With the Green Bay Packers treating the preseason as they do - and [quarterback Jordan Love getting thumb surgery this week](/green-bay-packers-injuries/69023/green-bay-packers-news-jordan-love-injury-update-thumb-ligament-2025) - the Jordan Love we saw in the first preseason game will be the only Jordan Love we’ll see all preseason. Two drives. Seven dropbacks (six official, since one ended up as a Defensive Pass Interference). The stats were not good: Love ended the day 1/5 for 7 yards and 1 sack. But how did he look with what he was operating? Well, let’s take a look.
Play 1: 1st & 5, 14:55 remaining in the 1st quarter
The Packers come out in 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR) in a condensed look. They’re running a staple in their offense: Hank on the right, Dagger on the left. Hank is a quick-hitting, 3-step concept with a hitch route from the outside and a flat route from the inside. Dagger is a 7-step concept with a vertical route from the inside and an in-cutting route behind it.
The Packers love this pairing. The QB reads Hank first for a quick-hitting option. If it’s not open, he transitions to his 7-step dropback and works Dagger. The action of Hank can help to clear the underneath and middle on the right, which works well with Dagger.
With the flat defender clearing and the hitch defender dropping back, Love hits the top of his 3-step drop and fires to Romeo Doubs on the hitch.
Nice clean read and a good delivery, but Doubs is unable to secure the ball and it falls incomplete.
Play 2: 3rd & 1, 14:10 remaining in the 1st quarter
The Packers were clearly prioritizing getting the ball out of Love’s hands quickly, so on 3rd & short they go with another quick-hitter. This time, they go Dragon on the right and Lion on the left. Dragon is better known as slant/flat, with the outside man running a slant and the inside man (in this case, the running back) running a flat route. Lion is two slants, in this instance, with a more vertical route from the inside man to help clear room for the slants.
Love is originally looking to hit Matthew Golden - the first slant in Lion on the left - but a linebacker is buzzing into that window post-snap. If Love hits the top of the drop and fires, there’s a decent chance this is a pick-six. The linebacker disguises this initially, but Love is able to see it before he releases it.
He works back to Dragon and fires to Doubs on the slant, but the ball is knocked away.
Good read here. Well done by Love to recognizing the path of the linebacker and working to the other concept.
Play 3: 2nd & 7, 8:02 remaining in the 1st quarter
The Packers are in 11 personnel with Trips (3 WR) to the right. Golden is the #3 receiver in Trips (the man closest to the line) and he’s running a deep crossing route, while Doubs and Malik Heath are running a Smash Fade (Doubs on the deep fade route and Heath on the curl).
The Jets are in a two-high safety look pre-snap, but they spin to a single-high post-snap, with the safety over the Trips side rolling down. Love sees that and rules out throwing to Golden, since the safety is in the path. He then works Smash Fade, reading Sauce Gardner to that side. If Sauce stays down on Heath, Love will throw to Doubs on the fade, away from the single-high safety. If Sauce fades back with Doubs, Love will throw to Heath on the curl.
Sauce bails, leaving a wide-open Heath. Love throws a nice pass - leading him slightly upfield - but Heath drops it.
Good read by Love to see the safety rotation, work the progression and find the open man.
Play 4: 3rd & 7, 7:57 remaining in the 1st quarter
We’ve made it to the one completion on the day. The Packers are running Mirrored Lion: that is, the same concept - Lion (double-slants) - to each side. The QB picks a side pre-snap (based on coverage, match-ups, etc.), then reads it inside-out. On this play, Love is going to the left side. The line looks a little messy to that side, but I assume he picks it because Golden is on the outside.
At the snap, Love checks the drops to that side and sees that it’s clear. He hits the top of his drop and fires to Golden, who makes a nice hands catch and gets upfield for 7 yards.
