The throw-in in the Green Bay Packers’ season-opening victory over the Chicago Bears helped convince free agent quarterback Josh Jacobs to join Jordan Love and the Packers in the offseason.
Jacobs said Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports that Love’s throw to Aaron Jones in the Bears’ Week 1 win impressed him during the team’s game against the Raiders and stuck with him as he picked a fresh team as a free agent.
“I remember that game like it was yesterday,” Jacobs told Epstein. “He threw it into the fading numbers on one leg. It hit the bullseye, like a dart. [I thought,] “Yes, bro. He got it.”
Jacobs had no shortage of suitors in free agency, but he wanted to play with a special quarterback. And Jacobs sees something special in Love.
That pass — which ultimately netted Jones 51 yards on a catch-and-run — may not rank among Love’s top 10 throws of the 2023 season. But the play itself was special and certainly caught Jacobs’ attention. Rolling out to his left, Love spun around one hash and made a fadeaway throw back past a second hash to his right. Facing a pass rusher and throwing with one foot, the pass was nearly perfect, and Jones easily caught the ball and ran upfield to change the game.
When the Packers approached Josh Jacobs as a free agent, he was reminded of this clip and what it would mean to play with Jordan Love.
“Only Mahomes really does that,” Josh told me. “So I’m like, ‘Man, he’s got the potential to be special.’”
“Yes, bro. He got it.” photo:twitter.com/aCvwVbxGgU
— Jori Epstein (@JoriEpstein) July 24, 2024
Jacobs said he saw the game as the Raiders prepared to play Love and the Packers in October. From there, Jacobs followed both Love and the Packers — and both the quarterback and the newborn team came alive as contenders in the second half of the 2023 season.
“They started stepping up and getting better and better. I thought, ‘Yeah — this guy is going to be good,’” Jacobs said.
Now, Jacobs no longer has to just watch Love from the conference room. The 2022 running back could be playing alongside him — potentially forming one of the best quarterback-running back duos in football.
This story is a good reminder: NFL players are always on the lookout, and the power of a potentially exceptional quarterback is enormous.
