GREEN BAY, Wis. -- If there's one word to describe what's in store for Jordan Love in 2024, it's this: more.
The Green Bay Packers need exactly that from their quarterback in his second season as the starter.
More leadership.
More comfort.
More variety.
More everything.
In some ways, that has already started.
When the Packers pulled their running back swap at the start of free agency -- something coach Matt LaFleur admitted last week "caught him off guard" (referring to how quickly they pivoted to signing Josh Jacobs after Aaron Jones turned down a pay cut) -- it didn't just mean the departure of perhaps Love's most dynamic offensive weapon. Without Jones, the locker room also lost one of its universally respected leaders.
"We've spoken so many times just how much [Jones] brought to our team that probably will never show up on the stat sheet in terms of just being a veteran presence in the locker room," LaFleur told reporters last week at the NFL annual meeting. "He's always been team first. He walks the walk, and he does everything. He's just such a pro, so I think that's always tough to replace.
"Naturally, somebody's going to have to step up. I talked to Jordan about this a little bit. He's got a year under his belt as the starter, now I expect more out of him. I think we all do. I think he expects it out of himself, which is great. So guys like him are going to have to shoulder some of that leadership moving forward."
As respect for Love grew throughout last season, so did his comfort in a leadership role. Now, he's at the point where he's taking the initiative of welcoming veteran free agents when they sign.
"He actually reached out to me once everything was kind of done and congratulated me and welcomed me to the team," new safety Xavier McKinney said.
Throwing for 4,159 yards with 32 touchdowns and leading a dominating performance in a playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys will increase Love's comfort and credibility.
"I'm really happy for Jordan, the way he played. And not only the level he played at -- especially as the season got on, he just seemed to get more and more confident -- but his leadership," Packers president Mark Murphy said recently. "We saw that throughout [last] offseason and certainly during the season. So I'm really, really pleased with the way he's played, and I just think the future is really bright."
That's where LaFleur, offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich and the rest of the coaching staff come in.
A year ago, they had seen Love start exactly one NFL regular-season game and had no idea who Love might be throwing to. Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft, who ended up being their top two tight ends in 2023, along with prolific receivers Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks, were just rookie pipe dreams in a draft that was still weeks away.
"Before the draft last year, we didn't even know who was going to be on our team," LaFleur said. "So it's hard to plan and really put together an offense when you have no idea, when you don't know who your tight ends are necessarily going to be. You didn't really know who your other wideouts were going to be, so there were some holes. ... [To] have everything kind of in place, it allows you to plan a little bit better, I think, and be very intentional with your offseason. I do think we'll have a better plan in place when the guys come back in terms of where we want to take our offense."
It took until just past midseason before LaFleur and Love got the offense humming, with Love finishing on a tear to the tune of 18 touchdowns and one interception over the final eight games heading into the playoffs.
There were times early in the season when no matter what LaFleur and Love tried, they struggled. October was a winless month, and by the end of it, the Packers were 2-5. Few could have seen coming a 9-8 regular-season finish and a shellacking of the Dallas Cowboys in the in the divisional round.
"The expectations are going to be different," LaFleur said. "It's how does he manage those. The one thing I love about -- or there's a lot of things I love about him -- but one of the things that has impressed me most about Jordan is his ability to learn from every situation, both good and bad.
"There were some tough lessons in that last game that I expect him to learn from, and I know he'll do everything in his power to come back and be even better than he was last season."
It works both ways, however. Opponents went into last season without much of a scouting report on Love and his tendencies. Now, they have 19 games' worth, including the playoffs.
"There will be different challenges," Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said. "I think, hopefully, as you go through Year 1 as a starter, and him and Matt and the other teammates work together on how to solve the challenges that are in front of us, they have a better idea of how to work together to solve those through the week and through the games.
"So I think certainly, hopefully, that experience will carry over. But every year is different, and the challenge, you can try to anticipate, but you really don't know where those challenges will come from, so they'll be different ones. But again, I think having a year's worth of challenges to work through together and the continuity of that will hopefully serve us well as we go forward."