Bad news NFC North: Jordan Love is good now. Here's how it happened

There’s a very real argument to be made that Jordan Love is the best quarterback in the NFC North right now. This is an absolutely wild statement considering he was the uneven, often sloppy and unreliable engine behind a 3-6 team just three weeks ago.

Love’s improvement has been rapid and stunning. A 2-1 start that suggested competence and room to grow was quickly dashed behind a 1-5 stretch. Green Bay was 3-6 and had a nine percent chance of making the playoffs, per the New York Times. Since then he’s overseen wins over the Los Angeles Chargers (decent), Detroit Lions (solid) and Kansas City Chiefs (hot damn). The Packers are 6-6 and currently holding down the NFC’s final Wild Card spot.

But “overseen” doesn’t really sell what Love’s been up to lately. Turns out, he’s been one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks.

Jordan Love had a career-high 87.9 passing grade last week… and topped it last night

– 90.6 passing grade, 4 big time throws, 0 turnover worthy plays

Passes 10+ yards downfield:

– 6/12, 127 yards, 2 TDs, 1 drop

Last two weeks:

– 7.9 yards per attempt
– 6 BTTs, 0 TWPs

— Brad Spielberger, Esq. (@PFF_Brad) December 4, 2023

Love is peaking in every traditional statistical category after his early season slump. He’s completed nearly 70 percent of his passes while tossing eight touchdowns without an interception in Green Bay’s three game winning streak.

Part of this newfound explosiveness and efficiency is thanks to improved protection — his sacks per game is down from 2.7 to 1.7 — but there’s no doubt he’s seeing the field better and delivering the ball through tight windows in a way he’d failed previously. This isn’t the kind of throw Love was making in the first half of 2023, yet here he was torching the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving.

.@JaydenReed5 with a TD on the opening drive!#GBvsDET | #GoPackGo

: FOX pic.twitter.com/3KeWUG3qbR

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) November 23, 2023

Love’s more complete overall game is more apparent when you break down his advanced stats. He’s dialed back his average throw distance, trading deep throw quantity for quality. As a result, his expected points added (EPA) per play have painted him as a top five quarterback. Unlike early in the season when a dire completion percentage over expected (CPOE) suggested he was missing too many makeable throws and bound to careen back to earth (see Weeks 4-10), his recent rise has been accompanied by a top five CPOE that shows he’s going above and beyond to create plays.

Of course, that hasn’t happened in a vacuum.