Jordan Love Will Be Different and That's Exciting

I don’t know if Jordan Love is going to be any good, and I’m skeptical of anyone who would say otherwise.

Yes, I know he has tools. He has a big arm and has shown the touch and anticipation of a developing passer, one who looks like he could be pretty good one day. He supposedly has the “it” factor, whatever that actually is. His teammates, past and present, say nice things about him. But none of that equates to being a real, actual NFL quarterback.

However, I think we can say for sure that Love will at the very least be a different kind of quarterback than Aaron Rodgers. And I think whether he’s good or not, that’s a good thing for Packers fans. Or at least for me.

There’s a certain rhythm to an Aaron Rodgers-quarterbacked team. You certainly know this intuitively, even if you can’t specifically say what it’s like. But after 15 years of watching Rodgers, we know what to expect in a given situation. We know what his body language is like on the field. We know how he takes snaps and drops back and throws. We’re intimately familiar with his mechanics, his strengths, his weaknesses, and everything that goes into watching Aaron Rodgers play football.

(And, we should point out, almost all of this has been good. Whatever you think of him personally or in the “clutch” or in the GOAT argument or whatever, Aaron Rodgers has been a very good quarterback for a very long time, and he’s been very enjoyable to watch in the vast, vast majority of cases.)

But Jordan Love will be entirely different, and I think this is something that often gets lost in our increasingly analytics-focused sports world. Quarterbacks are artists as much as they are athletes. Even though they’re all measured by the same stats, the routes they take to those numbers are so different you’d often wonder if these guys are playing the same sport.

And I think that’s what gets me the most excited about the impending Jordan Love era. It’s going to look different! He’s a long-limbed, rubber-armed thrower. His footwork is different (and honestly, probably better in a lot of ways) than Rodgers’. He’ll handle snaps differently. He’ll sound different barking out signals. It’s going to look and feel different, and that’s exciting.

Sports aren’t static, and they shouldn’t be. Sooner or later, there was always going to be a different quarterback under center in Green Bay. Maybe that means an era of prosperity and success is over. Maybe it doesn’t. But it will, by necessity, mean that things will be different for the Packers, both this season and in the future.

If you can’t get at least a little excited about that — about the mystery and opportunity and sheer different-ness that comes with change — I don’t know if sports is for you.