Nickel: This quarterback comparison to Packers' Jordan Love is a bit different
GREEN BAY – Everyone, it seems, wants to compare Jordan Love to Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre – all the time.
But what about the quarterback connection that seems a little more relevant today? Jordan Love and Matt LaFleur?
The close observer might see, or even hear, a few key common personality traits between the Green Bay Packers' 25-year-old quarterback and his coach, the 44-year-old former quarterback from Saginaw Valley State.
Just for example: When Love coolly, determinedly takes the time needed to make his reads from the pocket, dedicated to seek out the best option available, it sometimes means that Love’s offensive line must protect him a little longer. It's a very patient strategy.
“It’s funny you say that – the blocking for longer and longer. I remember those days with Matt,” Chad Lackowski said with a little chuckle. He played tackle with LaFleur for three years in college. “Matt was very meticulous. He was going to have his i’s dotted and his t’s crossed in the game plan.”
In Green Bay, Wisconsin, and beyond, Love has been asked an endless stream of questions about his predecessors and how they've influenced him. It started in May, during offseason work. It continued, all season. It endured this week as Love and the Packers prepare for Dallas; Love was asked if Rodgers ever discussed his own first playoff game. (The answer: No.)
It's remarkable that Love handles these unending questions and comparisons seemingly without irritation. Or exhaustion. And they really are unending. Is his footwork just like the gunslinger Favre's? Is his approach just like the cerebral Rodgers'? Sometimes Love is asked directly; sometimes he's asked indirectly, with inferences. It is constant.
Love is a great story. He is just the third NFL quarterback to post 4,000-plus passing yards (4,159) and 32-plus passing touchdowns in his first season with multiple starts, joining Kurt Warner (1999) and Patrick Mahomes (2018).
Love is the first quarterback to help lead the Packers to the postseason in his first full year as a starter since at least 1950, when the league began recording starts for every player.
But there are two other former quarterbacks right now who have the most influence on Love. Certainly his position coach, Tom Clements.
And his head coach, LaFleur.
"I've been around Matt for four years now, so I've been able to see how he handles himself," Love said. "Around the team. With the media. There's definitely things I look up to, and try out, because I respect him."
Matt LaFleur's personality and style were evident at Saginaw Valley State
LaFleur played quarterback at Saginaw Valley State under the unique circumstances of throwing to two future NFL wide receivers, Ruvell Martin, who played for the Packers, and Glenn Martinez. Otherwise, the school was a Division II contender with a lot of stability in the roster, and little turnover or turmoil. It allowed LaFleur to emerge as a leader.
“He was people smart,” said J.J. Boehm, who was the play-by-play broadcaster during LaFleur’s playing days. “He knew the strengths and weaknesses of the other players on his offense with a great depth.
“We’ve had some great quarterbacks at SVSU, we’ve been very fortunate. I don’t know if any of them were as detailed or had the same depth of understanding of their teammates that Matt had.”
Part of that leadership style was a trusting nature, said Lackowski, the former teammate. If a receiver was good enough to make the roster and take the field, “He trusted them. He’s going to throw the ball if it’s called there,” Lackowski said.
That’s Jordan Love in the 2023 season. He’s thrown to 16 receivers and 10 touchdown targets.
Now, talking about the games, and those LaFleur news conferences in Green Bay … LaFleur really doesn’t entertain, does he? If he has something to say, he will. If he doesn't, his answer is curt: I don’t know. I don't worry about that.
“I can tell you as someone who would interview him – those traits were evident even when he was a student-athlete,” Boehm said.
Love is a lot like this. He doesn’t give know-it-all vibes. He generously relies on sports clichés to get through the quarterbacking questions. He doesn’t embellish anecdotes. He owns up to mistakes in a heartbeat and is quick to accept the challenge of learning from mistakes. He's very matter of fact. Straight forward. Direct, like LaFleur, just a little nicer.
Jordan Love, Matt LaFleur share knack for building team rapport
There's one area that LaFleur and Love are alike. They're all about Team.
Recently, Love had the idea of having teammates over to his home for "Monday Night Football" games, but that's just one example of how Love has embraced the leadership role of gathering mates.
That sounds familiar, too.
Playing in a small college town in Michigan led to a close-knit community anyway, but LaFleur's college team was even closer.
