Pro Football Focus named Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love as the site’s “Breakout Player of the Year” for the 2023 NFL season.
The rest of PFF’s annual awards, including MVP, can be viewed here.
While not an officially recognized award, the honor does highlight Love’s emergence as one of the NFL’s breakout stars in 2023. In his first season as the starting quarterback in the post-Aaron Rodgers era, Love threw 32 touchdown passes — the second-most in football — and led the Packers to the playoffs. And few player were better over the final 10 games of the season.
From PFF’s Sam Monson:
Love had an inconsistent first half of the season before consistently improving over the second half and finishing the year playing as well as any quarterback in the game. His overall PFF grade ranked 12th for the season, and the only passer with a better grade from Week 9 onward was Brock Purdy. Love repeated the trick we saw from Aaron Rodgers of biding his time for years on the bench before seizing his opportunity when given the chance to start.
From Week 9 on, Love had 25 “big time throws” (second only to Dak Prescott) and 21 touchdown passes to only three interceptions. He completed 68.3 percent of his passes and averaged 7.7 yards per attempt, and the Packers won seven of 10 games to go from 2-5 to 9-8.
Love played his best when the Packers absolutely needed him.
In wins over the Chargers, Lions and Chiefs, Love threw eight touchdown passes and no interceptions as the Packers revived their season.
In wins over the Panthers, Vikings and Bears to end the season, Love threw seven touchdown passes and no interceptions as the Packers clinched a playoff spot as the No. 7 seed in the NFC.
Love became just the third first-year starting quarterback to produce 4,000 passing yards and a 32 touchdown passes, joining Patrick Mahomes (2018) and Kurt Warner (1999). He is also the first quarterback in Packers history to lead the team to the playoffs in his first year as the starter.
Love’s breakout season led him and the Packers to Dallas to play the NFC East champion Cowboys in the NFC Wild Card Round. More on the matchup between Love and Dak Prescott here.