The Green Bay Packers’ 2024 season was always going to be defined pretty simply.
Do they have a long-term quarterback? If they don’t, are they in a position in the draft to grab a guy like USC’s Caleb Williams or North Carolina’s Drake Maye?
After Aaron Rodgers was traded to the New York Jets in April 2023, all eyes were focused on Jordan Love.
Love was drafted following Green Bay’s 37-20 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game in January 2020.
Instead of a receiver or something to help the team get over the hump and into the Super Bowl, Brian Gutekunst infamously looked toward the future.
After two MVP seasons, and a disappointing finale, Aaron Rodgers was gone, and Gutekunst was going to get a chance to see his legacy pick in action for the first time.
Love’s security beyond 2023 was far from a guarantee. Gutekunst said himself they envisioned the contract extension they gave Rodgers after the 2021 season to be a multi-year commitment.
Had Rodgers returned for 2023, Love would have never taken a snap as the preferred starter in Green Bay. That’s something that Gutekunst had presumably made peace with.
If he was willing to punt entirely on the pick, surely he’d be willing to move on if Love were to struggle badly enough to put the Packers in the top five of April’s draft.
After a clunky stretch in October saw the Packers drop to 2-5, it looked like the Packers were headed down the path of a full scale rebuild, including at the quarterback position, rather than a quick reset and launching back into playoff contention.
Love’s season, which started off hot, leading the league in touchdown passes after his first two starts of the season, had fizzled.
Love was now at the top of the league in another category, interceptions.
That wasn’t all on Love. The Packers fielded the youngest team in the league. His oldest receivers were in their second year in the league.
The offensive line, which was built around All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, was in shambles with Bakhtiari being placed on injured reserve before a Week 4 tilt against the Detroit Lions.
Love saw the calendar turn to November with a lot at stake. Gutekunst gave a lukewarm, at best, endorsement of Love after seven games.
“We’ve got 10 games left,” Gutekunst said during his midseason availability. “These are going to be very important 10 games. I think he’s done a lot of really good things.”
He said he liked the way Love responded to the adversity, how he led the team.
“Again, we’ve got to be better as a unit, and I expect that to happen over the next 10 games,” Gutekunst said. “And I think that we’re going through some things that we knew we would go through. We haven’t had the results that we want, but I do like the way guys are responding to things.”
Love and the offense had a simple choice from there. Shape up, or ship out.
The offense, and Love specifically, dazzled from there.
The turning point in the season was after the Packers split two games to the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers to get to 3-6. They were facing a talented Los Angeles Chargers team at Lambeau Field and trailing when Love and the offense took flight.
Love led a game-winning drive where he hit Romeo Doubs for a go-ahead touchdown that would hold up in a 23-20 victory.
Love threw for more than 300 yards, which made him the team’s first 300-yard passer since Rodgers carved up the Baltimore Ravens in December 2021.
Love was just getting warmed up. His best two-game stretch of the season came in two nationally televised games. Detroit on Thanksgiving Day and at home against Kansas City.
Matt LaFleur allowed his growing quarterback to throw the ball all over the lot. Love responded with six touchdown passes, zero interceptions, and most importantly, two wins over teams that ended up playing on championship Sunday.
The Packers and their offense were rolling.
That was not the end of the adversity for the season. Back-to-back poor performances by Green Bay’s defense led to disappointing losses to the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Packers were faced with a pretty simple scenario. Win their last three games, or sit at home and watch the playoffs that felt like destiny after their two wins against Detroit and Kansas City.
Love turned in three great performances against Carolina, Minnesota and Chicago.
Love did not turn the ball over in those three games, and was dynamite late in the game when the team needed a big play.
Romeo Doubs made a big play down the sideline against Carolina to set up a game-winning field goal in the Packers’ 33-30 victory against the Panthers.
Love would hit Jayden Reed and Tucker Kraft for two big completions against Chicago to seal the season finale and catapult the Packers into the playoffs.
Getting into the postseason earned Love an extra $500,000 from a contract extension he signed in May in lieu of the Packers exercising his fifth-year option.
He’d earn more money a week later as he carved up Dan Quinn’s stingy Dallas Cowboys defense.
Love threw three touchdown passes from three different arm angles, and the Packers piled up 48 points en route to a 48-32 victory that earned them another trip to San Francisco.
The clock would strike midnight on Green Bay’s Cinderella season in San Francisco. Love threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter that will serve as a learning experience for him moving forward.
Unfortunately, those learning experiences came at the expense of winning a playoff game and having a chance to play for the conference title.
The Packers lost 24-21. While the season came to a bitter end, there is no way to categorize the 2023 season other than a massive success.
Love grew from someone who could have been one-and-done as the team’s starting quarterback to the unquestioned leader and quarterback of the future for the Green Bay Packers.
In the NFL, you either have a quarterback or you have nothing. The Packers have rarely known the situation of not having a quarterback in their illustrious existence.
That is a trend that will continue moving forward thanks to Love’s MVP-level play to end the 2023 season.
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