Jordan Love

Height / Weight
6' 4" / 225 lbs
Born
November 2nd 1998 (25)
Position
Quarterback
Country
United States
School
Utah State University
NFL 2020 mock draft
Draft Type Round Pick Team
Projection 1 26
SCOUTING REPORT

Pros:

1. Deep Ball Placement:

Love's ability to place his deep ball throws almost perfectly is a work of art to watch. It made all the drops his receivers had last year even worse to watch. Love throws the deep ball with so much confidence. His ability and willingness to do so even under pressure is what makes him a special prospect. Love has a touch for the deep ball, and in the NFL usually the team who has the most big plays usually come out with the win. With Love under center you always will be contention to wins games because of his ability to leave past plays in the past and continue to push the ball down field. Give this guy NFL caliber wideouts and he's going to b a force to be reckon with for the next decade. 

2. Arm Strength:

Love's Arm strength isn't being labeled as the best in the class, but to me he should be in consideration. I would take Love's arm over every big named QB prospect other than maybe Herbert. Those are the two that impress me the most with their Arm strength. Love similar to Herbert shows his arm strength in all his throws not just his deep balls. Love puts power behind every throw to increase his accuracy. He zips the ball 10 yards down the feild to a target being double covered and will find the hole in the coverage. If you want to see for yourself go watch Love take on San Jose State in 2018, to me his most impressive tape and is filled of examples of how strong Love's arm is. 

3. Mobility:

Love's ability to throw the ball forces teams to blitz often against Love to try and make him uncomfortable. The only problem with that is that, when the pocket collapses Love gets to use his legs. He's a very mature runner, doesn't choose to tuck it and run early often, but when he does good things usually happen. Today's NFL you want your QB to be at least somewhat mobile, it makes it so much harder for defenses to prep for your team when you have that element. We are no longer in the era where the best QB's in the league are Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees all guys that arn't mobile. Now we have Mahomes, Watson, Wilson, to be the best of the best you want to have a QB who has enough skill in his legs for mobility to be apart of your game plan and Love has more than enough to scare defenses. 

4. Out of Pocket Play:

Out of pocket play is an attribute that isn't listed as a need for a QB prospect but to me is an easy way to tell when a QB is special. Love is 2nd in this class to only Burrow in out of pocket play. Burrow also had multiple future NFL weapons on his team, Love didn't have the same luxury. When the pocket collapses, Jordan Love doesn't give up and tuck it and run every time, he rolls out he allows his receivers to break their routes and makes a play out of what looked like nothing. Love made magic happen with little to no weapons in college, giving him NFL receivers, tight ends, and even running backs to work with will only make him better and give him more options when he rolls out. I haven't ever seen a QB hold this skill and not be special at the next level. Mahomes, Watson, Rodgers, Luck all amazing out of the pocket, all are or were special talents in the NFL. 

5. Never Accepts Defeat:

Utah State went 7-6 the 2019-2020 season. Reached a bowl game even though the roster was depleted from year previous where they went 11-2 and spent a good amount of the year ranked in the top 25. Utah State lost its head coach, top 3 wideouts, and top tight end from that year going into this season, and thats just the starting weapons he lost. Utah State had no business being bowl eligible, but when you have a special player under center, anything is possible. Watching Jordan Love you can see even when his team is down he believes hes going to win. He keeps throwing deep not matter how many interceptions he'd throw, or how many drops his receivers would have. We saw the year previous what Love could do when he had talent around him. Now transition that play style to the NFL, there have been many young QB's come in and have interception issues because they try to force plays when they arn't there to help his team get the win. Andrew Luck is a big one that comes to memory. Luck started his career with a lack of weapons, no run game, and an awful offensive line. Even with those handicapping his play would take his teams to the playoffs. How, you ask? Well with his ability to leave plays in the past and go for the win no matter what. Luck threw a lot of interceptions, but he'd always bounce back he learned from each interception, and allowed himself to move past them. Young QB's don't always have that mindset, they come into the league and try to be as aggressive as they were in college and let it keep him down when they turn it over. Love has that same fire i watched in Andrew Luck and its another reason Jordan Love will not only succeed at the next level but thrive. 

Cons:

1. Decision Making:

The biggest con to Love's game is that when he will force throws when under pressure in the pocket. A lot of terrible throws into very tight spaces and they turn into easy interceptions for the defense. Watching his college tapes NFL defenses will try and keep Love in the pocket by blitzing heavy on the sides and not as much up the center. If Love is going to be successful he has to learn not to force throws, he has to find the open man or accept the sack when its the better choice. This might be something that he has to learn by playing, learning from his mistakes as they happen. Or maybe he will be similar to Patrick Mahomes and let his college years show him he had to improve his decision making, and still make big plays consistently at the next level, only time will tell. 

2. Level of Competition in College:

Utah State is apart of the Mountain West Conference. The other teams in the conference are Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, and Wyoming. This is a similar con we saw a lot of scouts have on Josh Allen out of Wyoming two years ago when he was going through the draft process. Outside fo a couple schools for the most part the MWC isn't filled with top talent. They arn't the SEC, BIG Ten, BIG 12, or even the PAC 12. Teams have to ask themselves the throws Love made against some of these lesser schools translate to the NFL or did he only have success because of the lack of talent he was facing. 

3. 2019 Season Regression:

Jordan Love's throwing stats in 2018 were 3,567 yards, 32 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. An outstanding season stat wise, really put himself on the map and in the minds of NFL scouts. His 2019 year as said earlier in the scout he lost a lot of key pieces of his teams personal and coaching staff. His 2019 stats he put up 3,402 yards, 20 touchdowns, 17 interceptions. A huge dip in touchdowns and interceptions. When that kind of regression occurs a scout would be insane to not at least consider the fact that he could be a one year wonder. The question a team has to answer before they turn in a draft card with Love's name on it is which year is the outlier 2018, or 2019.

Player Comparisons:

Floor: Josh Allen

Ceiling: Patrick Mahomes 

 

- Destin Adams-

Twitter: @destin_adams14

Player ranking
Year Rank
2020 29
Floating offer