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Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff Writer
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers don’t think quarterback Jordan Love has an accuracy problem, regardless of what the completion percentage says.
Four games into Love’s first season as the full-time starter, he ranks last in the NFL in completion percentage among 34 qualifying quarterbacks. At 56.1%, he is one of five quarterbacks below the 60% mark.
Even the New York Jets’ Zach Wilson, who ranked 34th out of 34 a week ago, has passed Love.
This, despite Love having his best game of the four in terms of completion percentage against the Detroit Lions last Thursday night, when he registered 63.9%.
After the loss to the Lions, Packers coach Matt LaFleur challenged every player to pick one thing to improve on.
“My thing is just completions,” Love said Thursday. “Going out there and getting positive plays and just finding completions on every play.”
Regardless of the percentage, LaFleur said he has seen improved accuracy from Love during his three-plus years with the Packers (2-2).
“I think he’s come a long way in every [facet] in terms of the fundamentals of playing the position,” LaFleur said. “I think that always leads to better accuracy.
“I know what the completion percentage is. Quite frankly, we’ve thrown the ball further downfield than we ever have here. We’ve taken less, probably, of those quick run alerts, which definitely impact your completion percentage, and then there’s been times where we’ve dropped balls that should have been caught. I think overall he’s done a pretty good job. Are there times when he could be a little bit better? Yeah, absolutely. But that’s everybody.”
LaFleur has his facts correct. Love ranks second in the NFL in air yards per attempt at 9.7, behind only Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill (9.9).
Love also has the least experienced receiving corps in the league. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Packers are the only team this season that has yet to have a reception by a receiver with at least three years of NFL experience. And that’s not likely to change because, well, the Packers don’t have a receiver with more than two NFL seasons to his credit.
The Packers also have played games without their two best offensive skill players in running back Aaron Jones (who missed two games) and receiver Christian Watson (who missed the first three and then played only 26 snaps in his return last week). Plus, they’ve had an offensive line in flux with injuries to David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins and Zach Tom, and now Jon Runyan has an ankle injury.
Still, Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, who mentored Aaron Rodgers early, offered another reason for the low completion rate.
“In real long-yardage situations, younger guys — or even older guys — try to make the play downfield, and at times it’s best just to check it down and play the field-position game,” Clements said. “So a lot of things factor into that, but I think you can see that he’s an accurate passer.”