No Micah Parsons to start this season. No Josh Jacobs. And this is all on top of an offseason that saw the Green Bay Packers lose key contributors on both sides of the ball. It doesn’t take Calculus-level math to deduce the need for Jordan Love to elevate from great to superstar in 2026.
There will undoubtedly be more on the quarterback’s shoulders out of the chute.
Pressure ratchets up for these Packers starting Week 1 against a Minnesota Vikings team gunning to contend.
Through our offseason reporting, I caught up at length with former Pro Bowler Matt Hasselbeck on a bunch of topics. This was the one he was most passionate about.
Hasselbeck once backed up a Hall of Famer in Green Bay himself. It’s different. And Hasselbeck expects very, very big things out of Love this 2026 season… with one critical evolution to his game.
Our conversation is transcribed below.
Topics include…
Why Jordan Love should embrace “the boring.”
The Packers’ season would’ve been completely different, Hasselbeck explains, if Love simplified things on “eight or nine plays.”
Slight tweaks in fundaments could take this quarterback to an elite level.
Who’ll be the best quarterback in the NFC North?
We chatted before Josh Jacobs was put on the commissioner exempt list. But Hasselbeck offers insight into one schematic change you’ll see in Green Bay’s offense — more inside/outside zone runs.
Jordan Love waits three years, plays three years. It’s now Year 7. What are you hoping to see out of him this season?
Hasselbeck: He could have a great year this year. I think people have conceded that division to other people and I don’t think that’s wise. The Packers could have a decent year. I think they could win the division. Jordan Love could have a breakout year.
Every year’s different. There’s 21 new playcallers in the NFL this year and I’ve lived through that. It’s not the easiest. Sometimes it works out awesome. It’s an upgrade. And other times there’s a learning curve and it’s not an upgrade. And so I think we’re going to see a lot of guys going through that. The case in Green Bay is you’ve got a guy that understands who he wants to be as a playcaller. He understands what he doesn’t want to be. He’s trying to get back to the fundamentals of what made them great and what quite honestly made the two best teams in football last year great — the Rams and the Seahawks. So I think you’re going to see more of that. I think you’re going to see more of that inside/outside zone and the play-action that comes off of it and then all the stuff that the Shanahan Tree is known for in the passing game. I’m a believer — more than most — in Jordan Love.
What does he do better than anything? If you could pinpoint any trait he has — be it physical or mental — or just what you see as one of the best yourself, what would that be?
Hasselbeck: Typically in the quarterback room, that’s usually not what you do. You obsess with what you need to get better at. And for almost two decades, that was my experience. We obsessed over what we needed to get better at. And usually it was things that some people might think are small, but it was usually a couple things. Maybe three things. Every offseason, we’d attack it. We want to get better in this area.
And I think if I could say what I believe is at the top of the list for Jordan Love — that’s kind of separating him from that next level — it’s just the consistency and fundamentals.
He needs to take pride in doing the boring better. And I think that’s probably the thing that’s sometimes hardest for really talented people. They think they have to do more than they need to do. You just need to do less better, if that makes sense. That is the kind of an offense you can let work for you. And so I think that’s probably going to be a little bit of the mindset that Matt LaFleur and company have with him. They’re going to try to sell him on how he can be great. And I think part of the sell is going to be on fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. It’s not sexy to talk about, but it’s like perfecting a golf swing. Do you want to be the kind of golfer that’s an amazing tour golfer, or you want to be a guy that’s great at a scramble. That’s how I tend to think about it.
With some of his throws he can fade away. And if you don’t fade away — if he stands in there and keep his footwork how it should be — it’s a catchable ball. I’m thinking of the Luke Musgrave ball against Chicago in the wild card. If Jordan stands in there and throws it without fading, Musgrave is either catching it or it’s DPI (on Tremaine Edmunds) and there’s a good chance the Packers win that game.
Hasselbeck: The hard thing — and I lived this — the hard thing is when you follow a great player like Aaron Rodgers, or in my case, I backed up Brett Favre. Both those guys — Aaron and Brett — they sometimes throw the ball with both feet off the ground. And so Aaron has perfected his own way of throwing that I don’t think is a great thing to try to copy. Now, I know there’s some coaches out there showing Aaron Rodgers technique tape. I lived this with Walter Jones. Walter Jones, in my opinion, is the best left tackle that’s ever played football. His technique is so unique to how every offensive line coach would coach the technique. It’s almost not helpful to watch his film because he does things that — he’s so talented — he gets away with them.
