‘What the Hell Was That?’ Jordan Love and the Art of the NFL Fadeaway Jumper

Henry McKenna

NFL Reporter

GREEN BAY, Wis. — There are too many examples of Jordan Love’s fadeaway throw to count. If you ask Matt LaFleur, there are too many of them, period.

“Yeah, we’re not coaching that,” LaFleur told me during a press conference at Packers training camp.

I laughed. He didn’t.

“Sometimes, you’ve got to let a player be a player,” LaFleur conceded. “It’s all dependent upon the situation.”

Love has turned the fadeaway jumper into a big part of his game — a signature throw. As one NFL general manager described it, it’s one of those “wait-wait-no-no-yes-yes-nice-job throws.” It’s exactly what a coach teaches his QB not to do … until he completes the pass. Then it’s a marvel the coach can get behind.

The example LaFleur likes best was when Love pulled it off against the Seattle Seahawks last December. And though Love attempted the throw from his own end zone — fading away toward the goalpost (heightening the threat of a pick-six) — he had the advantage of knowing the defense had jumped offsides: free play, no downside. So falling backward, Love heaved the ball up for tight end Tucker Kraft in the middle of the field. And Kraft made the play, converting a first down.

“That s— like Kobe [Bryant] or something,” Packers receiver Jayden Reed said. “Like Michael Jordan. Fadeaway — you don’t see everybody do it.”

“Once you watch it on film, you’re like, ‘What the hell was that?’” tight end Luke Musgrave said.

“It was one of the craziest throws I’ve ever seen,” running back Josh Jacobs said.

Love’s fadeaway pass comes from where you’d think: basketball. He played hoops in high school, and his father nearly named him Michael Jordan Love. So it’s fitting — perhaps even fate — to see basketball materialize in Love’s game.

“It’s just something I’ve always done as a quarterback,” he said. “I don’t know where it … originated from, maybe shooting jump shots and fadeaways. I don’t know. It’s just something that happens naturally.”

Coaches teach their quarterbacks to step into their passes while leading with their shoulders and feet. This gets the whole body engaged in the throw, not just the arm. On this particular pass, Love ignores those mechanical rules, often because of an oncoming rush or some other element of situational urgency. And so he delivers the ball without setting his feet, without leading with his shoulders. Instead, he fades away.

In other words, he breaks the rules. But for good reason.

“You get put in certain positions on the field, in the pocket, where it can’t be a perfect look — just throwing routes on air every time,” Love said. “So you got to find ways to kind of control your body, and find ways to make the throws, no matter what the situation is.

“I think a lot of that I saw from A-Rod [Aaron Rodgers]. I get in these situations and it’s like, ‘How do I make this throw work? How do I find the best way to flip my feet?’ Or I can’t flip my feet and just kind of flip the ball out there.”

The biggest fan of the throw might be Jacobs. After all, he once said that it was one of the biggest reasons he signed with the Packers last year. The former Raider was scouting Green Bay back in 2023 and watched Love make a throw he’d never seen before. Love faked a handoff to former Packers running back Aaron Jones and rolled to his left, only to flip around and zip the ball back to the running back. It’s a play that defenses might typically dream about — an interception waiting to happen. But because of Love’s arm strength, he made it work.

Watching the play in a Raiders team meeting, Jacobs wondered: What if that was me — not Aaron Jones — on the receiving end of that throw? When Jacobs’ contract expired, he didn’t have to wonder. He went ahead and signed with the Packers to find out exactly what that was like.

“Even if you was to shoot a basketball, you don’t have as much strength when you’re fading away. But to be able to throw it still 50 yards fading away, unbalanced — and with precision — there’s not a lot of guys that can do it,” Jacobs said. “It’s maybe only three guys in his league that I can name: [Patrick] Mahomes, [Josh] Allen and Love. Maybe Joe [Burrow], but that ain’t really his game, right?”

There are several types of forbidden-fruit throws: across the body, across the formation, across the body and formation, into double coverage, left-handed, no-look. Heck, Mahomes is hell-bent on finding a way to throw behind his back in a game.

There are moments when the rules don’t apply — or when the rules don’t make (as much) sense. LaFleur said he doesn’t mind seeing the fadeaway here and there. But it seems like LaFleur may want to hold Love back from turning the fadeaway into his signature play.

“I’m a big believer in, the more balanced you are as a thrower, the more accurate you’re going to be, consistently,” the Packers coach said. “That’s why defenses — they want to get quarterbacks off the spot, because you make them move, you get them a little bit off-balance, it’s hard to make those throws.”

It’s an ongoing battle for Love: harnessing his unique talents and playmaking abilities while still playing consistently.

He struck a healthy balance in 2023, when he had 4,159 passing yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions with four more rushing touchdowns. But his interception percentage crept up from 1.9 in 2023 to 2.6 in 2024. He threw for 3,389 passing yards and 25 touchdowns with 11 interceptions in 15 games. And his decision-making looked slightly out of whack, which Love has said he’s addressing as a focal point this season.

He wants to preserve the big plays but not at the expense of creating negative ones.

The way he manages his signature throw — the fadeaway jumper — will be emblematic of the bigger trends at play in his career. Everyone knows he can make special throws, but there are plenty of circumstances when he shouldn’t. Could he, for example, slide in the pocket rather than fade away? Could he scramble and then set his feet? In some cases, the answer is yes.

When you talk about arm talent, you think of Mahomes. But unlike many generationally talented prospects, Mahomes hasn’t gotten sucked into arm arrogance. Neither should Love.

“We’re always steering him to read with his feet and throw with the timing and the rhythm of the passing game. It’s absolutely critical,” LaFleur said. “Certainly there’s situations where you want a quarterback to play a little less risky, like when we’re down in the red area and you know you’ve got points, I don’t necessarily care to see him forcing throws and the ball gets picked off. It’s all dependent upon the situation and the play and what presents itself from the defense.”

Love has a tool that few other NFL quarterbacks have. The more he uses it properly, the more his offensive coaches will come to appreciate it, and the more opposing defenses will come to hate it.

Before joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.

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