Is Jordan Love Already Elite? Where do Giants Go From Here? | MAILBAG
Questions on Jordan Love's upside and the Giants' future as NFL Draft looms
Happy Friday!
Although it might not be a Football Friday, we’re still roughly 23 more Friday’s away from one of those, wherever you are reading this I just want you to know that I truly appreciate you subscribing to Between The Hashmarks and making us part of your NFL reading rotation. Hopefully you find the content as insightful and enjoyable to read as I find it deeply fulfilling to publish each week.
If it’s Friday, it’s time to throw open the weekly NFL Mailbag, so without further adieu, here are your questions from this week:
Q: What is Jordan Love's ceiling in your opinion? Elite level?
Jordan Love’s torrid second-half of the 2023 season feels like the dawning of a new era in Green Bay.
Over the Packers’ final eight regular season games, Love completed 70.25 percent of his passes for 2,150 yards with 18 touchdowns to just one interception. Love’s passer rating during that span was an otherworldly 112.7 and the Packers’ record was 6-2.
That stretch was before Love boat-raced the heavily favored Dallas Cowboys out of the postseason in a 48-32 blowout in which he passed for 272 yards with three touchdowns.
It might be unfair to call Love’s second half of the season his statistical “floor” given how dominant he was during a portion of the schedule that saw him easily dispatch three playoff teams, including the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes.
But, I do believe what we all saw late last season is indicative of what to expect from Love moving forward.
Former Green Bay Packers fullback and current Packers television network commentator, John Kuhn, agrees.
“I think Jordan has the chance to be really good,” Kuhn told me. “What that is remains to be seen. But, the chance of Jordan developing into a top-10 or even top-5 quarterback is very real.”
I’d argue that there aren’t 10 other quarterbacks in the sport today that I’d select to build a team around before getting around to choosing Love.
Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and maybe C.J. Stroud might be the only names standing between Love being considered a top-five quarterback in the sport today.
The beautiful thing about what Green Bay is building, is that general manager Brian Gutekunst has made Love the centerpiece of a young and prolific collection of offensive weapons who can develop alongside the emerging franchise quarterback.
Rookie Jayden Reed led all Packers in receiving yards with 793 and eight touchdowns, second-year standout Romeo Doubs added 674 yards and eight scores, rookie Dontayvion Wicks was one of the most explosive deep threats in the league averaging 14.9 yards per reception, and all of those pass-catchers come before you even get to former second-round draft pick Christian Watson and young tight ends Luke Musgrave and Tyler Kraft.
In a season where the Packers’ receiving corps and tight end room was a walking M*A*S*H* unit for much of the season, Love still finished as the NFL’s seventh-leading passer with 4,159 yards, 32 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and a 96.1 passer rating in his first season as a starter.
Whether Love is capable of challenging Mahomes, Allen, and Jackson for the title of top quarterback in the league remains to be seen. However, in order for the Packers to be successful and ultimately play for multiple championships during his career, he might not have to.
Love has the ability and the supporting cast to be elite. He just needs to keep developing.
Given the young players around him, in a conference where it may only be the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Rams, and Philadelphia Eagles who are legitimate Super Bowl threats, I happen to love the Packers’ quarterback situation in coming years.
Q: What is the position that the Giants should focus on the most in the upcoming draft?
As General manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll enter a pivotal third season, after a rather dramatic regression in 2023 from winning a postseason game the prior year, nothing matters more for the New York Giants than emerging from this year’s draft with this power-structure’s handpicked quarterback.
While it’s true Daniel Jones is entering just the second year of a four-year contract worth $41 million, annually, the Giants can get out of the deal following this season by designating Jones a post-June 1 cut in 2025 and create $30.5 million in cap space while triggering $11.1 million dead-money charges in 2025 and 2026.
Given the uncertainty surrounding Jones’ availability from a torn Achilles suffered in Week 9, and what’s at stake for Schoen and Daboll, it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising to see New York aggressively try to trade up for either North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye or Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, who is surging up draft boards.
However, quarterback isn’t the only area the Giants must focus on in the draft, as one league source suggested “They have some big decisions to make.”
Whether it’s Jones, Maye, McCarthy or Drew Lock behind center Week 1, it’s impossible to envision Darius Slayton, Wan’Dale Robinson, and Jalin Hyatt being the Giants’ top-three receivers.
Meanwhile, defensively, the Giants may hve the worst starting cornerback room in the league and even after adding Brian Burns in a blockbuster trade, Schoen will likely prioritize adding linbeackers with upside, as well.