It is truly a mystery how Jordan Love is going to handle his new role as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. He has some huge shoes to fill, taking over for future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers, who was traded to the New York Jets.
While his coaches and teammates have said all of the right things and are confident in him taking over the offense, he doesn’t have much experience. Love has thrown 83 regular-season passes, making 10 appearances and starting once in his first three seasons in the NFL. His most extensive work has come during the preseason, in which he soaked up a ton of reps.
His path to the starting job with the Packers is eerily similar to the one of Rodgers. Both were late first-round picks that didn’t get the full-time starting job until Year 4. Like Love, Rodgers replaced a Packers legend in Brett Favre who was also traded to the Jets.
However, as pointed out by Grant Gordon of NFL.com, there is one difference between Love and Rodgers; how prepared they are to take over the job. While Love has a very small sample size to go off of, it is still a lot more than what Rodgers had heading into his first season as the starter.
In his first three seasons as a professional, Rodgers made only seven appearances during the regular season. When he took the field in Week 1 of the 2008 season, it was the first start that he ever made in the NFL.
Rodgers completed only 59.3 percent of his pass attempts in those seven games, averaging 5.6 yards per attempt. He threw only one touchdown to go along with one interception, registering a passer rating of 73.3.
Love, on the other hand, completed 60.2 percent of his passes and averaged 7.3 yards per attempt. He has three touchdowns to go along with three interceptions and registered a passer rating of 79.7.
In his first season as a starter, Rodgers led the Packers to a 6-10 record and he threw a career-high 13 interceptions. That was with established veterans such as Greg Jennings and Donald Drive to target at wide receiver and Jordy Nelson as the No. 3 option in his rookie season.
That should help take some pressure off of Love, whose most experienced wide receiver has one year in the NFL. Nearly his entire group of pass catchers are first and second-year players, with tight end Josiah Deguara, entering Year 4, the only player with more than a rookie season under his belt.
