ESPN analysts question if Jordan Love regressed in 2024, predict his 2025

Jordan Love‘s first full-time season starting under center for the Green Bay Packers couldn’t have gone any better. Love threw for over 4,000 yards and 32 touchdowns, leading Green Bay to the 2023 NFC Divisional Round.

This past July, the Packers rewarded him with a four-year, $220 million contract extension, making him one of the highest-paid players in NFL history. The expectation heading into the 2024 season was that Love would be an MVP candidate. Love fell short of those expectations, as Green Bay finished third in a highly competitive NFC North and was bounced in the Wild Card Round.

Did Love regress in 2024? The conversation was brought up on Tuesday’s “Get Up” after ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky tweeted the following: “Anyone who says Jordan Love regressed last year doesn’t look at QB play properly. Thanks. Have an awesome day.”

“We definitely saw some of those [bad decisions],” Tim Hasselbeck said. “I think it’s fair to say when that happens, like, ‘OK, I don’t think we see Josh Allen do that or I don’t feel like we see Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson do that.’ … Do I think he’s a worse quarterback in 2025 than he was in 2024 or 2023? No, I don’t. I think he’s better. Will he have to show that he doesn’t make the bonehead plays? Sure, and he absolutely will.

“But I think he’ll play better. I think some of the stuff Matt LaFleur talked about in terms of injury, he was injured and when he came back, he wasn’t fully healthy. They had drops and injured receivers. So, I think it’s never just one thing and never one play that defines a quarterback. You put it all together, I think he’s an ascending and better player.”

Love, 26, missed two games this past season with an MCL sprain. He managed to play in the other 15 contests, throwing for 3,389 yards, 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions on 63.1% passing. Drops were an issue. Packers skill players dropped 26 of Love’s 458 passes, per Pro Football Focus.

Love’s counting stats took a step back and his turnovers were an issue to begin the season. All of Love’s interceptions came between Weeks 1-11. In his last seven starts of the season, Love threw for nine touchdowns with no turnovers.

ESPN‘s Jeff Darlington argued that the contract heightened expectations beyond what was reasonable. After all, Love’s 2023 was essentially his rookie season after sitting behind Aaron Rodgers from 2020-22.

Jordan Love pushes back on narrative that he regressed in 2024

“Expectations are certainly part of this,” Darlington said. “By the way, his passer rating was higher this past season than the previous one. We’re talking about a player that doesn’t really have a body of work. … When we talk about Jordan Love we have to remember, he got paid essentially after his rookie year as the face of the franchise and that does, in fact, heighten expectations.

“Jordan Love is very different when we evaluate him than any quarterback across the league for that very reason. It is so rare for us to take a quarterback, put him on the field as the starter and at the end of the year, give him that monster extension. It changes all of it for him. I think we all need to step back and allow him to create a body of work that is more in fairness to something we can evaluate as that full sample size.”

Love, himself, isn’t sure where the narrative that he was worse in 2024 came from. His focus is on getting even better as the Packers look to open up their Super Bowl window.

“I mean, what is a step back is what I’d ask?” Love said last week, via Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. “You know what I mean? Everybody has different opinions, things like that. You gotta block that stuff out. It’s all about the goals of the team at the end of the day. I’d say we won more games than we did the year before. That’s why I ask people, what is a step back?

“Like I said, everybody has opinions, things like that. Try to block that out and focus on doing me and being the best player I can be, like I’ve talked about, and go forward. But at the end of the day, personal stats, things like that, that’s all in the back. You gotta focus on the goals of the team, first and foremost.”