Officials in Green Bay understand that the performance of quarterback Jordan Love is the most important determining factor for the franchise's current and future success. Love is already one of the best quarterbacks in football at 26 years of age. The scary thing for the rest of the league is that he is just entering his prime.
That means Love still has plenty of growth opportunities in his game moving forward. If he takes another step forward there is a chance he can compete with the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen to be the top quarterback in the NFL. Fans outside in Green Bay might not appreciate just how good he's been this season after struggling with injuries early in the year.
Love does not need to revolutionize his game to ascend to that tier of quarterback. Some modest improvement around the edges could turn his output from great to elite. Here are the things Love can improve in 2025 if he wants to take his game to the next level.
Love is a natural risk-taker at the quarterback position. Part of what makes him so good is his willingness to take chances and push the ball down the field. As a result, he's always going to have a higher turnover rate than his peers who prefer to play it safe.
Toning his risks down just a tad can still improve Love's effectiveness. He went through a rough period of turnovers earlier this season that cost his team the chance to win the NFC North. 11 interceptions in 13 games isn't a terrible number but his interception rate in 2024 is the highest mark Love has endured as a starter.
In fairness to Love, the real solve here for the Packers might be to give him a No. 1 wide receiver capable of winning a higher percentage of contested catches on deep routes. Their quarterback has a real talent for taking deep shots but doesn't have a big-bodied wideout capable of maximizing those chances. Finding a jump ball specialist in the draft could help Love more than any philosophy change.
Part of Love's aforementioned injury issues were a result of him exposing himself to more hits than necessary. Part of his maturation process as a quarterback is to understand just how important his availabiity is to his teammates.
Love does have the mobility required to pick up valuable first downs with his legs. He isn't the elite scrambler that someone like Lamar Jackson can be from the quarterback position but he can evade the rush and get outside the pocket to nice effect.
The key for Love is to realize that stepping out of bounds or sliding might be the right move in certain circumstances. He can't play like someone who fears contact but he also can't seek it out. Discretion is the better part of valor for a star like Love. If he can improve his availability in 2025 it could help the Packers win an extra regular season game or two.
One area of quarterback play where Love is not elite is his raw completion percentage. 63.2 percent is a respectable total but it's not what any NFL coach would deem to be elite. Upping that number for a couple of percentage points could do wonders to keep the chains moving for the Packers in 2025.
This is not a statistic that Love should obsess about. He does not need to change his game to the point where he is dinking and dunking the ball down the field. Continuing to push the ball down the field aggressively is essential for Love's success.
What he can focus on is throwing the ball with better accuracy on short and intermediate routes. His ball placement gets a little questionable at times on what most observers would label as 'easy throws.' If he can find a way to steady his footwork in the pocket he should see an uptick in his completion percentage and his receivers' abiliy to pick up more yards after the catch.
This area is different than completion percentage because it's more about improving the throw mix he's already making rather than incorporating more easy completions. The reality is Love's on target rate is dropped over six-percent from his performance last year.
That might not seem like a huge decline but it's meaningful when you're talking about a quarterback that's trying to vault himself into the MVP conversation. Love needs to do better in this regard if he wants to produce more explosive plays. That's hugely important since it's the best aspect Love brings to the Green Bay offense.
Love can make this development by working hard to make sure he makes more throws with his feet firmly planted on the ground. He makes some really impressive off-balance passes but the success rate of those sort of plays just isn't going to be equal to his throws from inside the pocket. He needs to save those one-foot throws for when he truly needs them. This year, he's been a little lax with his footwork and that's cost him some valuable efficiency as a passer. This is a minor change he can make in 2025 to improve his play.
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