Jordan Love is about as ethical as quarterbacks come these days. In the most traditional and fundamental of ways, Jordan Love is what it has always meant to be an NFL quarterback.
Even Love's QB sneaks are built with integrity! The Packers picked up a first down with the standard old-school sneak on Sunday, principally refusing to engage with the infamous Tush Push play they campaigned to ban over the offseason.
While Love is of course the main character in Matt LaFleur's heavily modernised NFL offense which calls RPOs and uses pre-snap motion at some of the league's highest rates, he has thankfully not been reduced to being merely LaFleur's vessel for executing his schemed-up offense the way Mac Jones or Brock Purdy operate under Kyle Shanahan.
Instead, Love is allowed to be his own person, his own self, for better or worse, within LaFleur's system.
Jordan is still going to bypass the idea of throwing it out of bounds to instead make the ill-advised cross-body throw into traffic that, while not entirely his fault, gets tipped and picked off. They've been trying to coach it out of him ever since he entered the building in 2020, but there's a beauty in knowing this is simply who Jordan Love is.
You take the highs (deep connections to Matthew Golden), you live with the lows (misreads and interceptions), and each year you work towards making the former more prevalent than the latter.
While the "system quarterback" (or unethical vessel as I prefer to deem them) tend to struggle when they are thrust off-schedule and left to deal with obvious passing situations, Love's refusal to conform to the modern philosophy means he is one of the select few quarterbacks who thrives in these gotta-have-it situations.
Third down? Drop back, grip it, and rip it. There's nothing Jordan Love does better. Love has 9.4 yards per attempt on third down so far this season, which is the second highest in the NFL. His 89.5 PFF passing grade on third down also ranks second behind Dak Prescott, another ethically admirable quarterback.
No player has completed more passes of 15+ yards downfield on third down than Love this season, per PFF. Love has completed 14 such passes, 2 of which went to Matthew Golden on Sunday. Both plays completely altered the game at times in which the end result was slightly in question.
Then there's Jordan Love's ability to pick up conversions with his legs. Did you forget about it? Me too! After injuring himself in Week 1 of last season in Brazil, Love's mobility never returned to normal for the remainder of the 2024 season. If anything, this led to even more ill-advised throws as Love was forced to instead hang in the pocket and attempt passes with exceedingly high degrees of difficulty.
Love never was the sexiest scrambler. He's much more a product of the Mahomes "always run one step faster than the guy chasing you" school of scrambling rather than possessing the takeoff ability of Jalen Hurts or the brute force of Josh Allen.
Yet when the opportunity arises, Love has proven he is capable of getting the job done. Love has converted 5 third downs with his legs over Green Bay's last four games. That's more than he had all of last season. Even the fully healthy Jordan Love's from two years ago managed just 6 third downs conversions on the ground, so this is about more than just a fresh body, it's about the realization and confidence within Love's mind that he can make plays with his legs.
For every scramble out of bounds for 7 yards, a potential interception opportunity dies. Sure, it also negates the potential for a massive downfield completion, but you don't need me to drown you with numbers to remind you that Love's big plays generally come just a few seconds into his drop, while his bad plays typically arise when he's given time to force the issue.
Love's ability to move the sticks with both his arm and his legs is the reason why the Packers lead the NFL in third down conversion rate (51.5%).
It's where quarterbacks with Love's DNA thrive.
There are admittedly a handful of quarterbacks I'd prefer ahead of Jordan Love on a Shanahan-style, schemed up concept where the OC would have a joystick in his quarterback's brain if he was allowed to.
But when things have started to unravel, chaos has broken out and these offensive gurus are unable to find an answer, there aren't many (if any) quarterbacks I'd rather have under center than Jordan Love.