“It felt like when we were in college, we were always around each other,” Lackowski said. “Back then we were a pretty tight-knit group. If it was a Saturday night we were all going to the same party together.
“Our whole team hung out together, offense, defense, it didn’t matter. We were one big group. Big group of guys stuck around for the summer; Matt was one of them. Matt had us over to his parents' house for dinner at different times. The offensive line would do breakfast after a winter workout on Friday morning and we’d invite quarterbacks. We used to joke that we would travel as a football team. Fifteen, 20 deep almost everywhere we went.”
Green Bay veteran defensive lineman Kenny Clark said this Packers team is a lot like that.
“He does a great job of like, getting everybody together," Clark said of LaFleur. "This is the closest the team I have been on. It just makes us come together more and play harder for each other, play harder for him. From his first meeting, like during OTAs he's always about about the team, the love that we got for each other, trusting each other, holding each other accountable and how all that stuff applies to football.
“I mean, I honestly think that translates to us getting wins."
Added Aaron Jones: "I would definitely say there's similarities. They're both calm, really. They both always see the best in everybody."
Matt LaFleur will show his frustration. Jordan Love? Cool but competitive
There are differences, of course, between the millennial QB and the Gen Z QB.
LaFleur destroyed that headset Sunday night right before halftime against the Chicago Bears when the Packers came up empty with points.
“You’ll see a play go bad or see something, and our little group chat, we’ll go, 'Yup! That’s Matt,'” Lackowski said. “I would have never called him a hot head; he always kept his cool. But you knew if he was frustrated or upset.”
Love rarely (ever?) shows such outbursts of frustration, at least not in this very first year. He never looks disgusted with his own performance or anyone's failed execution. Love and LaFleur are just different here.
LaFleur's first year at SVSU, the squad went to Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, for the playoffs. Teammates brought a video game system and hooked it up to a TV to play Madden or NCAA Football for entertainment. But Travis McAlpine, a receiver and leader on the team, took no chances and gave an order to the team without LaFleur knowing.
“He told everybody, and I mean everybody: ‘Nobody beats Matt tonight because if he loses, he’s going play like … excrement … tomorrow,’” Boehm said. "Everyone knew Matt hated losing so much."
“That’s 100% a true story,” Lackowski said. “He did not take kindly to losing.”
Love is a unicorn here. Dropped pass? No facial reaction. Wonky snap? No blistering rant. Wrong route? No eye roll. Big loss? No going nuclear on the sideline on the iPad, or someone.
But that should not be mistaken for being any less competitive.
"Oh, I'm competitive," Love said. "Very competitive. Everyone in this locker room is competitive. We all want to win. That's not a question. When you're dealing with so many alphas, so many people that are striving to win, at the end of the day, we just have different personalities.
"My whole mindset with it is I'm always trying to find the positive. OK, yeah, things go wrong. I'm never trying to dwell on the negative. I'm just trying to find ways to improve. Just having a positive mindset is going to help you go forward. You know, clean up things, learn from things, but just continue to have that positive mindset."
LaFleur clearly admires these traits.
“He’s a tough-minded sucker now," LaFleur said. "His family did a hell of a job raising him in terms of what he’s all about. ... He’s about all the right things."
Jordan Love and Matt LaFleur have mutual admiration for each other's approach
Ultimately, LaFleur and Love have just enough in common to work well together, and also really respect one another. And LaFleur, to his credit, gives Love freedom to put his own interpretation on how to meet the high standards in Green Bay.
"He lets his players be players," Love said. "He gives you the keys, he tells you what the reads are, how you're going to play the position. But then once you're out there, he lets you play and just flow and be a big-time player. He still has his system, and everything that you do as a quarterback, Matt has his fingers on, you know?"
And then LaFleur steps out of the way to let Love just go.
"Yes, yes. I think that's what makes him such a good coach," Love said.
It will be a great day when Jordan Love can be recognized for how he plays, leads and manages on his own merit. Maybe the time will come when Love won't have to endure the constant pulse of comparisons and references to Rodgers and even Favre.
The fact is, Love can not run away from the legacy that he inherited. But he might get credit for is own injury-avoiding athletic footwork, his true QB mindset, and his special style of mental strength and grace. And maybe, then, a little credit could go to the former QB who actually coaches him.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jordan Love, Matt LaFleur quarterback comparison is a bit different
