GREEN BAY — As it turned out, the Green Bay Packers’ quarterbacking stars were not, in fact, aligned last season.
Jordan Love turned 27 years old during his sixth NFL season in 2025, and it just so happened that his two Pro Football Hall of Fame-worth predecessors, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, had won the Super Bowl during their age-27, sixth seasons — as Favre won Super Bowl XXXI with the 1996 team, and Rodgers won Super Bowl XLV with the 2010 team in their sixth years in the league.
It was written in the stars, right?
Wrong.
The 2025 Packers, of course, fell well short of a trip to Super Bowl LX, losing their final four regular-season games before blowing an 18-point halftime lead in their NFC wild card playoff loss to the archrival Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on Jan. 10.
Although Love certainly did his part against the Bears, completing 24 of 46 passes for 323 yards and four touchdowns (103.8 rating) in the 31-27 defeat, he now heads into 2026 well aware that it is time to do more.
While the Packers have reached the postseason in all three of Love’s years as the starting quarterback, they’ve won just one playoff game — his first, when he dismantled the Dallas Cowboys on the road in January 2024.
“I thought Jordan played really, really good football — some of his best football, especially down the stretch,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said earlier this offseason. “He continues to be an unbelievable leader for our football team. [I] couldn’t speak more highly of what I think about Jordan and where he’s headed.
“As good as he’s been for us, I do think he’ll continue to get better because it’s important to him and he works at his craft. He’s always looking for another edge. So, I feel really good about that.”
Love finished the year with a 101.2 passer rating (5th in the NFL among qualifying players), a 66.3% completion percentage (11th), 3,381 yards (13th), 23 touchdowns (tied for 14th) and a career-low six interceptions (tied for second-fewest) in 15 starts.
Love left the Packers’ Dec. 14 loss at Chicago midway through the second quarter with a concussion, then sat out the team’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens the following week after not clearing the concussion protocol. He was active and dressed for the regular-season finale at Minnesota but did not play as the Packers used their JV team and threw third-string quarterback Clayton Tune to the wolves — and the Vikings’ top-flight defense — with nothing to play for.
Now, the Packers are counting on him to take another step forward — and stay healthy, after losing arguably the best backup QB in football to free agency — in 2026.
While he may never replicate the Rodgers-esque heater he went on late in the 2023 season — when he completed 70.3% percent of his passes, had a 112.7 passer rating and an 18-to-1 touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio over the final eight regular-season games — he knows he needs to elevate his game.
And so does head coach Matt LaFleur, who continues to give Love more and more responsibility within the game plan and more flexibility at the line of scrimmage to make adjustments.
“Going to work with Jordan Love every day is a pretty cool deal. I think he’s an unbelievable quarterback, but an even better guy,” LaFleur said at the NFL Meetings, where he also said he plans to “strip everything down” on offense and take a “Year 1 all over again” approach to this season.
“We provide a ton of freedom for him. I feel pretty comfortable with, if he sees something, he’s going to do it. … He’s got free rein, and certainly that’s something we talk about throughout the course of the week. I’m in all those meetings with him, so we’re on the same page in regards to, if he has an idea, then absolutely [we’ll listen to it].”
The Packers lost backup Malik Willis in free agency, as he joined the Miami Dolphins — with ex-Packers staffers Jon-Eric Sullivan as their GM and Jeff Hafley as their defensive coordinator — after resurrecting his career and saving the Packers’ 2024 season with his outstanding play when called upon.
In his stead, the Packers have ex-Atlanta Falcons starter Desmond Ridder, whom they picked up late in the year, and former Philadelphia Eagles fifth-round pick Kyle McCord to vie for the backup job behind Love.
The hope is that Ridder, who started 17 games for the Falcons (and one for the Las Vegas Raiders), can reverse his NFL fortunes in Green Bay the way Willis did.
“We didn’t have him for very long, but [we were] very excited when he was with us, and certainly we’ve scouted him over a number of years,” Gutekunst said. “He brings some elements we would like in a backup quarterback. I think he’s got a little bit of upside. I don’t think he’s hit his full potential yet. So, I’m excited about that. But there’ll be competition in there for sure.”
Asked before the season ended what he thought of his potential opportunity with Willis expected to depart and how he was getting a head start on competing in 2026, Ridder replied, “Obviously, just being able to be in here and get the playbook is a huge advantage. … It’s just about, when given the next opportunity, going out and taking advantage of it.”
As for McCord, who played collegiately at Ohio State and Syracuse, Gutekunst said the Packers “liked his moxie” and his pedigree as a winner.
“From the scouting process, [we] always had an eye on him,” Gutekunst said. “When he became available, we thought it made some sense.”
Packers depth chart
10 Jordan Love 6-4 219 27 7 Utah State
18 Desmond Ridder 6-3 211 26 4 Cincinnati
6 Kyle McCord 6-3 218 23 1 Syracuse
Best in class | Fernando Mendoza, Indiana.
