This outcome wasn’t always a certain one, and seemed downright improbable at points of 2023.
Nine games into last season, Love was struggling to the tune of 2,009 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions with an 80.5 passer rating and a 58.7 completion percentage. The Packers languished at 3-6 with little offensive identity and even less consistency.
Then, things suddenly clicked. He completed 70.3 percent of his passes with a 112.7 passer rating over his final eight regular-season games, throwing for 2,150 yards and an 18:1 TD-to-INT ratio while powering Green Bay to a 6-2 stretch run to sneak into the playoffs.
In the aforementioned postseason win over Dallas, he missed on just five of his 21 passes to finish with 272 yards, three touchdowns and a 157.2 passer rating. He dropped dimes and protected the ball as he had throughout his torrid finish to the campaign.
Love did, however, show alarming glimpses of the early-season version of himself in the subsequent Divisional Round loss to the 49ers. He threw for 192 yards, his lowest outing since Week 6, and after misfiring on a bad interception earlier in the matchup forced another pick playing needless hero ball late.
But the Packers clearly see that disappointment as a learning moment along a bright path for Love, just as they see clearly all the championship-level quarterbacking traits he put on display to reach that stage in the first place.
Now secure in his future, Love heads into 2024 and beyond the head of a young offense teeming with talent at every skill position and with a coach in Matt LaFleur capable of getting the most out of them.
If he continues to prove he’s who Green Bay thinks he is, the Packers have just extended their third consecutive franchise QB for the long term.
First appeared on www.nfl.com