2020 NFL Draft: Utah State QB Jordan Love scouting report
By John Newman
Utah State quarterback Jordan Love has entered the 2020 NFL draft. This draft report breaks down his background, performance and where he goes from here.
The college football enigma that is Jordan Love has declared for the 2020 NFL Draft. A relative unknown before 2018, Love has skyrocketed up the quarterback draft boards in the weeks since his draft announcement. While 2019 might have been a tough year for Love and the Utah State Aggies, Love has put enough on film the past two seasons to make football insiders excited at the prospect of Love entering the NFL.
The way it was explained to me was that Love looked a lot like Patrick Mahomes coming out of college. A player from a medium-sized football program, with obvious talent, who could throw the ball vertically down the field like an elite quarterback, with great accuracy, but who had less than ideal technique.
Nobody wants to admit they were one of the many people who slept on Mahomes coming out into the 2017 draft. Now people are falling over themselves to label Love as the next messiah for one of the NFL’s quarterback-needy teams.
But is all this hype legit? Does Love really have what it takes to be an elite quarterback in the NFL? What was so special about his 2018 season? What happened in 2019? If he was so great, why didn’t his skills carry into the next year? How did he end up at Utah State to begin with? Could Love really play at the same level as Mahomes or is he more likely to play like Jameis Winston: a high-flying vertical passing quarterback, with fatal flaws in his ability to read coverages?
Love’s 2020 NFL draft situation is complicated by a recent report that he was involved in an incident with the police regarding the consumption of marijuana. Or at least being in a room that smelled like marijuana. Reports coming out now are murky and contradictory. But while there has been a national laxing on marijuana laws, the NFL remains relatively old-fashioned about THC consumption.
Many teams will be apprehensive about making the face of their organization someone who could potentially be in the league’s draconian Substance Abuse Program. What effect will his recent citation have on his 2020 NFL draft status?
I will attempt to dissect all these questions and more in this pre-draft report on Jordan Love. In it, I will break down Love’s high school and college background, his statistics and how he got a reputation as a gunslinger in Utah.
Next, I’ll do a quarterback diagnostic, where I break down his entire mechanics: his accuracy, pocket presence, arm strength and more. Finally, I’ll break down where Love fits in with the other quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft, and what NFL Teams he would do the best in at the next level.
Learn how Love turned personal tragedy into the motivation to become a quarterback in high school. See how much we should hold Love accountable for Utah State’s regression this past season, and what aspects of his game need to be fixed before he is ready to lead an NFL franchise.