Jordan Love had a successful first season as the Packers starting quarterback, leading the team to the divisional round after upsetting the Cowboys to start the postseason.
Not that there was much question about it given Love’s performance throughout 2023, but General Manager Brian Gutekunst said in his Thursday press conference that Love is set to be the team’s quarterback moving forward.
“Jordan had a really good season, toward the end, especially the second half and I think we’re really excited to build around him,” Gutekunst said.
Last year, Love signed a contract extension through the 2024 season. Gutekunst said Green Bay intends to sign Love to a long-term extension this offseason.
“I think we’ll go down that road,” Gutekunst said. “I think certainly, that’ll be important for our football team to have some stability there. Jordan and his representation, I think they’re really good people. So, we’ll start working toward that sometime in the next couple of months.”
Love finished the 2023 season having completed 64.2 percent of his passes for 4,159 yards with 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions — good for a 96.1 passer rating. But over the last eight games of the regular season, Love completed 70.3 percent of his throws for 2,150 yards with 18 touchdowns and one pick, plus two rushing TDs.
Gutekunst said he noticed a shift toward the middle of the season with Love, which the numbers also illustrate.
“I think part of it is just the reps, right? We’ve talked about over the last couple of years just how much he needed to play, Jordan particularly. But obviously, we had a lot of other players who needed to play as well,” Gutekunst said. “And I think the more they played, the more comfortable they got.
“And I think there was a little bit of a shift somewhere in the middle there where we just started focusing on getting better and maybe not just focusing on the results as much as maybe we were. And just say, let’s just get better from day to day, week to week. And when I started to see that, I started to see the results coming.”
But it was Love’s leadership throughout the season that impressed Gutekunst the most.
“Through the tough times, through the success, all the challenges that a season kind of brings you, he just did a really good job leading those guys,” Gutekunst said. “I think for a young player in his first year that’s trying to figure out a lot, to be able to do that was exceptional.”
