Jordan Love and the Mahomes Factor

NCAA Football: Utah State at Wake Forest

Of all the quarterbacks that could be drafted in the first round of Thursday’s NFL Draft, perhaps none has a higher ceiling and bigger question marks than Utah State’s Jordan Love.

He’s drawn comparisons to Patrick Mahomes because of his rocket arm, but it’s more likely that the comparisons are because of the X-Factor that Mahomes is, and that Love could possibly be.

That’s human nature, we have to compare for some sense of certainty, and that’s what is being done with Jordan Love.

At Utah State, Love dropped some impressive numbers in 2018, tossing 32 touchdown passes and rushing in for another seven.  But in 2019, with a number of players leaving, Love struggled.  His touchdown total fell by 12 and his interceptions more than doubled from six to 17.

Still, there’s that “x-factor” that people keep talking about, and then there’s Patrick Mahomes.  Going back to that 2017 draft, it was Mahomes, not Mitchell Trubisky or Deshaun Watson who was viewed as the “high risk, high reward” player.

Trubisky was the prototypical franchise quarterback, Watson was the most reliable, but Mahomes…there was something about Mahomes.

Three years and an MVP, a Super Bowl, and Super Bowl MVP later, Kansas City looks like geniuses for picking up the former Texas Tech quarterback.

And this brings us right back to Jordan Love.  Standing 6’4 and a solid 225 pounds with a rocket arm and mobility…it brings up comparisons to Mahomes. Love is a real wild-card in the draft, he could be the second passer taken or he could be the 4th quarterback in the draft- it’s a total toss up.

If you flip his 2018 and 2019 numbers around, there is no doubts about Love, other than his level of competition.  But his final season at Utah State threw a little bit of a wrench and has front office personal questioning Love’s potential in the NFL.  Even then however, it’s not enough to damper 1st round talk come Thursday.

When you’re drawing comparisons to the best quarterback in football right now, how could it?  Jordan Love can thank Patrick Mahomes for that, and come Thursday, some team is going to either strike out big, or hit a home run with the former Utah State quarterback.

 

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