Play 5: 2nd & 6, 6:55 remaining in the 1st quarter
The Packers are running Verts out of 12 personnel, with Luke Musgrave running down the middle of the field. The Jets show two-high pre-snap and Love confirms that post-snap, as both safeties release to the outside. It looks like the middle should be open for Musgrave.
The big question mark here is the linebacker in the middle. With the safeties widening and the linebacker flipping his hips, this looks like it could be Tampa 2, with the linebacker running with Musgrave up the middle. That matters for the throw. If he’s not travelling with Musgrave, Love can throw this on a line. If the linebacker is dropping with Musgrave, Love would need to throw this over the top.
Love waits a beat to see if the linebacker is dropping with Musgrave - we ultimately find that he isn’t - and Zach Tom gets beat off the edge. Instead of stepping up and throwing to Musgrave, Love takes a shuffle-step to the left before throwing the ball.
By the time he does, the safeties have recovered and are closing on Musgrave. The ball sails over Musgrave’s head.
Without spoiling the next two plays, this is the only play I really have an issue with on the day. I understand Love taking an extra beat to figure out what the linebacker in the middle is doing, but the shuffle step is the killer. Good initial read, but he’s just a tick late and it kills the play.
Play 6: 3rd & 6, 6:49 remaining in the 1st quarter
Another quick-game call, with Dragon on the right and Lion on the left. We don’t need to spend a lot of time on this. Love is reading Dragon, waits for the flat defender to clear, then fires to Golden on the slant.
Good read, good throw, but Golden is tackled before the ball gets there. Defensive pass interference, automatic 1st down.
Play 7: 3rd & 4, 5:27 remaining in the 1st quarter
The last dropback of the day, this one ending in a sack. The Packers are running Mirrored Smash Choice out of 11 personnel. On the right, Heath is running the corner route as the outside man in the stack and Doubs is running the Choice route as the inside man.
The rules for Doubs on the Choice route from this position are to arc release, then push vertical to 4-6 yards with a 3-way go. He can break outside, break inside or sit based on the coverage. He is supposed to beat the man across from him. If it’s zone coverage, he’s supposed to find a soft spot.
Doubs does all of that but the last part. With the inside defender dropping into a zone on Doubs’ inside shoulder, Love is expecting Doubs to sit down. Instead, Doubs continues to the inside.
That throws off the timing, and before Love can work elsewhere, Tom gets beaten by a spin move. Love awkwardly scrambles for a bit before eventually taking a 3-yard sack.
Initial read is fine, but miscommunication throws a wrench into the play and there’s pressure before he can really do anything else.
A couple of thoughts on Love’s overall performance:
I thought he was good. He wasn’t asked to do much. Of his 7 dropbacks, 4 of them were quick-game based. You’re not going to see that quantity of quick-game in quick succession like that in a game this year. Beyond that, the Mirrored Lion (Play 4) and Dragon Lion (Play 6) are not really combos you’re going to see much at all this season. Aaron Rodgers loved his mirrored quick-game calls, because it allowed him to make a quick read and get the ball out quickly. The Packers don’t really operate that way with Love: when they call quick-game, it’s more of what we saw on Play 1, with a 3-step concept paired with a 5- or 7-step concept to the other side. With this being a preseason game, they clearly prioritized getting the ball out of Love’s hands quickly.
After the game, Tucker Kraft called the gameplan “Day 1 install” and that’s exactly what this was. It was built on quick-game basics and quick-read mirrored concepts that they won’t really call a ton like this in-season.
As far as how Love operated within these? With the exception of the Musgrave play, I thought he was fine. Clean mechanics, good decision-making and accurate throws. Again, he wasn’t asked to do much, but I thought he did well with what was asked of him.
Albums listened to: Ghostface Killah - _Twelve Reasons to Die_; Viktor Vaughn - _Vaudeville Villain_; Karen O & Danger Mouse - _Lux Prima_; Ethel Cain - _Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You_; Wolf Alice - _Blue Weekend_
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