AFC North stalwart expects Jordan Love to define Packers’ offense in 2026

When news broke that Josh Jacobs would be out indefinitely after being placed on the commissioner’s exempt list, all eyes turned to Jordan Love as the player most needed to step up to take command of the Green Bay Packers’ offense.

Sure, the Packers have loaded up on running backs, including Chris Brooks, trade addition Kaleb Johnson, and MarShawn Lloyd on their 53-man roster plus Pierre Strong Jr. on the practice squad, but if Green Bay is going to win early and figure out their needs before the trade deadline, they’ll need Love to really air it out and show he can be a Pro Bowl-caliber passer in Matt LaFleur’s scheme.

Discussing expectations for Love in 2026 on ESPN’s NFL Live, ex-Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Andrew Hawkins revealed his sky-high expectations for the Packers passer, as it’s about time he becomes the new face of Green Bay’s offense.

“Yeah, I expect this offense to replace Matt LaFleur with Jordan Love as the face of the offense. And that goes from a nice-to-have to a necessity. Now, Jordan Love has gotten better every season. He’s been the starter in Green Bay, in my opinion. And I think now that we’re in Year 4 of this tenure, when you look at this offense, which you know is a great scheme, and it is a running offense, it is heavily reliant on the run. And Matt LaFleur has heavily relied on the running part of this offense, even more than the other offensive coordinators that run it ever since Aaron Rodgers left Green Bay,” Hawkins said.

“Well, now is the time for Jordan Love to kind of ascend into that position. You’re going to have to lean on his arm. And it might be the only way that that was going to happen. Now, the running back is running back by committee with no Josh Jacobs in the lineup. You got to have to go to Jordan Love a lot more. You’re going to have to go to him early in these drives early in these series. You’re going to have to in situations you typically run take some shots with Jordan Love and let him be the reason why this scheme is going go from a great scheme to a great scheme run by an even better quarterback.”

Initially drafted in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Love has won exactly nine regular season games in each of his last three seasons but only has one playoff win since 2023. While this has been good enough to keep Green Bay’s current regime in place, if the Packers are going to take a serious step forward, it will need to be through the passing game, where Love has thrown for less than 3,400 yards in all but one of his professional seasons. Fortunately, with plenty of weapons in place, Love has a chance to do just that and propel his team to new heights.

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