Love to be the dumbest in the NFL right now," the renowned ESPN analyst said. "It's so odd to me that people won't acknowledge how good he's been. That he's clearly a top 10 QB in this league. … He's got this weird reputation as, like, the worst of Brett Favre, as this irresponsible, erratic gunslinger that is absolutely not consistent with the quarterback I saw."
Love's corresponding place in the draft would seem to provoke some strong cognitive dissonance. Kimes, to her credit, has Love above Williams. Yet 32-year-old Prescott ranks ahead of him. Solak ranked Williams fifth overall on his QB big board but guessed he would still be available at No. 8 in the draft.
When healthy, Prescott has put up elite numbers. But Love is coming off a superior season by efficiency metrics, leading Prescott in QBR, passer rating, and yards per attempt. A concussion cost Love 2.5 games. A full season would give him 3,964 passing yards to Prescott's 4,552, diluting the latter's volume-based edge in a head-to-head argument.
Prescott will also turn 33 this summer. He has durability concerns. Since 2020, he has not gone consecutive seasons without missing at least five games in one of them. Taking Prescott over Love is difficult to justify in a three-year timeline. The bizarre double standard persists.
A bullish attitude on Williams is (somewhat) understandable. As an NFL sophomore, the former No. 1 overall pick flashed his high-end upside under new head coach and playcaller Ben Johnson. Still, Williams has seemingly earned a mulligan for his inconsistencies in a way that Love never has.
Benefit of the doubt not extended to Jordan Love as it is to other QBs
Last year, Williams ranked 16th in QBR and averaged 6.9 yards per attempt. Among 40 quarterbacks to attempt 160 passes, his 58.1 percent completion rate ranked 38th.
Love, meanwhile, ranked second in total EPA despite running only the 19th-most plays. He also ranked second in EPA per play among QBs with at least 80 plays run. Williams ranked 18th. Love posted an overall success rate of 48.92 percent. Williams, 43.80 percent.
While the draft is not about who was better last season only, Williams' anticipated ascension is treated with giddy optimism. Love's proven progression is dismissed. The three-year timeline should function in his favor, not against it.
As for Herbert, it's the same story every year. The talent is there, but the expected results never come. This time, the supposed catalyst is Mike McDaniel's arrival as the Chargers' offensive coordinator.
Herbert may have hit his ceiling. In six seasons, he has yet to match Love's 2025 QBR. His EPA per play last season? 0.03, 24th. Success rate? 46.84 percent. Yards per attempt? 7.3. Herbert's offensive line did him no favors last season, true, but then, the Packers' O-line was also hurt and ineffective.
The conversation around Love's game remains strangely similar to the discussions entering last season. Will he take the next step forward? Is he actually a franchise QB? Been there, done that. Tune into talk shows, and it's as if 2025 never happened.
All good. Fool them once, do it again. As many times as it takes. Love should be highly motivated to produce another Pro-Bowl-caliber 2026 campaign, one of many more to come.
Add us as a preferred source on Google