To say Jordan Love has exceeded expectations would be an understatement. The QB who, for all intents and purposes, just finished his rookie year, was among the best QBs in yards, touchdowns, and TD-INT ratio. If you like PFF or ESPN’s advanced metrics, then you’ll also “love” Love.

However, this hasn’t stopped the critics from being critical. His throw into triple coverage to end the season wasn’t pretty. He threw a lot of TDs, but not as many as Rodgers or Mahomes have in their MVP seasons. Throwing for less than 40 TDs isn’t attractive anymore, even in a year where literally no QB threw for that many. He’s arguably top 10 already.

In reality, Love threw 32 TDs, 11 INTs, and 4200 yards. Not a bad statline by any means. But TDs and yards don’t tell the full story. The Packers won 9 games, which is where a lot of people’s disappointment lies.

Here’s how Jordan Love really compares to the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and many more of today’s best in their breakout years.

Here’s How Jordan Love’s Breakout Season Compares To Patrick Mahomes Breakout Season
Mahomes first full year as a starter was not only his breakout year, but impressively enough one of the best QB seasons EVER. He threw for 50 TDs, 12 INTs and 5000 yards, which statistically is up there with Tom Brady’s 2007 campaign and Peyton Manning’s 2013 run as an all-time great season.

Mahomes also won 12 games in the regular season, and put up nearly 50 points in one of his 4 losses (you remember that CRAZY Rams game on Monday night).

Mahomes’ playoff record that season was the same as Love’s last season, an even 1-1, although the competition was slightly different. Brady won an overtime thriller, narrowly beating out a solid Mahomes in Arrowhead.

Love, meanwhile, almost had a perfect passer rating when he beat one of the best defenses in the Cowboys in the Wild Card game. The loss to the eventual super bowl losing 49ers certainly stung, but Love played pretty good through the first 3 quarters. All in all, Mahomes and Love had very similar postseasons their first full years, which goes to show the comparisons are truly fair between them.

Here’s How Jordan Love’s Breakout Season Compares To Lamar Jackson’s Breakout Season
Lamar’s first full season as a starter was also all-time great. While he did start in the latter half of the 2018 season (in which he helped turn the Ravens season around and led them to the playoffs), in 2019 the Ravens went into the season knowing that Jackson was their starting QB.

Stats wise, Lamar is very hard to compare not just with today’s NFL QBs, but among all QBs historically. In Lamar’s historic 2019 campaign, he threw for 3,500 yards and ran for another 1,300.

It’s crazy to think that Love had similar stats this season to Lamar’s 2019 stats as a whole (rushing AND passing combined), considering Lamar won an uber-rate unanimous MVP award. Once again, the difference is really in the record. Lamar’s Ravens took the league by storm, winning 14 games and blowing out some of the best teams in the NFL that year.

Both Love and Jackson had an exit in the divisional round in their breakout seasons, with Love actually having the same number of playoff wins as Lamar for a full week earlier this year. Will Love be a better playoff QB than Lamar? The bar isn’t too high.

Here’s How Jordan Love’s Breakout Season Compares To Joe Burrow’s Breakout Season
While Burrow might not have any championships or MVPs yet, it’s undeniable he’s a top 10, if not top 5, QB in the league at this moment. It all starts with his 2021 campaign, which was an historic one to put it lightly.

As far as stats go, Burrow threw 34 TDs, 14 INTs, and 4,6000 yards. Extremely impressive, though in that regard, Jamarr Chase’s stats were the more jaw dropping that year. What was truly astounding was how Burrow and Chase helped turn around a bottom-tier team of the league into a 10-win team that had the lead late in the Super Bowl. The transformation truly happened overnight.

Jordan Love didn’t exactly inherit a laughing stock of a franchise, so that’s the starkest difference between the two. Love only added 1 win to the Packer’s 8 the year before, but the surprising playoff run was eerily similar to Burrows. No one expected the Packers to blowout an elite Cowboys team, just like how no one had the Bengals winning in the 2022 postseason. The future is bright for both of them.

Here’s How Jordan Love’s Breakout Season Compares To Aaron Rodger’s Breakout Season
Rodgers might not be the youngest QB on the list, but most people would consider him top 10, if not top 5, heading into next year. Plus it’s definitely worth comparing Love’s breakout season to Rodgers, as their careers will be compared until the end of time.

Rodger’s breakout season was creepily identical to Love’s, which is even weirder when you consider that they both sat behind an all-time great QB for 3 whole years before starting a full season. Rodgers threw for 28 TDs, 13 INTs, and 4,000 yards in 2008, which is in the ballpark of Love’s 32/11/4000 stat line. There’s no doubt some users on the internet have put the Spiderman pointing team with these two Packers QBs.

Besides TD-INT ratio, Love really has the edge over Rodgers record-wise, as the 2008 Packers squad only won 6 games. In all fairness, Rodgers had to go up against an elite Titans team, Peyton Manning’s Colts (who he beat by 20 points), and a really competitive NFC North (aside from the winless Lions). Will Love have a better career than Rodgers? It’s too early to tell, but he’s somehow off to a better start.