I also think it's kind of funny to hear things like "He needs to be more Rodgers and less Favre." I mean, I guess if I had it my way I'd prefer that, too...but it's not like Favre was some slouch, either. If Love "only" ends up like Favre that's still a smash success. He's literally a HoF QB lol.
Personally, I've been a huge Love supporter ever since the first half of last year's season opener against the Bears, and while I was starting to get a little worried during that one sub-par stretch early in 23, I was still confident he was going to work it out. People on multiple boards ridiculed me almost from the beginning, because by October I was openly proclaiming that he had the talent and the mental makeup to go as far as he wants to, including the Super Bowl and HoF.
I never predicted that he
was going to achieve those heights, but I knew from watching him that he had all the ingredients to do it. In 13 months I have never wavered in that conviction, and I am literally thrilled to have him as our QB - and I think just about every other poster on this board feels the same way.
But that doesn't mean we don't want him to improve as a player, and it certainly doesn't mean we're complaining about him.
Of course we all want him to play better when he has a bad game, or even a good game where he didn't quite play up to his level. Every single play and every single game, you want every team and every player on that team to improve themselves in some way. That's what separates winners from losers.
Can you imagine a coach in the NFL telling his players (even after a big win) "you all played as well as you needed to play today, don't worry about trying to improve on anything for next weekend. Just play as well as you played today, and we'll be fine"? Of course not. Every coach knows there's
always room for improvement, and expects even his star players to constantly do so. Anything less would be complacency, the acceptance of mediocrity. Why should we, as fans, feel any differently? If he's capable of playing better (and we know he is) then we want to see him do it.
I will say, though, that just because I'd like to see him throw as few interceptions as possible, I can live with a higher number than we saw last year. Last year, his TD:INT ratio was 3:1. That was phenomenal (Mahomes, Brady, Burrow). This year, it's 2:1, and yeah a lot of fans are really freaking out about it, but I'm not.
Historically, 2:1 is not a bad ratio at all - we've just gotten spoiled by Aaron Rodgers, Mr. 4:1 (a ratio that will never be topped). Historically, 2:1 has always been an acceptable range for franchise quarterbacks who are successful in other phases of the game. Love's 2:1 is "Joe Montana" and "Philip Rivers" level, just a couple ticks below Steve Young and Peyton Manning and way ahead of Dan Marino and Kurt Warner.
Granted, I'd like to see him improve on it, and I believe he will. But if that's where he comes in at the end of his career, and he's accomplished what those players did, I think we'd all be extremely pleased.