The Raiders appear set to take Mendoza, who led the Hoosiers to the national championship and won the Heisman Trophy this past season. Mendoza, who threw for 3,535 yards and 41 touchdowns with six interceptions last season, didn’t throw at the annual NFL scouting combine but put together an impressive performance at his on-campus pro day workout in Bloomington last week.
Mendoza, who spent his first three college seasons (including a redshirt in 2022) at California before his one season with the Hoosiers, will have to grow into the NFL game after playing in an run/pass option-heavy offense where he frequently threw to his first read and was lined up in the shotgun on the vast majority of snaps.
“I’m putting all of my efforts toward just trying to be the best quarterback possible for the season,” Mendoza said after the pro day workout. “But I know at the next level, there’s going to be a lot more snaps under center, and that’s a big adjustment. I need to get used to that and just the nature of the game. Not only that, the hash [marks] are more condensed and the speed of the game is faster. So, all those things I look forward to learning.”
Next men up | Ty Simpson, Alabama; Garrett Nussmeier, LSU; Drew Allar, Penn State; Cole Payton, North Dakota State; Carson Beck, Miami (Fla.).
Pick to click | Jack Strand, Minnesota State-Moorhead.
A Wisconsin native, Strand grew up in Bloomer, where he was a standout quarterback for the Blackhawks but didn’t draw much Division I interest while playing at a small school in a run-heavy offense.
He landed at Division II Minnesota State-Moorhead, where he was a four-year starter and was a finalist last year for the Harlon Hill Trophy, which is awarded to the best player in DII.
The 6-foot-4, 243-pound Strand finished his career having thrown for 13,161 yards and 126 touchdowns, earning a spot in the American Bowl all-star game. He worked out for NFL scouts at North Dakota State’s pro day last month.
Strand figures to be a seventh-round pick or priority free agent.
“The biggest thing for me is kind of staying where my feet are. I don’t want to look too far in the future and what could happen,” Strand told WDAY-TV, the ABC affiliate in Fargo, North Dakota, after his pro day. “That’s kind of my mentality this whole time, just being in the moment because this is an opportunity you only get one time.
“To go through this whole process, have a chance to talk with all these different coaches from different teams … I just kind of stay in the moment and then when that phone call comes, I’ll be ready for it.”
History lesson | If it seems like Gutekunst says every offseason that he wants to draft a developmental quarterback each year, that’s because he usually does. But not this year, and with only eight selections at the moment following Friday’s trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, Gutekunst is more likely to fill other roster holes with picks — unless a signal-caller with a higher-round grade is still on his board toward the end of Day 3.
The philosophy of taking quarterbacks often dates back to Pro Football Hall of Fame GM Ron Wolf, who famously traded 1992 first-round draft pick to the Atlanta Falcons for Favre. Even after that career-making trade, Wolf still chose seven other quarterbacks in his nine years in full control of the Packers’ draft board.
While they scarcely played during their Packers careers, three of those quarterbacks turned into trade bait and future starters with other clubs: Mark Brunnell, a 1993 fifth-round pick who was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars for third- and fifth-round picks in the 1995 draft; Aaron Brooks, a 1999 fourth-round pick Aaron Brooks who was dealt to the New Orleans Saints during training camp in 2000 for a third-round pick in the 2001 draft; and Matt Hasselbeck, a 1998 sixth-round pick who was sent to the Seattle Seahawks along with the 17th overall pick before the 2001 draft in exchange for the 10th overall pick and a third-round pick.
After Wolf’s retirement, head coach/GM Mike Sherman drafted just one QB during his four years as coach/GM. And while Ted Thompson’s decision to take Rodgers gave the Packers three decades of virtually uninterrupted greatness at quarterback, Thompson only took five other QBs in his subsequent 12 drafts — and two of them, second-round pick Brian Brohm and seventh-round pick Matt Flynn, were selected in the 2008 draft, after Favre and announced his retirement and Rodgers had ascended to the starting job.
Heading into his ninth draft, Gutekunst has picked only three QBs: Love in the first round in 2020, Sean Clifford in the fifth round in 2023, and Michael Pratt in the seventh round in 2024.
PACKERS 2026 NFL DRAFT PREVIEW SCHEDULE
Sunday, April 12 — QUARTERBACKS
Monday, April 13 — RUNNING BACKS
Tuesday, April 14 — WIDE RECEIVERS
Wednesday, April 15 — TIGHT ENDS
Thursday, April 16 — OFFENSIVE LINEMEN
Friday, April 17 — DEFENSIVE LINEMEN
Saturday, April 18 — EDGE RUSHERS
Sunday, April 19 — LINEBACKERS
Monday, April 20 — CORNERBACKS
Tuesday, April 21 — SAFETIES
Wednesday, April 22 — SPECIALISTS
Thursday, April 23 — DRAFT DAY PREVIEW
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