GREEN BAY, Wis. - With a sensational closing stretch to his debut season as the Green Bay Packers' starting quarterback, Jordan Love was rewarded with a $220 million contract extension and the team was deemed Super Bowl contenders.
Ultimately, neither Love nor the team met expectations in 2024.
With that as a backdrop, here is Part 1 of our annual series of player report cards. As we've done for about 15 seasons, the grades are viewed through the lens of the salary cap. Why? Because the financial component is so critical to building a team. A championship team needs its most-expensive players to be among its best players, and it needs young, inexpensive players to rise to prominent roles.
This past offseason, Love signed a five-year, $220 million contract. At the time, it tied Joe Burrow for the highest annual salary; now, he trails only Dak Prescott.
Statistically, this season was about the same as last season. In 2023, Love completed 64.2 percent of his passes, tossed 11 interceptions and finished with a passer rating of 96.1. In 2024, Love completed 63.1 percent of his masses, once again chucked 11 interceptions (in 154 fewer attempts and finished with a passer rating of 96.7.
The big difference is Love soared down the stretch last season but tripped like the rest of the offense this season.
In his final three starts of the season - Week 17 at Minnesota, his abbreviated Week 18 against Chicago and the playoffs at Philadelphia - Love completed 46-of-75 passes for 466 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions.
Thirty quarterbacks threw 50 passes during that span. Love ranked 25th in completion percentage, 27th in yards per attempt and 29th in passer rating.
Sure, but his receivers dropped a lot of passes. Well, if you turn drops into completions, Love would have finished 26th in completion percentage during those games, according to Pro Football Focus.
To be sure, Love's mediocre season wasn't all his fault. Through the course of a full season, yes, his receivers did drop a lot of passes. The offensive line didn't give up a lot of sacks but that doesn't mean the protection was elite. Injuries, of course, were a factor. Especially for a young quarterback, it's hard to be fundamentally sound when not practicing.
When Love was good, he was quite good. After the bye, Love had five consecutive games with 100-plus passer ratings. Those numbers rivaled his hot finish to 2023. In the five games spanning Week 11 through Week 15, the Packers scored 30-plus points - the second-longest streak in the NFL this season.
"He's got a big arm," Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said before the playoff game. "He can throw it to all parts of the field with accuracy and touch. He's got good movement in the pocket. He's elusive. And he really fits their offense.
"That offense needs a guy that can throw it down the field. He can do that. They need a guy that can scramble a little bit and be elusive. He can do that. He's a perfect fit for their offense."
While Love finished a tepid 11th in passer rating, some of that was due to falling from 32 touchdowns to 25 - a credit to the goal-line running of Josh Jacobs more than anything. Love was fifth in yards per attempt, an important number.
"I think he is an ascending player that is going to get better and better and better," coach Matt LaFleur said.
This season was the "inexpensive" year of Love's contract. He was paid like a middle-of-the-road quarterback and too often played like it. In 2025, his base salary will increase to a guaranteed $11.9 million and his cap charge will rise to about $29.65 million.
For the Packers to re-emerge as Super Bowl contenders, it will be up to Love and LaFleur to get the passing game headed back in the right direction.
"That's a good question," Love said when asked if he had taken a step forward. "I think there's obviously areas that I improved on, that the team improved on, and there's some stuff I want to clean up, be better at, for sure. That's the nature of the game.
"But that'll definitely be part of the offseason. Just go back, watch the games, make lists of things I can improve on and be better at. But I think we did some really good things as an offense and I think there's a lot of stuff that we left out there that we could have done a lot better."
One of the hottest battles of training camp turned into a dud. When neither incumbent Sean Clifford nor seventh-round rookie Michael Pratt seized control of the backup position, general manager Brian Gutekunst traded a seventh-round pick to the Titans for Malik Willis at the end of training camp.
It seemed like a Hail Mary at the time. A third-round pick in 2022, Willis completed 53.0 percent of his passing attempts with zero touchdowns, three interceptions and a 49.4 rating.
When Willis was forced to start a few weeks later, the Packers' season seemed to be standing on thin ice. Instead, he was 12-of-14 passing for 122 yards and one touchdown in a victory over the Colts and 13-of-18 passing for 202 yards and one touchdown in a victory over the Titans.
A month later, he was summoned from the bench when Love was injured at Jacksonville. Willis won that game, too, by going 4-of-5 passing for 56 yards and one touchdown. In Week 18, he positioned the Packers to beat the Bears, as well, though a time-management gaffe got in the way.
"More than anything, those times build your faith," Willis said in thinking back to his two seasons in Tennessee. "When it's easy and all going good, you're not as locked into those things, you're not even thinking about it. But when times are hard and you don't have anybody picking you up, what can you lean on? I found what I can lean on, and I can trust in that, regardless - good, bad or indifferent.
"So, I don't look at it as results-based as sometimes the media may take this. You lose (and) you're the worst in the world. Or you win and you're the best in the world. I just erase both of those and go out there and have fun and enjoy this opportunity and this platform that God's given me and try to give him all the credit."
Willis threw 54 passes during the regular season. Of all quarterbacks with at least 50 passes, Willis ranked second in passer rating (124.8) and completion percentage (74.1) and first in yards per attempt (10.2).
In Packers history, that was the highest passer rating for a player who threw at least 50 passes. He added 138 yards on 20 rushes (6.9 average).
Willis saved the Packers and he probably saved his career.
Willis will play out his four-year rookie contract in 2025. That means, unlike most teams, the Packers will feel good about their backup quarterback.
Grade: A-plus.