It’s just very unique. I think it’s a little bit similar to Aaron Rodgers. He’s a unicorn. There’s a lot you can learn from him and I learned this: There’s a lot that I can learn from Brett Favre. A lot. But the fundamentals and the technique? You’ve got to be really careful with what you try to do there. Sometimes for the guy who comes after him… because your job when you’re the backup of that person is to be exactly like that person. In a lot of ways. That’s all great if you’re never missing open guys. But when you start to miss open guys, then you’ve got to do it the way that the rest of the world would coach you to do it. The way that Matt LaFleur and company would coach you to do it.
I’m not in their offseason review, but I would imagine they can point to less than 10 plays last year: If Jordan Love just does his job better on about eight or nine plays, it’s a whole other story for the Packers last year.
Eight or nine plays, that’s all we’re talking about. If nothing else changes except for you change on eight or nine plays, we have a whole different experience. So that’d be my guess. I think that’s how it usually goes in an offseason. And for a quarterback, it’s such a great feeling when you have a coaching staff who knows what they’re doing at the quarterback position. And that would be my encouragement to him. He has that. And so lean into it. Even if it maybe feels like you’re taking a step back in a sense when you talk more fundamentals and you’re in Year 6 or 7. You’re going to do it to take two steps forward.
Steve Calhoun — his personal coach since high school — he’s been telling him: “Don’t copy Aaron! He’s Aaron Rodgers for a reason. You can’t do this, you can’t do that.” And it’s almost inevitable because that is who you’re watching all the time. I guess you have to consciously think, “OK, stay within myself here. I know I was watching Brett or Aaron, but I can’t do that stuff.”
Hasselbeck: Well, it’s fun. I’ve tried things that I saw Brett do. And I remember having Mike Holmgren call me over and stop me in the middle of individual drill and say, “Hey, get over here. What are you doing? What are you doing?” And I’m like, “Oh, I was just trying something. Trying to copy Brett here. He throws his slant route like this.” It’s like an almost no-look or whatever. And he’s like, “OK, stop. Stop.” Andy Reid had said this to me, but when Mike Holmgren said it to me, it had even more power to me at the time. He said: “Your fundamentals are better than Brett’s. Don’t lose that.” It was like, “Wait a sec, I’m better at anything than Brett? What?” It blew my mind that Mike Holmgren would think that I was better at anything.
And then it was like a splash of water in my face because my very first meeting with Andy Reid ever, he said, “Listen, there’s so much that you can learn from Brett Favre. I want you to study it all. I want you to study his leadership style. I want you to study his command and his offense, his cadence at the line of scrimmage, his energy and body language when he takes a hit.” All these things he was bringing up. And then he after that said, “What I don’t want you to do is study his decision-making and his fundamentals and his technique. He gets away with things that you could never get away with.” And so it all makes sense to me now. In the moment, I felt like I was drinking out of a fire hose. But I also understand how hard it would be to go from emulating and doing everything the way that Aaron does it. And then all of a sudden you’ve got to find that fine line.
Now I do believe Jordan Love’s not a young quarterback and he’s played a lot of football and no one needs to hold his hand anymore. But if you were to ask me to guess what he’s being told this offseason, and if you were to ask me what I know I would tell him this offseason, I do believe that it’s going to come down to, “Here are 7 to 10 plays that if our fundamentals and our technique, we’re a little bit better. If our eyes are better, our feet are better, our accuracy’s better, we’re at a whole other level. And people aren’t talking about that guy, they’re talking about you.” And I think that’s fair. I think that’s legit.
That Bears wild card game is the perfect example because he threw for more than 300 yards, three touchdowns, no picks. On the road. A QB should win that game. And that throw at the end to Christian Watson is insane. He gets blasted and places it right in the hole. But then there’s a couple other ones where if he keeps his fundamentals, they win. The game is not close.
