Jayden Daniels Steals the Spotlight: Packers’ Rookie QB Outshines Jordan Love, Fuels Quarterback Controversy

A couple of days after the Green Bay Packers lost at the Minnesota Vikings in Week 17, I asked a team’s top pro scout this question: If he absolutely, positively had to win a game, where would he place Jordan Love among the NFC’s seven playoff quarterbacks?

Last, he said.

In the long run, he would take Love over the Rams’ Matthew Stafford, who will turn 37 a couple days before this year’s Super Bowl. He “probably” would take Love over the Vikings’ Sam Darnold, who had just continued his breakout season with a dominating performance over the Packers. Upside as a passer might give him an edge over the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts.

But for not just any given Sunday but the upcoming Sunday, Love would be seventh out of seven.

On Saturday night, the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels did what Love had failed to do a month earlier. Against the injury-plagued and shorthanded Detroit Lions defense at crazy Ford Field and against esteemed defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, Daniels did what great quarterbacks are supposed to do.

He dominated.

Daniels’ performance was reminiscent of young Aaron Rodgers leading the upstart Packers to a rout of the top-seeded Falcons on the way to the Super Bowl in 2010. Daniels was brilliant from start to finish as a 24-year-old rookie quarterback.

Youth is nothing more than excuse-making. Is the 26-year-old Love young in his career? With five seasons in the NFL and 36 starts under his belt, not really. He’s not Stafford from an experience perspective, obviously, and there are things to learn, but he’s also not Daniels.

In his 18th professional start, Daniels was 22-of-31 passing for 299 yards against the Lions. He finished with 350 total yards, threw two touchdown passes and never was close to the type of mistakes that Love made in last week’s playoff loss to the Eagles.

Talk about setting the tone: Daniels’ first-half drives resulted in a botched quarterback sneak by backup Marcus Mariota on fourth down on Detroit’s end of the field, a field goal, three consecutive touchdowns and taking a knee to run out the clock.

With the Lions trying to stage a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, Daniels led consecutive drives that produced two touchdowns and a missed field goal.

In playoff wins at Tampa Bay and Detroit, Daniels completed 69.7 percent of his passes with a passer rating of 116.2.

I say this all the time, but Green Bay is called Titletown for a reason. It’s not Wild Card City or Eleven Win Town. Super Bowls are supposed to be the expectation.

To be clear, this is not meant to crap on Love or the team’s decision to give him a $220 million contract extension based on one half of one season.

Rather, it’s the reality – an icy-cold reality that matches the weather on a sunny but stupidly cold Sunday in Green Bay.

Great quarterbacks win Super Bowls. Love is not a great quarterback. That’s not to say he can’t become a great quarterback. He’s obviously got the talent, and that red-hot finish to 2023 shows what he can do for a sustained stretch of games.

Coach Matt LaFleur likes to deflect criticism away from his quarterback. As he should. LaFleur is right that it takes all 11 players for an offense to succeed. The offensive line? Probably overrated. The receivers? Out of 32 quarterbacks with 300-plus dropbacks, Love was victimized by the fourth-highest drop rate. The coaches? They failed to take full advantage of the play-action opportunities afforded by Josh Jacobs.

“I’ve said this many times, but the QB is going to get the blame when you lose and he’s going to get the praise when you win,” LaFleur said on Tuesday. “I believe that football is the ultimate team sport, and it’s not just him.

“We’ve got to catch the ball better. We had a lot of drops. I tell our defense all the time, I’ve never seen a quarterback that can complete a pass when he’s on his back. Or very few. So, when you’re getting pressure, it’s hard to be effective (and) your numbers probably aren’t going to be very good.”

That’s all true, but when Love was playing from a clean pocket, he ranked 13th in passer rating and 23rd in completion percentage, according to Pro Football Focus. Even when turning drops into completions, Love was 19th in adjusted completion percentage.

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