GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Two days after the Green Bay Packers' loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild-card round of the playoffs, Matt LaFleur suggested that the next step for quarterback Jordan Love was to "evolve as a vocal leader."
Four months later, the Packers coach likes what he has seen.
It doesn't stop there, either.
On Wednesday, after the first OTA practice that was open for viewing this spring, LaFleur came ready to challenge anyone who thought Love regressed last season in Year 2 as the starter.
"I think there's like a narrative out there for whatever reason that he wasn't as productive as the year before," LaFleur said. "Well, he missed significant time."
That missed time came early, when Love sprained his left MCL in the season opener, and had a lasting impact. Even when he returned after missing two games, Love's mobility was limited. In turn, it meant his footwork became compromised, which in turn impacted his accuracy. Just when Love seemed mostly recovered from the knee injury, a groin injury took him out of the second half of the Week 8 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Still, the Packers went 11-6, a two-win improvement over Love's first season as the starter. During that 2023 run, he was lauded because of a torrid stretch to close the season, when he threw 18 touchdowns and one interception over the final eight games, and then blew the doors off the Dallas Cowboys in the playoff opener only to lose in the final seconds of the next round to the San Francisco 49ers.
Yet there was the perception that the Packers -- and Love -- took a step back last season after they failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs.
"I mean, what is a step back is what I'd ask?" Love countered. "You know what I mean? Everybody has different opinions, things like that. You got to block that stuff out. It's all about the goals of the team at the end of the day. I'd say we won more games than we did the year before. That's why I ask people, 'What is a step back?'"
Instead, Love is looking ahead. A change in his position coach from the now retired Tom Clements to former NFL quarterback Sean Mannion hasn't changed the focus for Love's offseason work. Whether it was the injuries or not, Love's accuracy dipped slightly from a 64.2 completion percentage in 2023 to 63.1 last season. Some of that could be due to all the dropped passes that plagued the Packers in 2024 (they had the highest drop rate in the NFL and the second-most drops overall, according to ESPN Research) because his off-target percentage actually dropped last season from 16.1 in 2023 to 14.4 last season.
"Just trying to be as consistent as possible with accuracy, ball placement, things like that, the timing of my feet, timing up with the routes, trying to marry all that stuff up," Love said when asked what he's working on this offseason.
And then there's the leadership evolution.
"Obviously, he's played a lot of ball and along with that has gained a lot of confidence," LaFleur said. "I think he's certainly comfortable in helping lead others and telling them what to do. He's a coach on the field. He knows this offense as well as anybody in regards to the details and what we're trying to get accomplished. And I think he articulates that well to the other players."
But he also can't be someone he's not. In fact, one of the things receiver Jayden Reed said he appreciates about Love is his steady nature.
"He's probably one of those most calm quarterbacks I've ever been around, in my opinion," Reed said. "He's so poised in the huddle, whether we're going through adversity or anything, he's the same person. He's always calm, he's cool, collected. I think he does a great job, we've just got to help him, rally around him and just be better for him."
And Love knows a disingenuous or out-of-character approach can easily be exposed as fraudulent in an NFL locker room.
"I think at the end of the day, with leadership and speaking vocally to guys, you got to be yourself," Love said. "You never want to be forcing things or sound like a message isn't coming from you, it's coming from somebody else. It's always trying to find that balance of being yourself.
"But I think that biggest thing is just having those hard conversations with guys when something needs to get done and it might not be getting done the right way."
