Jordan Love’s stat line looks like the kind of thing fans usually beg for. The problem for the Green Bay Packers is that all that volume is coming with almost nothing around him.
Through three games, Love is throwing the ball as much as anyone in the league and piling up yards while doing it. He has 124 pass attempts for 844 yards, and no quarterback has taken more throws or gained more passing yardage.
C.J. Stroud is the next closest in attempts, while Tyler Shough sits second in yards with 662.
That kind of workload might sound like proof that Green Bay is finally letting Love take over. And in one sense, it is.
Packers fans have wanted Matt LaFleur to “let Love cook” for years. Right now, though, what’s coming out of the kitchen is less a feast than an emergency.
The biggest issue is the run game, or what’s left of it. With Josh Jacobs sidelined on the commissioner's exempt list, Green Bay has gotten almost nothing on the ground.
MarShawn Lloyd has stayed healthy, but the burst he showed as a runner appears to be gone. Kaleb Johnson is described as simply “a guy” who knows how to run the football, though he has not looked like much more than that at the NFL level.
Chris Brooks, meanwhile, is the kind of player who would be on the practice squad for just about every other team.
The line in front of them has made things worse. Green Bay’s banged-up offensive front has not opened lanes in the run game, and the result is brutal: the Packers are averaging just 48.7 rushing yards per game, dead last in the league by a wide margin.
That lack of balance has shoved even more onto Love’s shoulders, and the pass protection has been just as ugly. Love has been hit 20 times in three games, a pace that would put him on track for 113 hits over a full season, according to Zach Kruse. That’s the kind of number that sounds absurd before you remember he’d have to survive the year to reach it.
The grading numbers are just as grim. Per PFF, Green Bay’s offensive line has a 41.7 pass-blocking grade and a 78.9 pass-blocking efficiency rating, both last in the NFL. PFF also says the unit has allowed 51 pressures, and the 25 total knockdowns on Love are the most by any NFL offensive line through three games in the past 20 seasons.
Love has been pressured on 44.4 percent of his dropbacks, and it’s showing. His timing has started to unravel. Against the Falcons, he was rushing throws into the dirt and missing open receivers because the clock in his head was moving too fast.
The completion rate tells the same story. Love is hitting only 52.4 percent of his passes this season. So while the numbers say he’s throwing a ton and producing plenty of yardage, they also say he’s doing it inefficiently.
Love has some blame in all of this. But the numbers make the bigger point pretty clear: he’s trying to carry an offense that has given him almost no help.
In Other News...
Packers Captains Just Weighed In As Matt LaFleur Heat Builds
With the Packers sitting at 1-2 and trying to steady themselves before a Week Four meeting with the Buccaneers, the conversation around Green Bay has shifted quickly from expectations to urgency. Protection issues up front and another late-game stumble have put Matt LaFleur under an uncomfortable spotlight, but some of the locker rooms most visible voices tried to push back on the idea that the season is veering off course.
Xavier McKinney and Tucker Kraft both expressed confidence in LaFleur, saying the team trusts its coach and believes it can still improve. They also acknowledged the frustration that followed the Week Three loss, which has only sharpened the pressure outside the building, but inside the locker room the emphasis remains on getting the details cleaned up and finding a way to turn the season around before the noise grows louder. [Read more 🡒]
Tucker Kraft Tries To Walk Back A Frustrating Packers Moment
Tucker Kraft spent the days after the Packers loss to the Falcons trying to straighten out a postgame moment that landed poorly with part of the fan base. The tight end said his frustration was really aimed at the way the game unfolded, not at Green Bay supporters, and he admitted his wording could have been better after emotions spilled over in the aftermath.
Krafts clarification matters because the Packers are already under scrutiny for the product they put on the field, and the last thing the team needed was added noise around a defensive comment directed at its own crowd. He pointed to Christian Watsons response as a better example of how to handle the situation, a small but telling sign that Green Bays players know the line between venting frustration and turning it inward. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Love Now Has To Answer For A Packers Offensive Mess
Jordan Loves first three weeks have been a mix of promising numbers and obvious frustration, the kind of start that makes it hard to separate the quarterback from the offense around him. He has thrown for 844 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions, but the production has come with uneven efficiency and eight sacks, while Green Bay has had to work through injuries up front and a rushing attack that has not done enough to steady things.
Brent Sobleskis Week 3 grade of a D for Love against Atlanta only adds to the pressure on a unit that has looked out of sync at times. For the Packers, the bigger question now is not just whether Love can keep stacking up touchdowns, but whether he can keep answering for an offense that has too often made his job harder than it should be. [Read more 🡒]