The Lass Word: Projecting What Love Could Be

During this dead time as we wait for training camp to begin, please indulge me in a bit of fanciful projection.  I found myself having a little fun by looking at some of the Green Bay Packers all time individual statistics.  I was particularly drawn to the all time passing numbers. 

The Packers have been playing in the NFL for 103 years, but after Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, the franchise has surprisingly no other quarterbacks in their long and storied history with impressive passing numbers. 

Favre is the all time leader with 61,655 passing yards in 255 games.  Rodgers is second with 59,055 passing yards in 230 games.  But the dropoff after that is dramatic.  Bart Starr is third with 24,718 yards in 196 games.  Adjusting that to make it apples to apples, Rodgers leads with an average of 256 yards per game, Favre averaged 241, while Starr averaged 126. 

In terms of touchdown throws, Rodgers leads with 475 all time, an average of just over two per game.  Favre is next with 442 scores, averaging 1.7 per contest.  Starr finished with 152, an average of .77 per game. 

Yes, I get it.  Pro football in Bart Starr’s era was a much different animal.  Green Bay’s 1960’s dynasty was based around a devastating ground game led by Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung, and a shutdown defense featuring Hall of Famers such as Willie Davis and Ray Nitschke.  And I hear some of you saying the only stat that really matters is championships.  Starr had five of them, Favre and Rodgers one apiece.   

I’m not really trying to compare Bart Starr to Favre and Rodgers.  What I found intriguing is how easily current quarterback Jordan Love could move up in these all time standings.  After just one year as the starting signal caller, Love already ranks eleventh in all time passing yards.  And he is already in the top ten, currently ranking ninth, in touchdown passes.   

Love threw for 4,765 yards in 2023.  If he averages that each season over the next twelve years, he would surpass Favre as the all time franchise leader.  Considering the fifth year veteran is only going to get better, that seems doable, barring injury of course.  Love tossed 35 TD passes last season.  If he were to average that over the next twelve campaigns, he would total 455, which would be good for second place, twenty behind Rodgers.  

Surpassing Starr for third place is not only doable, but likely.  Over the next five seasons, Love needs to average just 3,990 yards and 24 touchdown passes to move into third place all time in both categories. 

The list of Green Bay’s career top ten passing quarterbacks has some wonderful and nostalgic names on it.  Lynn Dickey (4th) is one of my favorites.  I covered him between 1979 and 1983 when I was the sports director/anchor at WBAY-TV.  I always thought he was underrated and under acknowledged when it comes to the lineage of green and gold signal callers.  Dickey could spin the rock every bit as good as Favre or Rodgers.  He just couldn’t stay healthy.  During his career he suffered a fractured hip, a broken leg, a separated shoulder and a bad back.   

There are names like Tobin Rote (5th), Don “Majik Man” Majkowski (6th), former Wisconsin Badger Randy Wright (7th), and David Whitehurst (9th), whom I also covered.  Seeing their names brings back some awesome memories. 

Nothing is guaranteed.  We don’t know if Jordan Love is going to continue his rise toward the elite level, whether he will stay healthy, or whether he will slip into decline.  It’s just that, every time I hear an analyst sing his praises, they always follow with a caveat, cautioning “now, I’m not saying he’s going to be another Favre or Rodgers”.   

But in a passing league, with a pass-happy head coach, and seventeen game seasons (perhaps soon to be eighteen games), it won’t take Love long to move up swiftly on the all time passing list.  We’ve come a long way from Arnie Herber and Babe Parilli.