Hasselbeck: Yeah. And I don’t know where people are on Jordan Love. I do think that there’s some unrest with people and they’ve been a little bit spoiled with great quarterback play. And I think they still have a really good quarterback. But I do believe that there’s some people that like to hate on him a little bit. And I don’t know if it’s because of the division and how the division’s gone the last couple years in terms of quarterback play. Two years ago, Minnesota had great quarterback play. Last year, I think a lot of people would say that Caleb Williams had great quarterback play. Jared Goff’s been probably one of the better quarterbacks in that division the last couple years. To me, if I’m in Green Bay, I know there’s a way to coach Jordan Love to get him to have a year where he is the top quarterback in that division. I know that that’s possible. So I don’t know where Packer fans are on that. It’s also possible for it to be Jared Goff again. There’s a lot of possibilities here. But Jordan Love has all the tools, has all the weapons. I think the thing that’s going to be most interesting in Green Bay is that they lost Jeff Hafley. And I know they replaced him with somebody good, but like I said, the new playcaller thing, it’s a real thing. You never know how it’s going to shake out.
Where are you with Matt LaFleur? His scheme, his offense obviously works with the tree he comes from. But he’s been at it for eight years now.
Hasselbeck: I’m a huge fan. I’m a huge fan. I think he’s a great coach. I think he’s a great coach. Every year is different. You spend your offseason, you’re on those whiteboards with your staff and you’re just like, “Hey, this is how we’re going to differentiate.” It’s great that everyone’s running a similar offense, but it also means that they know your offense and you’ve got to come up with wrinkles and you’ve got to decide, “What’s going to be bread and butter for us?” And sometimes your whiteboard ideas, it’s a collaborative effort. Sometimes they’re great. Sometimes they’re not that great. Sometimes you need new blood and new life and new ideas and new energy. And sometimes your staff are guys who are just along for the ride. They’re dead weight. Every year is different. Every staff is different. And then when you come up with your ideas, you have to then go sell your ideas to your players.
And so using Josh Jacobs as an example, you’ve got to sell him on the fact like, “Hey, we are going to be an inside/outside zone team. And we are going to sprinkle in the gap schemes like power.” You’ve got to sell him on why that’s best because he might say, “Hey man, I’m a bruising downhill running back. I’m a gap scheme power kind of guy.” And that was something that we had to do with Marshawn Lynch when we first traded for him. We traded for him in October in 2010. We had hired Alex Gibbs to be our O-Line coach. We were going to be an inside/outside zone team. Inside zone, mid-zone, outside zone. And we were going to change it up rarely with power. And we get Marshawn from Buffalo. He was like, “I run power. I’m power running back.” It was almost like he just liked the sound of that — “power.” And inside zone was some sort of finesse thing he wanted nothing to do with. And it was a process to get our coaching staff to sell to Marshawn the value of inside zone and play-action off of zone footwork and all the stuff. And it took a bit. It took a bit for Marshawn to become Marshawn. And he had the Beast Quake run that game, but his stats were not shaking the earth that year. And it wasn’t that he wasn’t a good player, but some of it is a sell job of the coaching staff.
Pete (Carroll) wasn’t coaching the offense, but he was very much involved in the sell. And he did a great job with Marshawn. But I think part of the job of the head coach — and the whole coaching staff — is you’ve got to sell to your players, whether it’s wide receivers or running back: “Hey, here’s my vision for our offense.” Literally, you should go in and be like, “Kenneth Walker Jr. was the MVP of the Super Bowl. He has a Super Bowl ring and an MVP trophy. That could be you. That could be you. And here’s how we do it.”
Whether it’s wide receiver, O-Line, quarterback, passing game with running backs, you’ve got to sell these guys on the vision. And that’s part of the leadership of the quarterback as well. I heard Tom Brady saying with wide receivers in particular, he sees a lot of these wide receivers complaining and blah, blah, blah, throwing hissy fits. And he basically was like, “I never really dealt with that.” Because he said he was really good at getting with the wide receivers and saying, “Hey, there’s going to be games where you catch 11 passes and there’s going to be games where you catch three passes and you’re going to be open in both of those games about the same. But because it all has to fit globally with how we’re playing the game, offense, defense, special teams, all this, just know our goal is to hoist Lombardis and just know my goal is for you to have 100 catches at the end of the year. But it might be 11 and it might be three. I need you to stay with me. I need you to trust and I need you to see the vision.”
I do believe strongly that Matt LaFleur has that in him. That vision, the smoothness to sell it. I don’t know Jordan as well, but I would imagine that’s part of what his game is now, too. He’s not just one of the guys. You’ve got to kind of be The Guy selling that vision.
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Always liked Hassleback. Is he a QB coach now? On TV? Just asking.